Because he did not have time to read every new book in his field, the great Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski used a simple and efficient method of deciding which ones were worth his attention: Upon receiving a new book, he immediately checked the index to see if his name was cited, and how often. The more "Malinowski" the more compelling the book. No "Malinowski", and he doubted the subject of the book was anthropology at all.
Neil PostmanTelevision is a non graded curriculum and excludes no viewer for any reason, at any time. In other words, in doing away wtih the idea of sequenece and continuity in education, television undermines the idea that sequence and continuity have anything to do with thought itself.
Neil PostmanVoting is the next-to-last refuge of the politically impotent. The last refuge, of course, is giving your opinion to a pollster.
Neil PostmanIt is not necessary to conceal anything from a public insensible to contradiction and narcotized by technological diversions.
Neil PostmanRemember: in order for a perception to change one must be frustrated in one's actions or change one's purpose.
Neil PostmanThe way in which the photograph records experience is also different from the way of language. Language makes sense only when it is presented as a sequence of propositions. Meaning is distorted when a word or sentence is, as we say, taken out of context; when a reader or listener is deprived of what was said before, and after. But there is no such thing as a photograph taken out of context, for a photograph does not require one. In fact, the point of photography is to isolate images from context, so as to make them visible in a different way.
Neil Postman