(3089/898) Technopoly 1

143) Of all the disciplines that might be included in the curriculum, semantics is certainly among the most "basic." Because it deals with the processes by which we make and interpret meaning, it has the great potential to affect the deepest levels of student intelligence. And yet semantics is rarely mentioned when "back to the basics" is proposed. Why? My guess it that it cuts too deep [...] [it has] the capability of generating critical thought and of giving students access to questions that get to the heart of the matter. This is not what "back to basics" advocates usually have in mind. They want language technicians: people who can follow instructions, write reports clearly, spell correctly ... [Semantics] helps students to reflect on the sense and truth of what they are writing and of what they are asked to read. It teaches them to discover the underlying assumptions of what they are told. It emphasizes that manifold ways in which language can distort reality. It assists students in becoming ... "crap detectors."

Neil Postman
Technopoly (1992)

144) The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern.

C.S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters (1943)
quoted by Neil Postman in
Technopoly (1992)