Everything is Entertainment

     In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman talks a quite a bit about education, politics, and religion and the effect television has on them as a medium.  What I've come to realize after thinking about this topic is that education, politics, and religion are basically being sold as entertainment and commodities through television shows, advertisements, and televangelism. 
     With educational television shows, education and learning are sold as entertainment, and the companies that make them aim to teach concepts through entertaining acts and visual images. However, Postman states that students will only want to learn if learning is just as entertaining as the television shows that they watched, showing exactly how television sells learning as entertainment for viewers.  Also,  people usually look for entertainment from shows more often than they look for learning in my experiences, which means that they will not find the meaning of what they watch.
     Television also has a major impact on politics as well.  When a politician wants to run for a position in office, one of the major ways that they campaign is through television advertisements and campaign slogans, where they attempt to sell themselves as a good candidate for office.  In these advertisements, those candidates can say whatever they want about themselves since nobody is opposing them in these advertisements, so they can effectively lie about themselves. A modern example of this issue could be Donald Trump, who claims that he will "Make America Great Again", but many people disagree and do not trust him.  Also, since advertisements and slogans are short, they can not convey much information to viewers therefore, they often lack real meaning.
     Even religious values are practically sold as commodities through what is known as televangelism.  Postman states that for some people, religion can be a good way for confronting problems, gaining comfort, and is how some people get their morals.  However, he goes on to suggest that televangelism can fail to give a person the same deep experiences that a person might get by going to church, yet televangelists expect donations from viewers in return for hope and having their problems fixed and is thus selling their show as a religious experience that gives hope even if it might not be the case.
     My point is that television as a medium for discourse can make everything that it shows into a form of entertainment or commodity, even if it involves education, politics, religion or any other subject.  Any deep meanings, experiences, and thoughts are essentially replaced with entertainment and consumerism.