The Shock Of Twentieth-century Technology Numbed Our

Embedded In Every Technology There Is A Powerful Idea, Sometimes Two Or Three Powerful Ideas. Like Language Itself, A Technology Predisposes Us To Favor And Value Certain Perspectives And Accomplishments And To Subordinate Others. Every Technology Has A Philosophy, Which Is Given Expression In How The Technology Makes People Use Their Minds, In How It Codifies The World, In Which Of Our Senses It Amplifies, In Which Of Our Emotional And Intellectual Tendencies It Disregards.

A Book Is An Attempt To Make Through Permanent And To Contribute To The Great Conversation Conducted By Authors Of The Past. […] The Telegraph Is Suited Only To The Flashing Of Messages, Each To Be Quickly Replaced By A More Up-to-date Message. Facts Push Other Facts Into And Then Out Of Consciousness At Speeds That Neither Permit Nor Require Evaluation. (70)

I Do Not Mean To Imply That Television News Deliberately Aims To Deprive Americans Of A Coherent, Contextual Understanding Of Their World. I Mean To Say That When News Is Packaged As Entertainment, That Is The Inevitable Result. And In Saying That The Television News Show Entertains But Does Not Inform, I Am Saying Something Far More Serious Than That We Are Being Deprived Of Authentic Information. I Am Saying We Are Losing Our Sense Of What It Means To Be Well Informed.

Childhood Is Analogous To Language Learning. It Has A Biological Basis But Cannot Be Realized Unless A Social Environment Triggers And Nurtures It, That Is, Has Need Of It. If A Culture Is Dominated By A Medium That Requires The Segregation Of The Young In Order That They Learn Unnatural, Specialized, And Complex Skills And Attitudes, Then Childhood, In One Form Or Another, Will Emerge, Articulate And Indispensable.

I Mean To Suggest That Without A Transcendent And Honorable Purpose, Schooling Must Reach Its Finish, And The Sooner We Are Done With It, The Better.