And the “Shortest Thread Ever” award goes to Admin.
Administrator
Author
July 30, 2014 10:11 am
WTF
Where did the post go?
Administrator
Author
July 30, 2014 10:22 am
Fixed.
Stucky
July 30, 2014 10:26 am
Orwell and Huxley were too optimistic.
Iska Waran
July 30, 2014 10:35 am
Huxley was also a better writer.
bb
July 30, 2014 12:05 pm
I don’t know and I don’t care .
howard in nyc
July 30, 2014 12:28 pm
In middle school and high school, I read every sports book in the libraries. I had no use for anything not sports and science. An English teacher in 11th grade changed that, not by inspiring me but by forcing me to read literature. I don’t remember the details, but while other kids read 1984 I stumbled onto Brave New World, which blew me away (no doubt because of the science–pharmacology and genetic engineering.) I love Orwell–by senior year I had read Animal Farm which laid bare the lies of socialism/collectivism my young mind was beginning to flirt with, and during the dubya administration Orwell’s essays provided the framework for me to not lose my damn mind. I’ve read most of what Orwell has written.
But Huxley was ‘my first’ in many ways. And currently the most applicable. But we have elements of both authors’ genius her and now IRL. The mix changes with the circumstance, whether we are domestic Imperial citizens or one of the masses abroad subject to our wars and our predatory economic system. Certainly though, for the relative few of us not yet overcome by Soma holidays, touch-screen distractions and fulfillment via consumerism, I am sadly confident the Orwell vision is just around the corner:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”
TeresaE
July 30, 2014 1:19 pm
Instead of either or, we get a worse combination of both.
They beat us, shoot us and our dogs, enter our homes, vehicles and asses, with nothing more than “suspicion,” lock us away for decades for committing “crimes” that hurt no one, while providing little true justice for the actual victims, and all the while they baffle us with 30 second bullshit, shiny Asian produced crap, and entertain us until our minds are little more than mush and our asses the size of Texas. All the better to search them, I guess.
And, just as both predicted, common man won’t do shit to stop this. If they are even aware enough to want to.
In the words of KV, “So it goes…”
pietropaulo
July 30, 2014 2:15 pm
There seems to be a battle going on between the Huxley vision and the Orwellian vision. Both elements are playing out. Who will win? Might it be a draw?
spinolator
July 30, 2014 5:35 pm
Ha ha those guys Huxley and Orwell were some paranoid idiots. Such fiction, nothing to do with real…wait a minute……Fuck!!!
llpoh
July 30, 2014 9:07 pm
I think they were both right.
Joseph E Fasciani
July 30, 2014 11:08 pm
Dear pietropaulo:
It is already a draw –of sorts– NOW, and the situation is unlikely to change for the better until it gets a LOT worse.
In André Gide’s retelling of the Theseus legend, someone asks Theseus that his fame as ruler of his people is widely known, but not as to HOW he got them to be so docile. His answer is easy to remember, but chilling to recall: “I made them love the chains that bind them.”
And that’s where most North Americans are, at least in Kanada and the USSA, which is what we really are about here. In both nations the fact is that the deep money interests have been in control of finance and politics for more than a century. Which is why we MUST remember Hitler’s wonderful aphorism: “History is only as old as the grandparents.”
Now that’s pretty Orwellian, but Huxley was just as definitive in his objections, except his were based on pharmaceutically induced mind-washing, that sheeple may safely doze on their way to the abattoir.
At 71, I miss my firearms, yet still hope to have enough for defense against varmits in future, if & when I ever get back to the bush, my home & best friend for 20 years. My favourite poet is Robinson Jeffers, and like him I despair for what I see, so take the good Scotch whiskey for my times of need.
“Hat tip Jack M” ——— Admin
And the “Shortest Thread Ever” award goes to Admin.
WTF
Where did the post go?
Fixed.
Orwell and Huxley were too optimistic.
Huxley was also a better writer.
I don’t know and I don’t care .
In middle school and high school, I read every sports book in the libraries. I had no use for anything not sports and science. An English teacher in 11th grade changed that, not by inspiring me but by forcing me to read literature. I don’t remember the details, but while other kids read 1984 I stumbled onto Brave New World, which blew me away (no doubt because of the science–pharmacology and genetic engineering.) I love Orwell–by senior year I had read Animal Farm which laid bare the lies of socialism/collectivism my young mind was beginning to flirt with, and during the dubya administration Orwell’s essays provided the framework for me to not lose my damn mind. I’ve read most of what Orwell has written.
But Huxley was ‘my first’ in many ways. And currently the most applicable. But we have elements of both authors’ genius her and now IRL. The mix changes with the circumstance, whether we are domestic Imperial citizens or one of the masses abroad subject to our wars and our predatory economic system. Certainly though, for the relative few of us not yet overcome by Soma holidays, touch-screen distractions and fulfillment via consumerism, I am sadly confident the Orwell vision is just around the corner:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”
Instead of either or, we get a worse combination of both.
They beat us, shoot us and our dogs, enter our homes, vehicles and asses, with nothing more than “suspicion,” lock us away for decades for committing “crimes” that hurt no one, while providing little true justice for the actual victims, and all the while they baffle us with 30 second bullshit, shiny Asian produced crap, and entertain us until our minds are little more than mush and our asses the size of Texas. All the better to search them, I guess.
And, just as both predicted, common man won’t do shit to stop this. If they are even aware enough to want to.
In the words of KV, “So it goes…”
There seems to be a battle going on between the Huxley vision and the Orwellian vision. Both elements are playing out. Who will win? Might it be a draw?
Ha ha those guys Huxley and Orwell were some paranoid idiots. Such fiction, nothing to do with real…wait a minute……Fuck!!!
I think they were both right.
Dear pietropaulo:
It is already a draw –of sorts– NOW, and the situation is unlikely to change for the better until it gets a LOT worse.
In André Gide’s retelling of the Theseus legend, someone asks Theseus that his fame as ruler of his people is widely known, but not as to HOW he got them to be so docile. His answer is easy to remember, but chilling to recall: “I made them love the chains that bind them.”
And that’s where most North Americans are, at least in Kanada and the USSA, which is what we really are about here. In both nations the fact is that the deep money interests have been in control of finance and politics for more than a century. Which is why we MUST remember Hitler’s wonderful aphorism: “History is only as old as the grandparents.”
Now that’s pretty Orwellian, but Huxley was just as definitive in his objections, except his were based on pharmaceutically induced mind-washing, that sheeple may safely doze on their way to the abattoir.
At 71, I miss my firearms, yet still hope to have enough for defense against varmits in future, if & when I ever get back to the bush, my home & best friend for 20 years. My favourite poet is Robinson Jeffers, and like him I despair for what I see, so take the good Scotch whiskey for my times of need.
Good luck, and good night, one and all!