Orwell's 1984 is getting renewed interest but Huxley's insight that our appetite for distraction

[snagglepuss]

and pleasure is what we will lead to our downfall hits the mark. "In short, ...Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism."

snip

Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.





http://citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/was-huxley-right-will-our-infinite-appetite-for-pleasurable-distractions-be-our-downfall/

[Proud Public Servant]

1. Yep. I believe it was media critic Neil Postman

who said something like, "By 1984, 1984 hadn't happened yet -- but only because Brave New World already had."

[snagglepuss]

3. Wow. Nail meets hammer.

[Proud Public Servant]

9. It's from his great book

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, which was published almost 30 years ago but is probably more relevant now than it was then.

[reformist2]

2. Brave New World is chilling because the "Savage" is the only one left who wants freedom.

I think I even read somewhere that Huxley didn't even write it as a cautionary tale, but instead just wanted to show the futility of trying to preserve the old ways of doing things, which would be doubly chilling.

[snagglepuss]

4. Isn't that what we see happening here.

[rurallib]

5. It seems as if some of each is actually happening

with each being applied as needed.
Right now in the US it seems as if it is mostly going the Huxley way with a bit of Orwell applied to the news, to certain people (Bradley Manning).
But it has amazed me how easily people are willing to dump their rights for some pleasure.

[southernyankeebelle]

6. Well all you have to do is google Orwells 1984 and you can watch it for free online.

[roamer65]

7. I think we actually have a mix of Huxley's and Orwell's dystopias today.

The drugs are there and plentiful is you just want your "soma". If you want to get serious and try to change things, then your face is obliterated by the boot.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. I don't believe that it's "common belief even among the educated" that they predicted the same thing

Certainly not among anyone who's actually read them both, and I don't think many educated people would offer an opinion if they hadn't read them both.

If Postman thought that, he's extremely disappointing. That foreword gives rather a misleading impression of BNW, too - it's a fundamental point of BNW that its people are explicitly bred and conditioned to like what they get, but that foreword glosses over that.