Saturday, August 15, 2009
"Huxleyan Warning"
In Postman’s book, chapter eleven, he states, “For no medium is excessively dangerous if its users understand what its dangers are.” (161) According to this sentence, we do not understand its dangers. After all “this book is about the possibility that Huxley was right, not Orwell.” (xx. Foreword) Huxley thought that what we love, which includes all forms of entertainment, will ruin us. On the other hand, Orwell thought that what we hate will ruin us. I agree with Huxley and Posatman. If we ask questions, television, radio, and other entertainment would not be so dangerous. One day we won’t know why we stopped thinking and why we are laughing just like in Brave New World. Without a doubt, there will also probably be some kind of drug needed for happiness, just like soma. We should listen to the “Huxleyan Warning” (Ch. 11. )
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I agree that people should be warned about what is happening to our society. People should know that if they keep on watching mindless television and using the internet and cell phones all day, our society will eventually become the one in Brave New World. However, I think that it would be difficult to actually make people stop using technology because it has already been in the world long enough that it has made everyone addicted to it.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever feel that after an hour of being on the computer you can start to feel bored or annoyed? What about when you are on the phone and just simply get bored? What I'm getting at is if we become bored with all technology we will push it away. Just like a video game; when you became frusturated you will resent it. The way to have us become less focused on technology is for it to become frusturating to us. Maybe we would push it away if it was harder to operate.
ReplyDeleteMatt, while I think that your suggestion to resent technology is a good idea, I do not find it to be plausible. The makers of video games, computers, and the producers of television shows will not make their products more frustrating to the consumers because then they will not make any money, which is the complete opposite of what they are trying to do. As Thomas said, it will be hard to get our society to all resent technology because it has been there, for a lot of people, their whole lives and as we all know, people do not like change. If we all as a society heed the Huxleyan Warning and realize what technology is doing to us as a whole, then I believe we will begin to see change.
ReplyDeleteThink about it, the "huxlyian Warning" was written by a man born in the 1890's. His visions are, very well, coming true, not as exact, but still materialized. We've got the television and the computer, things we all love, destroying humanity. We can't be alone without being entertained. That fear of dying alone is gone. We'll all still have out ibuddys and internet pen pals. And the huge rise in anti-depressants being perscribed is just a coincedence? There's your soma right next to the glass of water.
ReplyDeleteWhy has the "Orwellian Warning" been thrown out the window? It to is a good and accurate prophecy. Orwell predicted that the things we hate will ruin us is also true about the things that we love will ruin us. It mainly depends on what we are hating and loving. When we love something we should hate, thats a true prophecy by Huxley. When we hate something we are not supposed to love, another prophecy by Orwell. All in all, they are both correct and talking about the same thing.
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