“The way to be liberated from the constraining effects of any medium is to develop a perspective on it — how it works and what it does.”

— Neil Postman

Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969)
Context: The way to be liberated from the constraining effects of any medium is to develop a perspective on it — how it works and what it does. Being illiterate in the processes of any medium (language) leaves one at the mercy of those who control it. The new media — these new languages — then are among the most important "subjects" to be studied in the interests of survival. But they must be studied in a new way if they are to be understood, they must be studied as mediators of perception. Indeed, for any "subject" or "discipline" to be understood it must be studied this way.

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Neil Postman 106

American writer and academic 1931–2003

Peter J. Carroll (1953) British occultist

Source: The Apophenion (2008), p. 38-39
Context: An old joke puts its thus, "when a man speaks to a god its prayer, when a god speaks to a man its schizophrenia"... Many people hear voices without suffering any of the debilitating and dysfunctional effects associated with schizophrenia, some treat these as sources of inspiration of develop religious ideas around them, others become mediums or occultists.

“One way to be effective as a conservative is to figure out what annoys and disturbs liberals the most, and then keep doing it.”

Dinesh D'Souza (1961) Indian-American political commentator, filmmaker, author

2002-10-01
How to Harpoon a Liberal
Letters to a Young Conservative
Basic Books
135
0465017339
202008679
7593294M

“Even in Scandinavia, where social democratic institutions were far more culturally ingrained, membership of the EU—or even just participation in the World Trade Organization and other international agencies—appeared to constrain locally-initiated legislation. In short, social democracy seemed doomed by that same internationalization which its early theorists had so enthusiastically adumbrated as the future of capitalism.
From this perspective, social democracy—like liberalism—was a byproduct of the rise of the European nation-state: a political idea keyed to the social challenges of industrialization in developed societies. Not only was there no ‘socialism’ in America, but social democracy as a working compromise between radical goals and liberal traditions lacked widespread support in any other continent. There was no shortage of enthusiasm for revolutionary socialism in much of the non-Western world, but the distinctively European compromise did not export well.”

Tony Judt (1948–2010) British historian

Ill Fares the Land (2010), Conclusion: What Is Living and What Is Dead in Social Democracy?

“Analysis of a system reveals how it works; it provides know-how, knowledge, not understanding; that is, explanations of why it works the way it does.”

Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist

This [understanding of why systems work] requires synthetic thinking... Analysis is the way scientists conduct research. Synthetic thinking is exemplified by design.
Ackoff & Greenberg (2008) Turning Learning Right Side Up. p. 61 as cited in: Stephen M Millett (2011) Managing the Future: A Guide to Forecasting and Strategic Planning. p. 52.
2000s

“Well, we will indeed see how things develop and what will become of our art! In any case, artists should remain apolitical and only think of their work and dedicate all their energies to this work.”

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) Russian painter

to Werner Drewes, 10 April 1933; as quoted in 'Klee & Kandinsky', 2015 exhibition text, Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau Munich, 2015-2016 https://www.zpk.org/en/exhibitions/review_0/2015/klee-kandinsky-969.html
both were closely connected with the Bauhaus, closed by the Nazi-regime in 1933
1930 - 1944

“If the burden of working for little reward in an isolating society stripped of any overriding purpose can be recognised to have an effect on individuals, how could it not also be said to have an effect on society as a whole? Or to put it the other way around, if enough people in a society are suffering from a form of exhaustion, might it not be that the society they are living in has become exhausted?”

Douglas Murray (1979) British political commentator and far-right activist

The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam (2017)

“The law of organic development is still daily seen at work to certain effects, only somewhat short of a transition from species to species.”

Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802) book Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation

Source: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), p. 214

“When I re-read my past work I can see a development to such an effect, indeed, that some of them no longer seem to be any part of me.”

Elizabeth Jennings (1926–2001) poet

Preface to Collected Poetry, Carconet Press, Manchester 1986

“The government is already involved from an entertainment standpoint. I mean, they regulate a large part of our entertainment. What we're trying to do as an industry is be proactive and drive it much more positively, much more effectively, than the government can, and that's what the ESA is all about[…. ]We think we're doing a pretty effective job, and certainly from an Nintendo perspective, we think the ESA is the way to go.”

Reggie Fils-Aimé (1961) American businessman

Addressing regulation in the gaming industry as well as criticism of video game violence by Jack Thompson
On violence in video games
Source: YouTube http://youtube.com/watch?v=ax2HY3KxWxc&mode=related&search=

“The cumulative development of a medium of exchange on the free market — is the only way money can become established. … government is powerless to create money for the economy; it can only be developed by the processes of the free market.”

Murray N. Rothbard book What Has Government Done to Our Money?

What Has Government Done to Our Money? (1980)

“The way to be liberated from the constraining effects of any medium is to develop a perspective on it — how it works and what it does.”

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