TAMIL
NATION LIBRARY: Unfolding
Consciousness
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*
Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited* indicates
link to
Amazon.com
online bookshop
[see also
Brave New World Online]
"...What
Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that
there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted
to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley
feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity
and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley
feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we
would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial
culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy,
and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World
Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert
to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite
appetite for distractions." In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by
inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting
pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley
feared that what we love will ruin us. Neil Postman in the foreword
of his 1986 book Amusing Ourselves to Death.
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