Huxley v Orwell

[Liar]

Where are we heading? To 1984 or to a Brave New World?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

America is gonna fracture into 3 nations. The Red States include the Old Confederacy and the cattle/wheat states. The Blue States include New England and the Left Coast. The other wuill include the Mid-Atlantic and Mid-West States. Every state north of the Missouri/Ohio Rivers and east of the Dakotas.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

Huxley, then Orwell, then finally William Golding.

 

[Verdad]

Where are we heading? To 1984 or to a Brave New World?

Brilliant! Thanks for posting. I wonder, has anyone read the book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death"? I actually have it somewhere around but haven't read yet. I wonder if it's obsolete, harping on about TV, or still has relevance.

 

[rgraham666]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You'll likely do both in the next hour. Thats your life.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Where are we heading? To 1984 or to a Brave New World?

What makes anyone think that either scenario is probable?

 

[Huckleman2000]

What makes anyone think that either scenario is probable?

I'm personally living the Brave New World, at about the level of a Delta-minus. I've got my anti-depressant drugs, my weed, my Internet and HDTV. Need to find a menial job, though. And a suitably pneumatic female or three.

 

[Pure]

A fine book: Prozac Nation

Prozac Nation describes the rampant non-medicinal use--by the ton-- of Prozac and its cousins (other ssri's, Paxil, Zoloft, etc.). its effects, as many people say, are a kind of happiness or 'good mood' AND the absence of sexual desire.
this is much like "SOMA" in Huxley's Brave New World.

Another point worth making is that a nation addicted to distractions and pleasures may well be democratic, or at least appear to be. People vote for the representatives that see to the delivery of these items.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Prozac Nation describes the rampant non-medicinal use--by the ton-- of Prozac and its cousins (other ssri's, Paxil, Zoloft, etc.). its effects, as many people say, are a kind of happiness or 'good mood' AND the absence of sexual desire.
this is much like "SOMA" in Huxley's Brave New World.[...]

I would say that Prozac, et al, produce no mood rather than a good or bad one. But anorgasmia is definitely a common side-effect.

 

[romeothethird]

I'd say they've both come to pass. While Brave New World is more obvious, we can easily see 1984 in the public information. The use of doublespeak by the government, the abrupt and amnesiac changes of alliance in the international scene, with new enemies replacing the old ones almost overnight. The media cooperates, quoting lying politicians as if they were speaking the truth, and nobody seems to remember or know how to find the past - as though it's all been erased. The books may be there, but because everybody's in Brave New World's pleasure mode, they never look; it might as well be gone.

 

[Pure]

good point romeo,

the feature of shifting alliances is particularly interesting. China has been the good guy during the Clinton and the Bush years (the Walmart years, Hillary being on the Board), though the recession and banking crisis have caused some lessening of enthusiasm for them.

"Red China" was a bogey man of the Korean War and McCarthy period.

The arrest of US citizens and holding without charges or trial also bespeaks 1984, as does 'rendition' of suspects to other countries.
Certain people just "disappear."

 

[romeothethird]

Even more recently, Saddam Hussein was our ally when he fought a war against Iran... the Taliban were our boys against the Soviets... the drug cartels got exchanged for Al Qaeda... Kaddafi is our old friend now... etc

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'd say they've both come to pass. While Brave New World is more obvious, we can easily see 1984 in the public information. The use of doublespeak by the government, the abrupt and amnesiac changes of alliance in the international scene, with new enemies replacing the old ones almost overnight. The media cooperates, quoting lying politicians as if they were speaking the truth, and nobody seems to remember or know how to find the past - as though it's all been erased. The books may be there, but because everybody's in Brave New World's pleasure mode, they never look; it might as well be gone.

Within a generation you'll be wearing a GPS transponder so we can keep track of you. My state is already poised to make certain state employees wear them.