“Brave New World” or “1984” A Twist on the Theme
Dystopia: “a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.”
I still lean towards Bizzaro World myself, but I HAVE spent several days re-reading/skimming both books after the revelation I stumbled across.
“In 1949, George Orwell received a curious letter from his former high school French teacher.
Orwell had just published his groundbreaking book Nineteen Eighty-Four, which received glowing reviews from just about every corner of the English-speaking world. His French teacher, as it happens, was none other than Aldous Huxley who taught at Eton for a spell before writing Brave New World (1931), the other great 20th century dystopian novel.”
The last paragraph opens with chilling prescience:
“Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience.”
I don’t really care about being thought as an odd sort of Luddite, but if you have spent any time around someone looking at their phone AND offering little, if any, connection to things going on around them perhaps you should wonder too. Toss in the notion of Texting While Driving, or this reaction to tech deprivation as discipline, and maybe the modern day Luddite has a point.
Maybe, just maybe, Orwell and Huxley both missed, and yet sort of emphasized a simple thing. Nobody was actually paying attention.
Why bother posting about things esoteric and a bit painful to deal with? Most here have, at least, committed to watching the back of their brethren. We’ve also committed by oath to defend this country. Still, when ennui becomes rampant what can we do? Yelling FIRE in crowded theater is only a crime IF there is no actual fire – but what if no one is paying attention?
Oh well… Sitting around watching the world crumble is The Geezer Prerogative, ain’t it?
One thing that cheers me up is a song from some fellow hillbillies. YMMV:
Category: Geezer Alert!
I’ll just say that Brave New World is one of the most terrifying books I have ever read. It is terrifying precisely because the level of callous dismissal of the value of human life and individualism in the story is not very far removed from the “politically correct” view enforced by government today.
It’s only “a slippery slope” until it becomes “the road we have traveled”.
Thank you. 1984 is scary; but at the same time, there WERE people trying to fight The Party. But Brave New World… Ugh. One of the most outright terrifying novels I’ve ever read.
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge is a great read about the dangers of technology as it relates to creativity and motivation.
I always fall back on my Army training that technology will fail you at some point (especially if it runs on batteries) so you better have a backup plan.
That being said not sure how I would get reliable news like here on TAH if the net went down for an extended period of time.
I read 1984 almost once a year. I pretty much have it memorized. The prophecies of today’s world are chilling.