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While there are valid reasons to fear both the "Orwell dystopia" and the "Huxley dystopia", the former tends to send more of a chill down my spine. I think thi

by epe 17y ago

While there are valid reasons to fear both the "Orwell dystopia" and the "Huxley dystopia", the former tends to send more of a chill down my spine. I think this is because it seems much more possible, on a personal level, to resist or opt out of the Huxley dystopia than the Orwell one. Postman may have a compelling point that much of it has happened already, but it has happened through individual choices that I don't have to share -- the books are still there to be read, the tools & techniques are there to filter the information overload & focus on the good stuff. Admittedly this is not easy, but in the Orwell dystopia it's not even a possibility. disclaimer: I haven't read the book and am responding to the (likely oversimplified) line of argument presented in the comic.

wheels 17y ago
Article is dead, so just commenting on your post: Huxley's dystopia is set up to be more subtle and in fact, not one that you would choose to opt out of; that's the crux of it. He compares to Orwell's writing both in his retrospective, Brave New World Revisited and in his talk titled The Ultimate Revolution (great listen, by the way). Here's a bit from there: "The state of servitude the state of being, having their differences ironed out, and being made amenable to mass production methods on the social level, if you can do this, then you have, you are likely, to have a much more stable and lasting society. Much more easily controllable society than you would if you were relying wholly on clubs and firing squads and concentration camps. So that my own feeling is that the 1984 picture was tinged of course by the immediate past and present in which Orwell was living, but the past and present of those years does not reflect, I feel, the likely trend of what is going to happen [...]" http://100777.com/node/812 http://100777.com/node/812

by epe 17y ago

wheels 17y ago

Article is dead, so just commenting on your post: Huxley's dystopia is set up to be more subtle and in fact, not one that you would choose to opt out of; that's the crux of it. He compares to Orwell's writing both in his retrospective, Brave New World Revisited and in his talk titled The Ultimate Revolution (great listen, by the way). Here's a bit from there: "The state of servitude the state of being, having their differences ironed out, and being made amenable to mass production methods on the social level, if you can do this, then you have, you are likely, to have a much more stable and lasting society. Much more easily controllable society than you would if you were relying wholly on clubs and firing squads and concentration camps. So that my own feeling is that the 1984 picture was tinged of course by the immediate past and present in which Orwell was living, but the past and present of those years does not reflect, I feel, the likely trend of what is going to happen [...]" http://100777.com/node/812 http://100777.com/node/812