During the reading, “Two Cultures – Television Versus Print”, I found myself mostly agreeing with Camille Paglia’s argument that television should not be ignored since it “is the culture” rather than Neil Postman’s argument that television “breaks the habits of logic and thinking”. Although, Postman seems to present a stronger argument by content, overall I tend to agree more with Paglia’s modern views on television. I agree that television does have substance and is not a “nihilistic compilation of unrelated events.”
Postman uses God and religion as the basis for much of his argument whereas Paglia uses many anecdotes and historical references. As a nonreligious person myself, I tend to be less influenced by the points that Postman makes and more drawn to Paglia’s argument.
One argument that particularly caught my attention was when Paglia and Postman argue about a particular television ad for Hebrew National featuring Uncle Sam and God. Postman states that “a sense of the sacred is being eliminated, or exploited by redirecting it to the profane world”, whereas Paglia notes that it “reinforces their symbolic meaning and helps young people have a historical perspective on their own culture.” I absolutely agree with Paglia that ads, such as this one, are not destroying our culture, they are simply giving us a greater understanding of our culture. When I watch commercials, I do in fact learn from them. I don’t see commercials as a mockery: I see them as embracing the full realm of our history and culture.
Click here to view the Hebrew National television ad.
3 comments:
I like how you posted the Hebrew National ad. I had never seen it before and was kind of lost during their discussion of it in the reading.
I agree, I had no idea what the book was talking about when it discussed the Hebrew Ads, so it was cool to see what it was and I like your argument when telling us about your own personal views on the ads.
I understand how you can see television as the greater force however I do not think we are able to process that quickly while just looking at images. However I did switch to the middle during the discussion and I believe you cant have one without the other.
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