I recently bought an old book published in 1985 called “Amusing ourselves to Death – Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.” The author, Neil Postman, compared and contrasted two dystopian futures in which totalitarian governments seize the individual rights of their citizens in different ways. He distinguishes the George “Orwellian” vision of the future, as detailed in the book 1984 in which totalitarian governments overtly seize individual rights by The Party and is run by Big Brother, from that offered by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, where people voluntarily give up their individual rights in order to indulge or medicate themselves into a blissful state keeping them continually uncaring and distracted about their loss of freedom.
I had to read both 1984 and Brave New World in high school. Both were equally bleak to me. It did seem to my adolescent brain that if I had to give up my individual rights to the “World State” that free Soma, the drug that was dispensed to citizens by the state, and the ensuing orgies of Brave New World would be the better route than living under an oppressive government that prohibits free thought and any expression of individuality.
I advise people I know that they should read both novels so they can appreciate the freedom we have to think and to speak and how precious our constitution is especially the first amendment and how wise the founding fathers were and that they understood that humanity has a tendency toward totalitarianism and tyranny. It’s like we are pre-wired to fear freedom and independence and the responsibilities of adulthood.
Back to Neil Postman. His thesis was that with the advent of TV, the news had become just another form of entertainment programming; arguing that “the inclusion of theme music, the interruption of commercials, and “talking hairdos” (talking heads) bear witness that televised news cannot readily be taken seriously.” Add to this the recent addition back then of the 24/7 news channel CNN – they now had to fill those hours with more “news” that in all reality wasn’t news and, in order to fill time, was just repeated over and over again. Shortly after CNN – the paper “USA Today” hit the newsstands. Their centerpiece was a section that summarized the top news by state – in a few sentences allotted to each state. Really? Even back then we used to call it McNews since it was junk food news at its best.
Postman wrote his book before the Internet, and mobile phones. The PC was in its infancy requiring a modem to interact with other PC users back then. He postulated that Huxley’s Brave New World would be the totalitarian route of choice for citizens. It was the path of least resistance for an immature, adolescent mindset of its citizenry. Pleasure over pain always wins.
My postulation, I think anyway, is more accurate than Postman’s because he couldn’t have imagined the impact technology and worldwide instantaneous communication has had on our world. We are being taught, conditioned overtly and subversively how to think, what to think, that the only truth is that there is no truth, what is moral, and that feeling are as valid as facts.
I believe we are relinquishing our rights both ways. We are welcoming in a tyrannical form of government, allowing totalitarianism (ala 1984) through a combination of Big Tech and aided and propagated by mainstream media which precipitated the virtual and real street gangs of the cancel culture (1984 – Thought Police) in exchange for our free dose of Soma (ala Brave New World) to escape the hardships of an adult life. The Soma we crave comes in many forms; opioids and drugs of all sorts, junk food, porn, hook-up sites, to name just a few.
