Laughing instead of Thinking

Postman states, “For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.” In my opinion, if Postman were to use a single sentence to explain his view on the Age of Technology aside from a 163 page novel, he would use this sentence. Like most ending sentences should, this sentence pretty much sums up his whole book. The Age of Technology is taking over our lives and we do not even realize it. Earlier in the book, Postman discusses that there is no harm in watching television as long as you realize the dangers of television because this will keep television from taking over your life. The problem with this is that almost nobody does recognize these dangers. “Public consciousness has not yet assimilated the point that technology is ideology.” (Postman 157) While we let the Age of Technology take over our lives, we laugh and go along with it without realizing what is happening to our so called priorities. In the end, when we finally do realize we are ‘laughing’ (or letting Technology take over our lives) we are going to look back and not remember that this happened. Also, when we finally realize this, it will be too late to change our technological ways. This I believe where Postman’s overall theme lies. We need to learn to control our lives now, before it is too late to change the fact that we are laughing.