Stuart McMillen is a comic artist who made illustrated adaptations of works on media and society, including Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Commenters share his Postman-based comic as a reference on dystopian futures, noting it was removed at the text copyright holders' request.
Australia may be an extreme case but there's plenty of this desire for tight control going around. From Iran to the US, to Holland, the UK, Germany, etc.
The bottom line is, the cold war struggle between communism and capitalism is over and fascism won. Fascism briefly lost due to being on the losing side of WWII but in the long run it's clearly winning.
Everybody look at Singapore that's where we're all going. This: http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html is about us living in a combination of 1984 and a brave new world. We (except for Singapore) aren't quite there yet in terms of government control but that's where we're headed. And because it will never be as extreme or obvious as 1984, there's no need to go that far, nobody will be rioting to stop it.
The only difference between Iran and Singapore is, Singapore's economy is strong and they don't bother with tight social restrictions.
Is somewhat odd and amusing that the copyright holders of the text (not the author, as he died in 2003) requested that this comic be taken down from the site that originally posted it. - http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html
[edit] I just read that the artist actually contacted the estate of Neil Postman to check if they had any problem with it, just in case they ever sued, and then removed it on their instruction. - http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/cartoon-blog/amusing-ourselves-to-death/
for those contemplating a dystopian future, it's good to remember that great comic from http://www.recombinantrecords.net/2009/05/24/amusing-ourselves-to-death/
unfortunately, they had to take it down, but here's the punchline: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt5pgoInM81qaoem1o1_r1_500.jpg
I think in the west, we're mainly controlled by entertainment, not violence. (I guess you could call it intellectual/emotional violence.)
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt5pgoInM81qaoem1o1_r1_500.jpg
The author of the comic went out of his way to contact the estate, ask for permission, and removed the comic when permission was denied.
http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/cartoon-blog/amusing-ourselves-to-death/
http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html
And that's on top of the fact that his comic has probably sold an incalculable number of copies of the book, due to people discovering Neil Postman.
Original comic source: https://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20100111052839/http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html)
HN discussion from 2010: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1554733
Wikipedia entry for the book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html
It's not necessarily a waste, but it's not unquestionably a good thing, either. There should be something other than blind acceptance or rationalization of its impact.
Edit: I love how I'm getting downvoted for expressing a reasonable and non-mean opinion.