[1cvmask]

The money quote from the article:

“…the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience.”

– Aldous Huxley, from a 1949 letter to George Orwell.

[imglorp]

It turns out they were both approximately right about dystopia.

[mbg721]

They both missed (but the film Brazil caught) that the dystopia will be run by a bureaucracy of bumbling idiots.

[tomkat0789]

I think that's another dimension of the control. It'd be controversial to make a law saying "we're restricting how you repair your air condition", but if you instead said, "for your safety, you need to have a signed and stamped form B-6 to repair your air condition" you can achieve the same effect by creating layers of bumbling bureaucracy. Everybody is hostage to insane rules that obfuscate your control.

[hanklazard]

Anytime I am forced to navigate a maze of bureaucracy and/or paperwork, my mind goes to this movie. It seems more relevant with every passing day.

[namkarno]

What humans need is an A.I. assistance specifically designed to convert bureaucracy into human speak as well as take human speak and implement/talk-to the bureaucratic process to get things done.

i.e. if you need to do some menial paperwork (i.e. file with city that you are changing plumping, the a.i. handles it for you).

Basically an interface that is human friendly and can keep governments informed/processed/licensed as needed.

[melony]

Try some of Kafka's work.

[dotancohen]

We are in a world of Orwell's surveillance devices, lovingly toted by the proles as Huxley suggested.

[0des]

It seems a lot of literary dystopias have merged and manifested into our current reality. At this point I'm just waiting for someone harpoon at my car as I approach an onramp.

[f00zz]

I look forward to applying for citizenship in Mr Lee's Greater Hong Kong

[WriterGuy2021]

Despite all the insightful intellectual back and forth on this thread, this is my favorite comment.

[rjbwork]

Right over my head. Is this just a snarky Moby Dick joke?

[sewer_bird]

It’s a reference to “Snow Crash” by Neil Stephenson

[0des]

My pleasure

[davidgf]

Here's another interesting excerpt, from Neil Postman's "Amusing ourselves to death":

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. This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.

The book was released on 1985, and its main premise is that the mass-media has a damaging effect in our capacities to understand and elaborate rational arguments. In his opinion, TV was their age soma. I wonder what he would think today...

[jl2718]

Soma is still drugs. The collective prevalence of alcohol, marijuana, and psychiatric medication is nearly 100%, and probably 10x higher in dose than when the novel was written.