The Judaic Roots of Neil Postman's Cultural Commentary

Abstract

Over a period of some 4 decades, Neil Postman's intellectual production took the form of a cultural commentary that addressed topics relating to education, communication, and American culture, informed by a media ecology perspective. This article focuses on the relationship between Postman's religious heritage and his scholarship, noting that he rarely made overt reference to his background, and mostly to support the traditional melting pot ideal of American culture. It is argued that Postman saw himself as being religious without being observant and, in his writing, was often critical of religious close-mindedness and fanaticism without dismissing or derogating the value of religion in general. The Judaic roots of his cultural commentary can be seen in particular in his emphasis on the distinction between verbal and visual communication, and his critique of image culture; in the importance he attached to the word in both its oral and written forms; in his ability to distance himself from contemporary American culture and his call to say no to media and technologies such as television and the computer; in his ongoing concern with education and schooling; and in his concern with social justice and moral responsibility, which informed his approach to media ecology and formed the basis of his argument that we ought to regard social science in general as a form of storytelling and moral theology.