Postman tribute

Amusing Ourselves To Death was published 20 years ago. I have read a bunch of Neil Postman's books in a rapid succession about a dozen year ago, so it is somewhat of a blur - I am not always sure what is in which book.

Jay Rosen invited Neil's son Andrew to write a tribute to his father. It is wonderful and insightful. It provoked a very interesting discussion in the comments thread as well.

Now I remember that this book is where I first encountered the notion that Huxley got it right and Orwell did not. I immediatelly disagreed - it was the early 1990s and I was witnessing how blatantly Jennings, Koppel, Brokaw and Rather lied every night about what was happening in the Balkans at the time.

Since then, and with the ascendancy of Big Brother in 2000, many more have joined in the choir, understanding that Orwell did get it right after all. The future is now, and it is a combination of 1984 and Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 and Space Merchants.