The Distinctive Postman

 In the last paragraph of "Amusing Ourselves to Death," Postman makes a distinction similar to that of Aldous Huxley's point in "Brave New World." The point is that because we are falling away from typography as a main source of communication, our lack of knowledge will lead to disaster. Like Postman explains about Huxley's book, "For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking." Likewise, we will eventually be so uneducated and desperate for entertainment that anything will entertain us, even if we do not understand the concept of it. This is the disaster that the two talk about: the knowledge of the human mind of the future.

Finally, I can Talk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday's "speech fast," if you will, was probably one of the most difficult challenges that I have faced in a while. You really do never realize how blessed you are to be able to talk, and share the same type of communication as your friends use. Without speaking, drawing pictures and acting was very difficult for me, especially because I have no artistic ability with a writing utensil whatsoever, and because I'm not a very good actor either. To be honest, I really didn't participate in my classes at all because I had no idea how to depict or act out the answers to questions without using words. It was by no means easy. In Yearbook, I had to ask Miss Carson a question about my spread and  I sat in front of her making weird gestures, because I didn't have my whiteboard handy, and she would try and guess what I was saying, and she finally got it after about 2 minutes of acting out. This proves Postman's point about how communication is the medium between humans. Without speaking in words that most people understand, there would be no unity between us. No one would be able to get their point across to someone as great as they would be able to if they could speak.

Postman's Parallels

In Chapter One of "Amusing Ourselves to Death," Postman focuses on how technology, over time, is changing the way we communicate with others, whether it be through electronics, specifically the television, different forms of writing, or any other form of communication, and has the potential to cause future problems. Neil Postman refers to these types of communications as "mediums" between man and man, God and man, etc. In the words of Postman, "It [speech] made us human, keeps us human, and in fact defines what human means." In other words, speech is the medium of humanity. It is what connects us all with each other, and Postman reveals how people are finding different ways to communicate with others besides our nature of speaking.

In Postman's speech in the video, he states that the new technological world provides and will continue to provide special problems that the people from the previous eras could never even have imagined. In his concern about the topic of cloning, he mentions that we couldn't just take parts from our clone because they are indeed human beings. Postman describes it as "human beings defining other human beings as non-human things." This is what leads to genocide, according to Neil Postman. I think this is a parallel between Postman's book and the video because both are portraying the problems that technology will cause in the future of society. Also, Neil Postman talks about how Professor Nicholas Negroponte said that we will become closer to technology more than ever, to the point where we will talk to machines, rather than human beings. Negroponte thinks that we will be comfortable talking to inanimate objects, just as we do talking to a friend's answering machine. This is similar to what Postman writes in "Amusing Ourselves to Death," specifically in Chapter one when he talks about how technology of the future will change how we converse, and it will be the medium between everyone and everything.

Civility Not Censorship

1. Chavez's intent with the first six words is to show the reader that she realizes that civility is vital in speeches, although it should not hold you back from your word choice or using literary devices to get your point across.

2. Bellicose has the meaning of demonstrating aggression and willingness to fight. Chavez uses bellicose in her column because many political terms also relate to war terms. Chavez gives examples such as the word "campaign," which in French means open land, which in English refers to the time spent on the battlefield. Also, when campaigning, people constantly bring up the term "rounds" for the time that a political leader campaigns, and Chavez relates this to rounds that refer to ammunition.

3. A) Chavez is attempting to persuade her audience that, although civility is important, changing our words to make them civilized can very easily take the emotion and the strength of the delivery of the speech away.

B) In my opinion, the best example that supports her point is the following sentences: "A well-meaning but foolish effort to replace the disgusting term [the "N" word] with "slave" in order to get the book past school censors deprives students from learning important lessons about both racism and the social mores of earlier eras. Diction in great literature tells us something about character, in both senses of the word, and tampering with it distorts the author's intent and interferes with the reader's understanding."

4. I agree with Chavez's point that sometimes you may need to go against civility to get your point across in a more effective way. Like Chavez stated in the previous quote, getting rid of certain words or replacing them with less derogatory terms can, and most of the time does, take away the deeper meaning of speeches and writings. Also, word choice can provide a greater education about the past, or even just expand our vocabulary. For example, Chavez uses “Huckleberry Fin” to show that replacing the “N” word with slave takes away the meaning and gives a much more bland picture of what was going on at the time. Yes, civility is important in public addresses, but it should not hold us back from using intelligent, deeper meaning words. We should be courteous with our words, but also flexible.

Semrau on Conservation, Reusing, and Recycling

Semrau's point is revealed in the sentence "Have you figured out yet that I'm going as a cadaver, an anatomical gift?"

Semrau keeping information from us actually helps the intent of the story. He begins with "Conserve, Reuse, Recycle." Anyone reading this would definitely think he was speaking of the thousands, even millions, of pop cans that people get rid of each day. You have to read further into the story to realize what he is talking about. He even goes on to say that he is going to go to medical school at such an old age. He is just waiting for his acceptance letter. He then starts talking about his bones in a jar that he keeps. Many people probably wonder how he is going from reusing to his bones, when in reality, he is actually talking about his body. It all makes sense when he gets to the line "Have you figured out yet that I'm going as a cadaver, an anatomical gift?" The reader then can understand that he is talking about his body. Overall, I think it gives the reader a more interesting read, which is probably what they are looking for in the news.

Luther's Song

In this hymn of Luther's, he explains the greatness and power of God. He uses emotion in the lines, “Marvel now, O heaven and earth, That the Lord chose such a birth,” to express that God is so great, he chose to be born of an inferior people and he did it all for us. Luther also writes, “Though by all the world disowned, Still to be in heaven enthroned.” Christ suffered more than any of us will ever suffer here on earth, but he is so powerful that he still now sits on the throne in heaven. God is so powerful and great that his death was actually a sign of victory over the devil. Luther also wants us to stay in Christ's light and do not let the darkness block it from our sight. “Let not sin o'ercloud this light, Ever be our faith thus bright,” writes Luther. We must stay strong in our faith and not let anyone or anything get in the way. Stay in the right path if we want to be with him forever. We must always praise God in everything that we do. Praise God, his son, Christ, and the Holy Spirit eternally.

Rev, Borghardt's Sermon Diagnostic

1) 19 times

2) slain, died, rose, reigns, took sin, makes holy

3) Edward's theme in his sermon is that God takes his rage out on sinners that do not believe in him and Edward's  tries to scare people into faith by describing the horrible actions God will take if we do not come to the faith. Rev. Borghardt's sermon is about how even on All Saint's Day, we should focus on Christ who made it possible for the saints to be in heaven with him, as well as recognize that saint's for their faith. Borghardt's sermon focuses on Christ's recognition while Edward's sermon strikes fear into the people who do not believe.