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ORWELL & HUXLEY TODAY
Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us while Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance ~ and in today's world they were both correct : Allen L Roland
Huxley's Brave New World Revisited must be compared with Orwell's 1984 to get a full grasp of how perceptive these two writers were pursuant to our current political environment.
A political environment that shackles the truth while drowning it in irrelevance because of America's ill served penchant for apathy and inappropriate celebration of the irrelevant.
Neil Postman is more than up to the task of comparing Orwell and Huxley in this short but incisive article.
Postman's book, written in 1985, Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse In The Age Of Show Business prophetically warned that entertainment values corrupt the way Americans think about news, politics, education, and religion, and that these values are transmitted and validated by television. "Television," Postman writes, "has little tolerance for argument, hypothesis, or explanation: it demands a performing art."
Neil Postman comparing Brave New World and 1984
" 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.
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. . 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 ."
And both were correct.
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/04/07.html
Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
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