At university we had to read Neil Postmans “Building a Bridge to the 18th Century”. Unlike some of my colleagues I found it very inspiring (maybe because it was one of my first “modern philosophy” books), so I kept on reading Postman. I read “The Disappearance of Childhood” and “Amusing Ourselves to Death” — somehow I missed out on “Technopoly”, but I have already put it on my list to fill this gap soon.

I found “The Disappearance of Childhood” to be his weakest book. Not because it wasn’t brilliantly written, but simply because I didn’t agree with him. Postman argues that television is the wrong medium for education. Since the impartation of information is increasingly combined with entertainment, we lose our ability to understand complex problems.

I disagreed because I refuse to believe learning something has to be jejune. When I first heard the term “edutainment” — I think it was in my teenage years — I was thrilled. ‘Yeah, that’s the way to do it! Not a boring lesson by an uninspired teacher. Combine the complicated stuff with entertainment and make it easier to digest!’ I still believe that the best teachers impart knowledge in an entertaining way.

That was it for quite some time; I didn’t really think about Postman that much in recent years. Until lately, when I read an article on German Huffington Post by @hoffmannsho entitled “Die neuen Asozialen: Eure Dummheit bringt Deutschland an den Abgrund” (“The New Anti-Socials: Your Stupidity Brings Germany to the Brink”). The article is about the failure of some people to deal with the refugee situation in Europe in a reasonable way. It was shared quite a lot in social networks in German-speaking countries. What caught my attention and made me think of Postman again was one paragraph (translated by me):

“Education scientists believe […] that young people increasingly have difficulties to understand the larger context. Simply because they read less.”

There he was: Bam! Neil Postman again. I don’t know if it is because people read less, but I see the problem. A problem I refused to see for a long time. A problem that is constantly growing. People are overwhelmed by the complexity of the world around them. It seems impossible to get the bigger picture without a lot of effort. Simple answers that are easy to digest are more than welcome.

I recently read in a column in an Austrian newspaper that whenever somebody offers a simple solution to a complex problem, this person is very likely a populist. Because we are so used to consuming information in an entertaining way, not having the difficulties of looking at the “truth behind”, asking critical questions or debate, a lot of people take this solution as veritable.

Populists have an easy job telling people twisted truths to pull them to their side.

I have a friend I occasionally have political debates with. These debates are like boxing fights. Sometimes he has the upper hand, sometimes I do. A real punch is never “That’s wrong!” or “This is stupid!” — what hits the opponent is “That is a populist thing to say!”. I think we both consider it a weakness to say something that is easy to share but lacks proven arguments. This may sound logical, but if you look at the political landscape, you have to agree that popular politicians don’t share our notion.

To get back to Postman, I still think it is okay to consume even complex information in an entertaining way. It is, however, like candy. Too much is bad for your teeth and ultimately for your health as a whole. Constant consumption of information-candy makes you lazy and vulnerable to populists — and by the way, this applies just as much to politics as it does to other fields like pseudo-science.

Whenever we come across opinions or beliefs we don’t share, we tend to go the easy way too: No debate, we either ignore it or put it down as “wrong” or “stupid”. This doesn’t get us anywhere, it leads to a separated black vs. white world.

We don’t know how the world works, we just have some idea. A popular quote (I couldn’t find out who said it) is “There is no right or wrong. Just the consequences of your actions.” I think it is brilliant and has a strong impact on my life. The trouble is, if we don’t think about the consequences anymore, we are doomed to live a life of uncertainty. If we accept the truths that are presented to us on a silver platter without questioning them, we accept to live with the consequences of other people’s actions. Consequences we don’t know or cannot assess.

So please, please don’t give up on the world so easily! Don’t let the populists, the pseudoscientists, charlatans and other Pied Pipers take over our life. Choose to be critical, look for the debate, let your choices be profound!

And prove Postman wrong! Just because we like to be entertained doesn’t mean we give up on ourselves!