My graduation speech by Neil Postman

The Dominance of the Visigoth My Graduation Speech by Neil Postman encompasses power, brevity and depth. The main focus of this speech is to inform the reader of the two existing kinds of people, those who are morally upright and those who are morally depreciated. Through this speech, the reader is able to obtain an idea regarding the good aspect of humans from an Athenian point of view, which dates back to 2500 years ago. On the other hand, the idea regarding the bad aspect of humans originated from the Visigoth from Germany approximately 1700 years ago.

The Visigoth’s every action would only embody their own selfish benefits, such as living to only overcome and supersede others, and in turn creating problems for them. As Postman mentioned, Visigoth ideas are predominant in society today, which can be proven through the material found in media today. The desire to fulfill the need of entertainment for the audience results in the creation of television shows lacking in both temperance and moderation, displayed in the television program Extreme Makeover.

Furthermore, the desire to win and supersede others is shown in the exploitation of violence registered by the characters in the film Mr.

and Mrs. Smith. Lastly, many stories in daily newspapers such as the Globe and Mail, further display many realistic examples of people’s actions encouraged by the need to work for their own selfish benefits, instead of exercising those intentions for the benefit of others. Kasemphaibulsuk2 The Visigoths discovered that the factors that intrigued and pleased the general masses should be the factors to be used to control them.

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To accomplish this, the Visigoths aimed to project their desire for power, popularity, and superiority through the television series Extreme Makeover.

To further explain, Extreme Makeover displays the lavish idea of the creation of beauty in women in order to raise the television ratings to compete in the race to supersede the other television series airing (http://abc. go. com). The use of beauty as a selling point for a television series captures the interest of masses of women both young and old. Because of the masses of women in society today unwilling to accept how they look, these women would settle for watching it being done to the lucky few appearing on the show.

From this, Extreme Makeover encourages its women audience of the fact that all dreams no matter how farfetched or hard to reach can be attained one day. Through this, Extreme Makeover has succeeded in finding a point of immense interest and providing it for the audience’s entertainment. However, of course, the main purpose of the series is not to provide an encouragement to women of today, but to actually make money from the television ratings out of other people’s expense.

The exploitation of other people’s dreams, goals, and ambition as a tool of marketing is an act unrestrained and uncontrolled, characteristic of the Visigoth character. Despite the fact that Extreme Makeover is such a depraved form of entertainment, many people continue to enjoy watching it. The reason for this persistence lies in the way people in society think, which seems to surprisingly project the values of the Visigoth. Through the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the main characters are portrayed as humans fanatical with the desire to fight, and to surpass the each other, which are all Kasemphaibulsuk3 ideas befitting the Visigoths. Mr. and Mrs. Smith is the story of a husband and a wife who are both assassins.

They are not aware of each other’s hidden career of an assassin in the beginning of the film. However, in the end their secrets are exposed when they are hired to kill each other. The fights, the violence, and all the hectic jumble of the plot are all Visigoth characteristics. The characters in the film care only about their own affairs, and none of the world and the environment around them (www. imbd. com).

Despite the fact that all these ideas encompassed in the film are against tradition, society appears to be all right with them, which further shows that society views the Visigoths’ ideas as nothing out of place or wrong for that matter. Through this film, it is evident that the producer of the movie created all the violence, fights, and the hectic jumble to create one intriguing plot to captivate mass audience attention. From this, the producer aims to make a profit, instead of projecting meaningful ideals that the audience can actually learn from and apply to their life.

Being self-centered is the act of being inconsiderate to others and lacking in ethics, which is another Visigoth idea. Found in the Globe and Mail, the article “Upgrade how far will you go? ” informs the reader of the countless ways to lie to the staff in the airport for the chance to upgrade their seats, which shows that the Globe and Mail is full of Visigoth ideals that the means of achieving comfort in life is clever, and should be shared among everyone (Globe and Mail, T6). In another article, “After all it was only public money”, depicts the idea that people in society will do anything because of their greed.

This article tells of the greed of Paul Coffin, who is an ad executive, a remorseless invoicer, and an Olympic biller, who feigns to act as a moral as possible, but Kasemphaibulsuk4 in reality is guilty of countless cases of corruption. (Globe and Mail, A25). The mask and pretense that a self-centered person creates reflects society’s lack of honesty and ethics, all characteristic of a Visigoth. The evilness of Visigoth outnumbers the epitome of beauty, reason, and moderation. The immoral and deprecating values of a Visigoth appear on popular television programs such as Extreme Makeover, in films such as Mr.

and Mrs. Smith, which motivates its audience to violence, and in real life of people who appear in news articles in the newspaper. According to Postman, the numbers of people who view the world in the Visigoth perspective outnumber the number of people who think like Athenians. Nothing is needed to be said that the majority of people do things for themselves, lack the sense of community, reject tradition, use rude language, work on grotesque art, and learn to win other people or to make money, and create problems to other people for their own power.

The history of humans and the imagination of people are all rooted in Visigoth ideals. Kasemphaibulsuk5.

Work Cited Hayden, Scott. “After all, it was only public money. ” Globe and Mail 24 Jan. 2005: A25. Knight, Jeff. About the Show. June 26 2005. ABC, Inc. 24 Jan. 2005 <http://abc. go. com/primetime/extrememakeover>. Liman, Austin. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005). June 26 2005. IMDB. Earth’s Biggest Movie Database. 24 Jan. 2005 <www. imdb. com/title/tt0356910>.