The Vision
Cleaning my computer room I came across a printed page tucked among many others….
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much information that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.
Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture… As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distraction.”
…..
So where are we now in 2008?
From the 1976 movie Network - over 30 years ago.
1984 or Brave New World?
It’s ok. You don’t have to answer. Who can respond to insanity?
The second video was also introduced in Zeitgeist, right? It seemed familiar. The printed text has a good point, but only if you look at it from the outside. If you ask us where are we now, we won’t be able to answer, only someone who is not involved can think logically, don’t you think so? Even so, I say that we are still in between.
Thanks for the reply.
Only the first video (the “Mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” scene) was in Zeitgeist and it was basically only the line “I’m a human being God dammit! My life has value!”
The second part was just from the movie Network. I include it because even 30 years ago the writing was on the wall as to globalization and consumerism as the wave of the future. It’s just another form of control and manipulation.
I disagree with you in that we can’t think logically because we’re in it now. If your house is on fire you don’t need to step back and examine it to know there’s something seriously wrong with it. Unfortunately we’re not on fire, we’re in a slowly boiling pot, who’s temperature is raised slightly each year. Not enough to make you jump out but just enough to keep you moving in place. But if you look around and really think about what’s happening the outcome is discernable and clear but in order to do that you’re going against the grain and thinking of most everyone around you.
I’ve been hearing people on the radio complain about their the state of the economy and yet they are still going to go deeper into debt to get gifts for their children this “holiday” season. Social pressure at its finest.