Monday, July 28, 2008

"Some ways of truth telling are better than others."(24)

So is what Postman saying that, if you know the right way to tell the truth to a certain group of people, that you could tell them an absolute lie and get away with it? Isn't that just one person being more gullible than the last? Or does it actually have to do with how the truth is told, no matter if it is actually a truth or a lie?

If how people decide on which is and which isn't the truth based on how people present it, then can't leaders of our world today convince us that one thing happened or didn't happen. Couldn't the media also do that and also maybe divert our attention to other things?

I just can't seem to get over that. That some truth telling is better than others. How is that possible? Isn't the truth, the truth no matter what?

If what we see is true or not can be manipulated, then what else can?
Thinking about it now, didn't dicators like Hitler and Sadam do this. Made their citizens believe a different truth which led to violance and wars?
Especially with the media today, and its grasp on people's attention, what more could potentially happen?
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2 comments:

AFletcher said...

Josh, first what are you doing up so late (early)? A scholar after my own heart -- I am naturally a night owl, and have a hard time getting on school time.

Careful not to take what Postman is saying here out of context. You can't pull a single sentence out of a long passage and riff on it unless you are creating a mash up that bears little relation to the original.

Wouldn't an expression of love be better done with poetry than with skywriting? I mean, you could do it both ways, but what would have more resonance? Likewise, if I want to understand the theory of relativity, I could READ a textual account, HEAR a physicist's explanation, WATCH a music video about it, or -- if I am mathematically literate, I could simply contemplate the equation e=mc2. The truth remains the same, although the ways of telling it vary -- here Postman argues that some ways are better than others.

July 28, 2008 at 9:26 AM
AFletcher said...

The fact that the government lies to us or that the media skews the truth is an entirely different matter -- consider the Weapons of Mass Destruction debacle that pulled us into this absurd and costly war in Iraq. It's interesting that you cite Hitler and Hussein as manipulators who pulled their people into wars and violence, but not our own president. Google the Iraq war body count...

Good citizens need to approach the media with a healthy skepticism (not cynicism), and part of our work as students of rhetoric is to figure out how to be active, thoughtful, critically minded citizens.

July 28, 2008 at 9:40 AM

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