This week I finished reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and started reading Amusing Our Selves to Death by Neil Postman. Brave New World is popular dystopian fiction novel often compared to Orwell’s 1984. Amusing Our Selves to Death compares the dystopian future described in Brave New World to today’s society.
In the world described by Orwell, the population is controlled by pain. In the world described by Huxley, the world is controlled by pleasure. While it is obvious why pain and excessive government control are a negative thing, it is less obvious why excessive pleasure would also be. In a world where everything is pure pleasure all the time, no one is motivated to do anything. Everyone is satisfied to bathe in pleasure. In Brave New World this leads to a similar society as in 1984 where no one thinks for themselves and the government controls all.
In 1985, just as the year 1984 passed, Postman made the argument that we are in not living in Orwell’s vision of the future but rather Huxley’s. With the advent of the television at the time, Postman’s concern is that people will be overwhelmed with information and specifically information that is fragmented. We will loose sight of what is meaningful but won’t care as long as we are entertained. In essence we will “amuse our selves to death”.
What is startlingly is how accurate this predication was, even before smart phones and social media. Today, people are bombarded with even more information (estimated 174 newspapers per day on average) in an even more fragmented manner. There is no way a 10 second TikTok can tell a story in a meaningful way; but it’s entertaining. Often people spend any spare minute scrolling in order to receive hits of pleasure.
These books have made me look more closely at the way I use technology for entertainment and pleasure. Do I need to listen to a podcast on my 10 minute walk or can I spend the time in silence? Will scrolling youtube while I eat make me happier, or can I just enjoy my meal? I think it is interesting to think about the multitude of ways we are able to receive pleasure today compared to the ways available throughout history. A First Nations, or a hunter-gather in Africa would not be exposed to nearly the same amount of pleasure that we are today. This poses the question: How much pleasure were our brains made to handle?
– Mitch