In the last chapter of Amusing Ourselves To Death, Postman recognizes two theorists ideas of how the spirit of culture will come to be blighted by the way we live in future times. "[T]he Orwellian culture becomes a prison"(Postman,155) in which "society has a policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth"(Wikipedia, "Orwellian"), and clearing the existence of a person from the public record and memory. "[T]he Huxleyan culture becomes a burlesque"(155) where this world displays the technological advances such as, psychological conditioning techniques like hypnopaedia, which teaches a person how to behave, and artificial fertilization that we are close to achieving today. The citizens in both theories do not think for themselves, but serve to a higher voice in their communities. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley have both warned us and feared for this. Postman relates the media as the beginning of society's atrophy, in which technology has grown immensely and continues to do so.
"What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one who's countenance excludes suspicion and hate", as stated by Postman. Meaning that our atrophy will come from technology that give off an innocent, welcoming appearence, rather than one with an incendiary pretense.
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I was wondering if you could give some sort of clarification on what you are saying here.
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