TEHRAN – Iranian publisher Nilufar has recently published a Persian translation of American author Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”.

Originally published in 1985, the book has been translated into Persian by Vahid Tabtabai.

What happens when media and politics become forms of entertainment? As our world begins to look more and more like Orwell’s “1984”, Postman’s essential guide to the modern media is more relevant than ever.

“It’s unlikely that Trump has ever read ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’, but his ascent would not have surprised Postman,” CNN previously wrote.

Postman’s groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. 

Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media—from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs—it has taken on even greater significance. 

“Amusing Ourselves to Death” is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. 

It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.

“A brilliant, powerful and important book. This is an indictment that Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one.” Jonathan Yardley wrote in a review published in The Washington Post Book World.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Neil Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death”.

MMS/YAW