From Democracy Rising comes this...

What's your pleasure?

• Watching the NBA? Spring Training?


• Late night movies on cable?


• A day at the mall?

The great thing about America is there are endless opportunities for amusement. Hundreds of cable channels. Amusement parks. Shopping malls galore.

But are we amusing ourselves to death?

"Amusing Ourselves to Death" is the name of Neil Postman's 1985 classic that weighed in on the debate between Aldous Huxley and George Orwell.

Here's Postman:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books.

What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.



Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information.

Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.



Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.

Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.



Orwell feared we would become a captive culture.

Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.

Something to think about, eh?