“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 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, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the
orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New
World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the
alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite
appetite for distractions". In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled
by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting
pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared
that what we love will ruin us.”
--Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
Neil Postman's book "Amusing Ourselves to Death," was truly an watershed moment in my life -- it was a book that opened my mind to the idea that something wicked this way comes... and it is in the form of something we love, not something we fear.
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