Not necessarily disagreeing, but isn't the bolded basically what Brave New World was getting at?
Neil Postman was saying we were already living in a Huxleyverse way back in the 1980s. His excellent non-fiction, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, should be required reading (I read it as a freshman in college/uni). Postman was pretty clearly ahead of his time and one of the first writers sounding alarm bells about the potential negative consequences of technology, particularly when it comes to fostering an informed and engaged citizenry. His central thesis is that Huxley was the one who was correct, not Orwell. He wrote this back in 1985, so Orwell/1984 were very much a hot topic at the time:
"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 capacity 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 that truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared that we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture [...]"
Some real Metal Gear Solid 2 shit. I think about Postman a lot these days and would be curious to hear his thoughts, were he still alive. Books are absolutely being banned, which should be chilling and terrifying for all of us.
Either way, everyone should read all of those books, then read Postman. Much of his analysis still holds up nearly 40 years later.
en.m.wikipedia.org
