If you're going to write only one email in your life, you may as well make it good.

Neil Postman made the most of his one foray into cyberspace, a witty and brilliant send-up of online communication. If only he had lived to see texting and Twitter... But I suspect his message would be the same.

Neil co-founded the Media Ecology program at NYU. In 1997, he posted to the department's listserve the following tongue-in-cheek smackdown, channeling the ghost of his mentor and fellow media theorist Marshall McLuhan:

This is the Ghost of Marshall McLuhan speaking to you. I don't have to tell you from what world I come. I am using Chris Nystrom's facility in order to reach you. I will say what I have to say only once. You will not hear from me again unless you persist in your foolishness.

Does the word "books" mean anything to you? Do you have so much time on your hands that you can afford to waste yourselves on this infernal machine? Have you already accumulated so much wisdom that you no longer need to read the best that has been thought and written? Is this the way you honor the work and life of my great friend and disciple, Neil Postman? Do any of you actually know how to spell?

I have now read all of your idiotic messages. Hear, now, The Law:

EVERY MEDIUM TAKEN TO ITS FURTHEST EXTENT FLIPS TO ITS OPPOSITE
Thus the written word, which is the source of all the intellect we have, when used in this unholy fashion becomes a medium for the expression of all our stupidities. This, you have demonstrated amply. Enough, I say.

I must now return from whence I came. Remember what happened to the Hebrews when they did not follow the Law.

Ghost