Conscientious objections: stirring up trouble about language, technology, and education

Description

In a series of feisty and ultimately hopeful essays, one of America's sharpest social critics casts a shrewd eye over contemporary culture to reveal the worst -- and the best -- of our habits of discourse, tendencies in education, and obsessions with technological novelty. Readers will find themselves rethinking many of their bedrock assumptions: Should education transmit culture or defend us against it' Is technological innovation progress or a peculiarly American addiction' When everyone watches the same television programs -- and television producers don't discriminate between the audiences for Sesame Street and Dynasty -- is childhood anything more than a sentimental concept' Writing in the traditions of Orwell and H.L. Mencken, Neil Postman sends shock waves of wit and critical intelligence through the cultural wasteland. From the Trade Paperback edition.;Preface -- Social science as moral theology -- Defending against the indefensible -- The naming of missiles -- My German question -- A muted celebration -- The parable of the ring around the collar -- The news -- The educationist as painkiller -- Etiquette -- Megatons for anthromegs -- The conservative outlook -- Remembering the golden age -- Columbusity -- Alfred Korzybski -- The disappearance of childhood -- Future shlock -- Safe-fail -- My graduation speech.