![\"JP](\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/JP_We_Lie_To_You-300x168.png\")
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And the comments are gold too…<\/p>\n
“We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by\u00a0Orwellian\u00a0nightmares.<\/span> “But we had forgotten that alongside\u00a0Orwell’s dark vision, there was another – slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling:\u00a0Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated,\u00a0Huxley\u00a0and\u00a0Orwell\u00a0did not prophesy the same thing.\u00a0Orwell\u00a0warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in\u00a0Huxley’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.<\/span> “What\u00a0Orwell\u00a0feared were those who would ban books.<\/span><\/p>\n What\u00a0Huxley\u00a0feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.\u00a0Orwell\u00a0feared those who would deprive us of information.\u00a0Huxley\u00a0feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.\u00a0Orwell\u00a0feared that the truth would be concealed from us.\u00a0Huxley\u00a0feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.\u00a0Orwell\u00a0feared we would become a captive culture.\u00a0Huxley\u00a0feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As\u00a0Huxley\u00a0remarked 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,\u00a0Orwell\u00a0added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short,\u00a0Orwell\u00a0feared that what we fear will ruin us.\u00a0Huxley\u00a0feared that what we desire will ruin us.”<\/span> From “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business” by Neil Postman.<\/span> Our society is very mentally ill, and it’s been made that way deliberately. Check out Noam Chomsky’s work for more information about manufactured consent.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And the comments are gold too… “We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by\u00a0Orwellian\u00a0nightmares. “But we had forgotten that … <\/p>\n