It’s ironic that, when faced with the uncomfortable reality that the world I live in currently is so similar to a technology driven world predicted 90 years ago, my immediate reaction was to find something more interesting. That’s the challenge that so many people experience, because why would anyone want to consider how flawed their world is? It’s much easier to choose inaction and ignore the problem, especially if, for example, facing the problem leads to you being more socially isolated.
In Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley (1932), this is the problem one of the protagonists, Bernard, faces. Community is heavily emphasized Bernard’s world, and having an individual identity is synonymous with isolation. At one point, Bernard asks his co-worker Lenina: “But wouldn’t you like to be free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? In your own way, for example; not in everyone else’s way” (p. 79). This quotation struck me, as it made me consider how different the definition of freedom could be. Lenina considers herself free because she can choose, but due to conditioning and the way their society is constructed, people in this brave new world are given only a limited number of options . This gives them the comfort of knowing that they made these choices, without the realisation that there are other options. Another way to describe this is by using a chocolate box. If you were brought up from birth knowing you could pick any chocolate from a chocolate box, you would have the satisfaction of knowing you are free to pick whichever chocolate you want. However, you would never know about the options outside of that specific chocolate box, and, to take this metaphor even further, never experience the happiness someone can feel when eating something like a cake or pizza. There will always be restrictions on what choice one can make –sadly, I can’t choose to fly—, but intentionally limiting someone’s choices without their knowledge does not mean freedom, as it will control how we act based off that knowledge. When citizens in the World State witness John whipping himself, they find it amusing and actively seek it out and use it as entertainment. They are unable to grasp the meaning behind why John is whipping himself, and instead use it as a quick moment of excitement before returning to their dull, but completely happy, lives.
A similar sentiment is expressed by Neil Postman’s writing about technology’s role in society in Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985). Just like soma and the feelies in Brave New World, Postman argued that we use social media and other forms of entertainment as an escape from our lives. However, the danger is not in the entertainment aspect, it’s dangerous because we like to use it as a substitute for things such as education,religion and human connection or emotion. Just like in a Brave New World, we are pacified by thinking we have a choice in what information we receive on television or social media. It is true that we can change the channel, but there will never be anything of value. We are comforted by disinformation. As Huxley states in Chapter 6 – The Age of Show Business: “The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining” (p. 87). Simply put, television –and other forms of media— lack the nuances to be able to communicate relevant and important topics. We abbreviate subjects until they lose all their meaning and value. Huxley explains this problem by describing television as a smoke signal, as you can only communicate basic information. You won’t be able to have a coherent debate with your neighbour. As the television anchor Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out in his talk about how “the government will not be televised,” all important meetings when the president makes important decisions are never shown on television. In his words, “the presidency is a performance.” Governing a country now comes with the extra job of entertaining people to win their votes. We focus on the excitement of action without considering the meaning behind it. We are the citizens of the World State who only focused on the whipping, instead of what it symbolized.