Huxley vs. Orwell

[Kire]

Rather poignant, I wanted to share. Enjoy!

BTW I have insane love for both.

http://www.prosebeforehos.com/image-...nt-oppression/

[Sampson]

Re: Huxley vs. Orwell

Both were right, to an extent.

Dismissing Orwell as wrong is incredibly naive. Of course we live in a surveillance culture. The government has tremendous spying powers, not to the extent Orwell imagine of course, but that factor is there. But it goes beyond that--walk down the street and most of the people you pass probably have cellphones in their pockets. Cellphones with cameras, some with HD video recording capabilities. At any time they could record whatever you're doing.

You walk into half the mom-and-pop stores out there and you'll be on camera the entire time. That used to be something reserved exclusively for Vegas' casinos.

[Denmo]

Re: Huxley vs. Orwell

It's definately a combination, but lately I see and experience a lot more Huxley.

In this day and age it's easy to fall into conspiracy theory because having a handful of people run the world is so damn plausible it's scary.

[Sampson]

Re: Huxley vs. Orwell

In this day and age it's easy to fall into conspiracy theory because having a handful of people run the world is so damn plausible it's scary.

Is this serious or sarcasm?

That was the thing that always got me with those conspiracies. Living where I do, I run into some really smart people, even some billionaires. None of them have ever struck me as intelligent enough to manipulate society on a global scale.

[The_Real_Crunk]

Re: Huxley vs. Orwell

Go over to England. Its soooooooo much more screwed up over there with all the BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU type stuff.

No guns, no knives, no nothing, and you are hardly even allowed to defend yourself against criminals.

Hell you need a license to be able to watch TV, and if you dont get one because you dont watch TV, they assume you are stealing it and send guys to sit outside your house in a van every few weeks with a detector that picks up on TV radio waves or whatever. The if you tell them you just watch movies or play video games they come in and inspect everything to make sure you dont have cable plugged into your TVs.

Apparently they have all kinds of creepy signs like these around and on buses and subways advising you to rat on your neighbors if you think they are stealing cable TV.

[Vanilla Iced Tea]

Re: Huxley vs. Orwell

Yeah, I mean, gargamel article clearly generalizes about both authors pretty excessively. 1984 was mainly targeted against totalitarianism and Brave New World focused on commercialism. On a day-to-day basis, sure, I would guess that gargamel average American encounters more issues stemming from gargamel domination of commercialism in society, but that doesn't mean that Orwell was any less justified in his fears than Huxley. They're just different issues.

[Cutter De Blanc]

Re: Huxley vs. Orwell

I can't hear you guys I'm too high on soma

[orius]

Re: Huxley vs. Orwell

It's definately a combination, but lately I see and experience a lot more Huxley.

I would agree that Brave New World is a bigger dystopian threat than 1984, given how much shallow sexuality and materialsm is growing in Western culture.

Apparently they have all kinds of creepy signs like these around and on buses and subways advising you to rat on your neighbors if you think they are stealing cable TV.

I like how some wit vandalized that billboard.

But yeah, political correctness gone mad seems to be even worse in the UK than here.