[jchimney]

very impressive how prescient george orwell was; impressive but of little consolation. I'm a big fan of technology; but i hope that technology wasn't the missing something that previous governments lacked to be able to enforce their authoritarianism.

[scoofy]

This is Huxley's future not Orwell's. It's not that "the people" can't change society, they just don't want to think about it and would rather watch television, whether that be sports, sitcoms, or infotainment.

[icebraining]

That was true of Orwell's future as well - the Proles, which composed 80%+ of the population, weren't spied upon at nearly the same level as the Party members, they were just too poorly educated and content with the status quo as long as they were fed meaningless entertainment created by Party machines.

[rbanffy]

Huxley does not exclude Orwell. What we have is a Huxley layer over an Orwell core. People don't care enough to change, but, when they do, governments know and can act swiftly and forcefully.

[betterunix]

We have neither Huxley's world nor Orwell's. In Huxley's version we would exile free thinkers; the US government never exiles people (with so much invested in the prison industry, how could we?). In Orwell's version, free thinkers would be tortured until they either die or learn to love the system. The US government just marginalizes free thinkers, allowing them to continue to live and work in our society (with the exception of whistleblowers) but ensuring that they never find themselves in a position to change anything.

The common theme in dystopia is that free thinkers are ignored by the rest of society, which is either apathetic or too brainwashed. We are certainly at that point, but neither Brave New World nor 1984 accurately describe what America is becoming.

[tiglionabbit]

Never exiles people? What about Snowden?

[betterunix]

He has not been exiled by the US government, he is in a self-imposed exile. In fact the US government has been doing everything in their power to get him back to this country, so that he can be thrown in prison as punishment for being a whistleblower.