Thursday, March 25, 2010

Postman: defining intelligence

Since intelligence is primarily defined as one's capacity to grasp the truth of things, it follows that what a culture means by intelligence is derived from its important forms of communication.  (p25)

(& therefore our definition of intelligence in the TV (and now internet age) is defined by what that medium is actually capable of communicating - which, in Postman's view is trivia, and therefore the trivial becomes a kind of intelligence, or the intelligent become more trivial.  Ridiculous!  Or, should we perhaps  be worried  about how many people with enormous amounts of qualifications worked very hard to produce Big Brother?)

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