Director of the Qatsi Trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi) conveying a Jacques Ellul-inspired vision of technology as part of the Stock Exchange of Visions project:

John T. Elson, former religion editor of Time Magazine and author of the famous 1966 cover article "Is God Dead?", died on September 7th at the age of 78.

The controversial issue was introduced to a shocked public a couple of months before I was born. Here I am one year later after carefully reading the article and considering its momentous implications:

Kidding! I probably wouldn't have looked that happy after reading it. But the article was destined to resurface later in my life. The cover has been featured for many years at the end of our video The Madman, a treatment of Nietzsche's well-known parable by that name, in which he announced to his equally shocked 1880's contemporaries that "God is dead, and we have killed him."

It is, in my opinion, to Nietzsche's and Elson's credit that their musings on the loss of spiritual faith in our technologized, consumerist world continue to piss off some yet inspire others who share their lament and struggle to achieve a genuine experience of the sacred amidst the Spectacle's continuous assault on the conditions and sensibilities that make true spirituality possible.

Mike and I encounter this struggle and engage in this debate every time we perform The Madman, and are indebted to Nietzsche and people like Elson who seriously address what we consider to be one of the most important issues of our time.

For information on Elson and a link to his article, see his New York Times obituary notice. Special thanks to Dina Nadelhaft for bringing it to my attention.

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