Amusing Ourselves to Death in the Age of Politics-as-Entertainment

In 1985, Neil Postman published, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Cable television was exploding, Ronald Reagan, a former actor, was president, and the evening news was already becoming a staple in most American homes.

Postman argued that television had fundamentally reshaped culture: we no longer processed politics, religion, and education as arenas of serious thought, but as forms of entertainment.

His thesis was stark: George Orwell’s nightmare in 1984 was that censorship would conceal truth; Aldous Huxley’s in Brave New World was that truth would drown in a sea of irrelevance. Postman believed Huxley had the better prophecy. “What we love will ruin us,” he warned. Oppression of the truth wouldn’t destroy us, but our addiction to amusement.

Nearly forty years later, Postman reads less like a cultural critic and more like a prophet of our political moment. Our public discourse—especially politics—has become a theater of distraction, outrage, and performance. What once seemed a distant cautionary tale from a strange land now lives in our homes.

From Lincoln-Douglas to Twitter Debates

To grasp the shift, Postman pointed to the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Thousands of Americans gathered for hours—sometimes a full day—to hear extended arguments on slavery, the Constitution, and states’ rights. People were accustomed to long-form thought, dense reasoning, and careful rhetoric.

Contrast that with today’s presidential debates. Candidates fight for sound bites that can be replayed on social media. Moderators press for thirty-second answers to complex policy questions. What matters is not the argument but the viral moment that trends on X or TikTok.

We’ve gone from a culture of print, where ideas were measured by depth and logic, to a culture of screens, where ideas are judged by entertainment value. Postman predicted it, and we’re living it. Books, a one-time necessity for curating thoughts and ideas, now replaced with eighty character social media posts.

Politics as Show Business

Postman famously wrote, “Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business.”

Think about how modern politics is staged. Presidential campaigns resemble reality TV shows. Politicians rise not through mastery of policy, but through their ability to dominate the screen. Viral memes or short-clip videos can make or break candidacies. Rallies are choreographed spectacles. Speeches are written to inspire the base, not an articulate vision for the common good of all people.

Ronald Reagan, was once seen as an anomaly—a Hollywood actor turned president. Today, his blend of stagecraft and politics is the norm. From Donald Trump’s background in reality TV, to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram live streams, to Barack Obama’s mastery of social media, our leaders succeed less by governing and more by performing.

The result? A political climate shaped by drama, not deliberation.

The Death of Context

One of Postman’s most prescient insights was that television—and now digital media—destroys context. Print culture forces a narrative: a book, essay, or even a long newspaper article demands sustained thought. Television, and now X, Instagram, or TikTok, thrives on fragments.

This is why complex issues collapse into slogans. Immigration policy is reduced to “Build the Wall” or “Abolish ICE.” Climate change becomes “Green New Deal” or “Drill, Baby, Drill.” Healthcare is “Medicare for All” or “Government Takeover.”

Context—the history, nuance, trade-offs, and unintended consequences—vanishes in a world dominated by entertainment. As Postman wrote, “We are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.” The danger isn’t that we can’t access information; it’s that we don’t know how to process what we receive.

From Citizens to Audience

In a democracy, the citizen’s role is active: to deliberate, to vote, and participate. But Postman warned that television was transforming citizens into a passive audience.

Look around today: politics is consumed like a streaming service. We binge-watch hearings, obsess over scandals, and cheer our side as if rooting for a sports team. Red vs. Blue feels like Yankees vs. Red Sox. Lakers vs. Clippers.

When citizens become an audience, democracy weakens. We don’t ask, What policies are best for the common good? We ask, Who won the debate? Who had the better burn? Who looks more presidential? Democracy becomes a popularity contest measured by likes, views, and shares.

The Politics of Outrage

Entertainment thrives on emotion—especially outrage. In a saturated media environment, politicians and pundits must shock to be noticed. Subtlety doesn’t trend. Nuance doesn’t go viral. Rage makes money.

This explains the cycle of scandals that dominate our news feeds. Each week brings a fresh outrage, a new crisis, a sound bite designed to spark anger or laughter. Spectacle overshadows serious governing.

The consequences are dire. Policy becomes secondary to performance. Leaders are incentivized to provoke rather than solve issues. And citizens addicted to outrage become cynical and apathetic. If politics is just a show, why take it seriously?

The Erosion of Trust

One of the tragic byproducts of politics-as-entertainment is the erosion of trust. If everything is staged, if every leader is an actor, then nothing feels real. Institutions lose credibility. Truth itself becomes slippery. There is no benefit in telling the truth if it will cost power, money, jobs, or party support.

Truth-telling, which builds trust, is lost in the show.

Postman saw this coming. When discourse becomes show business, truth gives way to perception. We no longer ask, Is it true? We ask, Did it play well on TV? Are the vibes and look right? Did it trend on social media? Is my team winning?

It’s no surprise that conspiracy theories flourish in this environment. If politics is performance, then “the deep state” and “backstage plots” feel more believable than messy reality. Distrust grows because entertainment culture thrives on spectacle, not substance.

Why Postman Matters Now?

So what does all this mean for our current political climate? It means Postman’s warnings are not just cultural critiques but survival strategies. He was telling us: if we don’t recover seriousness, we will lose democracy. The next generation of leaders won’t rely on experience, learning, wisdom, character, and competency.

These leaders will be chosen primarily based on personality, money, looks, and the ability to inspire a crowd.

When debates are memes, when scandals are staged, when truth is sacrificed for entertainment, we edge closer to Huxley’s nightmare—laughing while our freedoms wither.

This is why the anger, polarization, and spectacle of modern politics feels so exhausting. We are citizens living inside a reality show, unsure if anything is real, yet unable to turn it off.

A Call to Attention

What’s the antidote? Attention. Postman’s book was, in many ways, a call to resist distraction and reclaim depth.

We can refuse to be passive audiences. We can demand more than memes and sound bites. We can read long-form journalism, listen to full speeches, and examine context. We can train ourselves to ask harder questions of leaders, media, and even ourselves.

Ironically we have more information at our fingertips compared to any time in history, but we must do the hard work of paying attention, humbly asking questions, and searching for truth.

Most importantly, we can remember that politics is not entertainment—it is a stewardship for the common good. If we keep treating it as a show, we will get leaders skilled in performance but shallow in wisdom.

A Personal Note

I often think about how different our lives would look if we gave politics the same attention we give to Netflix shows or sports teams. Imagine if citizens spent as much time reading policy as they do scrolling feeds. Imagine if debates were judged not by zingers but by substance.

Imagine we cared about "all" people and not only our tribe?

It makes me wonder: are we too entertained to be free? Postman would say yes. And perhaps our task, now more than ever, is to prove him wrong.

Postman began Amusing Ourselves to Death by contrasting Orwell and Huxley. Orwell feared we would be controlled by pain; Huxley feared we would be seduced by pleasure. Postman sided with Huxley. Look around today, and you’ll see a culture drowning in distraction, where outrage and amusement rule the public square.

The question remains: Will we keep laughing until it’s too late, or will we learn again to take truth, politics, and one another seriously?

Time will tell.

-Ryan