Do you know your google ad reads “Discount Dystopian Wars…plus free shipping”?
Sorry, I can’t bring myself to click on it.
What a fookin nightmare.
Persnickety
May 4, 2011 3:57 pm
Huxley = right for the 90% sheeple
Orwell = right about how Big Brother would control the other 10%
Great graphic though.
Surly1
May 4, 2011 4:15 pm
Huxley in a knockout.
Will be very interesting to see what happens when we can no longer afford to fund the “pleasure dispensers,” though.
Not a great deal of contradiction between an intentional Orwellian conspiracy using Huxley’s techniques. It would be hard to argue the impact that TV has had on our lives, particularly our inability to process information, to ask critical questions, to hold anyone to account.
TV is all about packaging. The quality of information is much subordinate to the all-encompassing needs of entertainment, so the form is all. Politics, issues and religion are diluted, and “news” exists only as another commodity. And the form exists so that spots can be sold. Which is the only point, and to which everything else is subordinate.
Another thought in the Postman book is that a particular medium can only sustain a particular level of ideas. So the 18th century the pinnacle for rational thought and expression. Only in the printed word, he states, is able to convey complicated truths and arguments. The passivity engendered by the tube simply gets in the way of understanding, and certainly in the way or direct action.
Soma. I gotcher soma, right here…
Kill Bill
May 4, 2011 7:14 pm
People volunatarily give big brother information by that what amuses us and tracks us from cell phones to computers to video games.
Both were right IMO.
howard in nyc
May 4, 2011 8:26 pm
this is a great topic to consider. both in parts. huxley the current winner in getting more things right, but we are moving from a voluntary self-regulating mass of ignorant sheep toward a more mandatory, authoritarian control state. moving from huxley toward orwell, to oversimplify. as americans become poorer and learn what real economic deprivation is (as the social safety nets of ss, medicarel medicaid and food stamps provide less and less), more orwellian methods will be necessary.
brann
May 4, 2011 11:04 pm
what about bf skinners WALDEN TWO?
AKAnon
May 4, 2011 11:20 pm
Howard is correct. TPTB are in the process of placing the infrastructure to make the switch. Too many examples to cover even a fraction, but my personal favorite (sarcasm) is the ongoing move towards replacing the gasoline tax with a VMT (vehicle miles travelled) tax. Which requires some mechanism of monitoring your vehicle’s whereabouts. I read this shit regularly in TRB publications-they recognise that “initially”, gps tracking may be socio-politically unpopular, so they suggest “starting” with cellular/texting technology before transitioning to GPS tracking. Either way, a device hard-wired into your vehicle’s OBD system will real-time relay your approximate or precise (depending on system) whereabouts. No potential problem there.
They also ensure security to keep the data private, to be used only for motoring taxes. Yeah right, I’ve heard that before. The VA “lost” my private military record, the University of AK “lost” my private college records, and the State of AK may have lost my private records. So far, every gov’t agency I have dealt with entrusted to keep my data secure has “lost” it.
bigargon
May 5, 2011 5:40 am
it really comes down to cash.
the “Huxley Lifestyle” is very expensive, pretty soon it will be unaffordable by most nation states, then we will see the rise of the “Orwell Lifestyle”.
Persnickety
May 5, 2011 9:50 am
It’s true that the Orwell approach can be somewhat cheaper, but it is also expensive. If the energy situation gets dire as many forecast, it too will be going out the window. Hopefully from 90 stories up.
thoughtcrime
May 5, 2011 10:07 am
When will they roll out the orgasmatron, featured in the Woody Allen movie “Sleeper”?
TeresaE
May 5, 2011 10:31 am
Amazing how right they both are.
Amazing how the quote from Ayn Rand earlier, rang so true (government trying to fix problems government fixing created, continue until there is nothing productive left).
Frightening how the damn google ad is now touting a topic that I just read on another tab. Interspersed with ads or kitchen fixtures which I searched and bought three months ago.
Big Brother is already here, and Huxley’s sheep think I meant the reality tv show.
Surly1
May 5, 2011 5:42 pm
“Civil disobedience, that’s not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.” Howard Zinn
Welshman
May 5, 2011 7:57 pm
You are all suspicaz, move along, help is on the way, and the gov’t. is here to help you.
Opinionated Bloviator
May 6, 2011 10:14 am
We need a new paradigm for the type of government we are facing. I nominate McFascism as the revolution will be served with coke.
OH shit – they were both right.
Grest post.
Do you know your google ad reads “Discount Dystopian Wars…plus free shipping”?
Sorry, I can’t bring myself to click on it.
What a fookin nightmare.
Huxley = right for the 90% sheeple
Orwell = right about how Big Brother would control the other 10%
Great graphic though.
Huxley in a knockout.
Will be very interesting to see what happens when we can no longer afford to fund the “pleasure dispensers,” though.
Not a great deal of contradiction between an intentional Orwellian conspiracy using Huxley’s techniques. It would be hard to argue the impact that TV has had on our lives, particularly our inability to process information, to ask critical questions, to hold anyone to account.
TV is all about packaging. The quality of information is much subordinate to the all-encompassing needs of entertainment, so the form is all. Politics, issues and religion are diluted, and “news” exists only as another commodity. And the form exists so that spots can be sold. Which is the only point, and to which everything else is subordinate.
Another thought in the Postman book is that a particular medium can only sustain a particular level of ideas. So the 18th century the pinnacle for rational thought and expression. Only in the printed word, he states, is able to convey complicated truths and arguments. The passivity engendered by the tube simply gets in the way of understanding, and certainly in the way or direct action.
Soma. I gotcher soma, right here…
People volunatarily give big brother information by that what amuses us and tracks us from cell phones to computers to video games.
Both were right IMO.
this is a great topic to consider. both in parts. huxley the current winner in getting more things right, but we are moving from a voluntary self-regulating mass of ignorant sheep toward a more mandatory, authoritarian control state. moving from huxley toward orwell, to oversimplify. as americans become poorer and learn what real economic deprivation is (as the social safety nets of ss, medicarel medicaid and food stamps provide less and less), more orwellian methods will be necessary.
what about bf skinners WALDEN TWO?
Howard is correct. TPTB are in the process of placing the infrastructure to make the switch. Too many examples to cover even a fraction, but my personal favorite (sarcasm) is the ongoing move towards replacing the gasoline tax with a VMT (vehicle miles travelled) tax. Which requires some mechanism of monitoring your vehicle’s whereabouts. I read this shit regularly in TRB publications-they recognise that “initially”, gps tracking may be socio-politically unpopular, so they suggest “starting” with cellular/texting technology before transitioning to GPS tracking. Either way, a device hard-wired into your vehicle’s OBD system will real-time relay your approximate or precise (depending on system) whereabouts. No potential problem there.
They also ensure security to keep the data private, to be used only for motoring taxes. Yeah right, I’ve heard that before. The VA “lost” my private military record, the University of AK “lost” my private college records, and the State of AK may have lost my private records. So far, every gov’t agency I have dealt with entrusted to keep my data secure has “lost” it.
it really comes down to cash.
the “Huxley Lifestyle” is very expensive, pretty soon it will be unaffordable by most nation states, then we will see the rise of the “Orwell Lifestyle”.
It’s true that the Orwell approach can be somewhat cheaper, but it is also expensive. If the energy situation gets dire as many forecast, it too will be going out the window. Hopefully from 90 stories up.
When will they roll out the orgasmatron, featured in the Woody Allen movie “Sleeper”?
Amazing how right they both are.
Amazing how the quote from Ayn Rand earlier, rang so true (government trying to fix problems government fixing created, continue until there is nothing productive left).
Frightening how the damn google ad is now touting a topic that I just read on another tab. Interspersed with ads or kitchen fixtures which I searched and bought three months ago.
Big Brother is already here, and Huxley’s sheep think I meant the reality tv show.
“Civil disobedience, that’s not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.” Howard Zinn
You are all suspicaz, move along, help is on the way, and the gov’t. is here to help you.
We need a new paradigm for the type of government we are facing. I nominate McFascism as the revolution will be served with coke.