I saw this comparison of Aldous Huxley to George Orwell the other day. I thought it was extremely well done and thought you might find it insightful:
Amusing ourselves to death by Stuart McMillen – Aldous Huxley, author of “Brave New World vs. George Orwell, author of “Nineteen Eighty-Four”
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 would want 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 egotism.
Orwell feared 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 bumble puppy.
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 “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In “Brave New World”, people 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.
“Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business” by Neil Postman
I think I need to read Brave New World again. It seems that Huxley was quite accurate. We are a society of apathetic, ignorant, ego-centric fools.
Found Here and cross-posted from Heaving Dead Cats.
