Stuart McMillen

Well, I was interested in the book that inspired this comic, but I followed the link to the original [1] which states that the "comic was respectfully removed in March 2012 due to the wishes of the copyright holders of the text." 1) http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De…

for those contemplating a dystopian future, it's good to remember that great comic from http://www.recombinantrecords.net/2009/05/24/amusing-ourselves-to-deat… unfortunately, they had to take it down, but here's the punchline: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt5pgoInM81qaoem1o1_r1_500.jpg I think in the west, we're mainly controlled by entertainment, not violence. (I guess you could call it intellectual/emotional violence.) http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt5pgoInM81qaoem1o1_r1_500.jpg

This seems to read like http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De… and its source- is there anything new here? (That is, other than the suggestion that the best way to combat large-scale industrial waste is through personal actions not unlike turning off the lights at home?)

http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De… It's not necessarily a waste, but it's not unquestionably a good thing, either. There should be something other than blind acceptance or rationalization of its impact. Edit: I love how I'm getting downvoted for expressing a reasonable and non-mean opinion.

That comic is based on Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death. It originally appeared at... http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De… ...but was apparently taken down due at the copyright holders' request. More on the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death

Please respect the comic author and text author and stop reposting this. See: http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De…

The author of the comic went out of his way to contact the estate, ask for permission, and removed the comic when permission was denied. http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/cartoon-blog/amusing-ourselves-to-d… http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De… And that's on top of the fact that his comic has probably sold an incalculable number of copies of the book, due to people discovering Neil Postman.

Is somewhat odd and amusing that the copyright holders of the text (not the author, as he died in 2003) requested that this comic be taken down from the site that originally posted it. - http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De… [edit] I just read that the artist actually contacted the estate of Neil Postman to check if they had any problem with it, just in case they ever sued, and then removed it on their instruction. - http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/cartoon-blog/amusing-ourselves-to-d…

That's because Huxley was right. (http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De…

I guess you're a believer in the argument that Neil Postman made in Amusing Ourselves to Death: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death The now infamous comic version of the argument in question: http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De…

Original Source (2009): http://www.recombinantrecords.net/2009/05/24/amusing-ourselves-to-deat…

Blog spam, the original is here: http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De… And the original discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=627476 Edit: (article link was changed by moderator)

Any discussion on this topic really should include Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" (1985), in which he argues Huxley's "Brave New World", rather than Orwell's "1984", more accurately portrays the future dystopia against which we must be on guard. http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De…

Australia may be an extreme case but there's plenty of this desire for tight control going around. From Iran to the US, to Holland, the UK, Germany, etc. The bottom line is, the cold war struggle between communism and capitalism is over and fascism won. Fascism briefly lost due to being on the losing side of WWII but in the long run it's clearly winning. Everybody look at Singapore that's where we're all going. This: http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-De… is about us living in a combination of 1984 and a brave new world. We (except for Singapore) aren't quite there yet in terms of government control but that's where we're headed. And because it will never be as extreme or obvious as 1984, there's no need to go that far, nobody will be rioting to stop it. The only difference between Iran and Singapore is, Singapore's economy is strong and they don't bother with tight social restrictions.

Original comic source: https://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-D… (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20100111052839/http://www.recombinantrecor… HN discussion from 2010: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1554733 Wikipedia entry for the book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death