Amusing Ourselves to Death

In the article “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman, he describes an interesting comparison between two dystopian novels, 1984 by George Orwell and A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I happen to have read both in high school so that’s why I find Postmans article interesting. His main argument is that while people are actively fighting against a world of mass surveillance and government control through “correction” i.e. torture and other such means that was prevalent in 1984, they are oblivious to the more relevant world of Huxleys vision. Huxley warned of a culture controlled by pleasure instead of pain, a culture that was too distracted by drugs and entertainment that they are too apathetic to care or even notice that they were being controlled. As Postman states, “Orwell feared the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.” While both are valid fears that have the same final result, the means of which they are achieved are completely different. People are actively fighting the concealment of information, we see it everyday, and it’s a very difficult process unless they are ruled by an extremely controlling dictator like Kim Jong Un. A much more subtle way to achieve this would be like a magician; a simple slight of hand and a distraction and you can have your audience completely oblivious to what you’re doing. You see politicians do this a lot in America, they’ll wait to try and pass a controversial bill while everyone is distracted by some major pop culture event. I don’t mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist, I just believe we should be more careful and keep a closer eye on these things.