COMPARING ORWELL & HUXLEY IN TODAY'S WORLD
Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance : Neil Postman
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 in 2007.
I must say that Huxley's vision of the truth eventually being buried in a sea of irrelevance neatly fits with the current dumbing down of America with Bush as its oblivious titular leader.
Whereas Orwell was obsessed with the threat of external oppression ~ Huxley rightly feared the advent of internal passivity and egoism where the truth is consciously ignored.
Neil Postman agrees and is more than up to the task of this comparison in this short but incisive article.
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2007/06/13.html
Neil Postman comparing Brave New World and 1984 http://www.howhist.com/jfraser/foreword_from_amusing_ourselves_.htm
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.
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
