Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, illustrates a utopian setting that calls for reflection and inquiry. In a future society with an abundance of technology, hypnopaedia, and the pursuit of trivial pleasure, active individual thought is relegated to the sidelines, leading to what I consider a superficial and inhumane concept of reality. Huxley’s use of imagery, descriptive language, and tone allowed me to be captured by the story and characters while also finding a deeper meaning within his words. The mass entertainment and representation of drugs through soma served as tools to pacify and dehumanize society; this is not far from the modern reality we live in and a fair estimate on Huxley’s behalf of what future generations would become. In today’s world, where entertainment through television and social media advances rapidly and shapes public discourse, Huxley’s warning within the pages was clear to me: letting technology surpass depth and critical thought in importance goes against the humanitarian imperative and is a dereliction of (what some would call) human duty. Pursuing a society similar to the vision Huxley created seems dangerous, and somewhat stupid, to me after finishing the novel, which shows the impact of his narrative. In connection with Brave New World, Postman’s essay length novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, follows a similar theme of a society that sacrifices depth of individuality for immediate pleasure and amusement.
Postman, in Amusing Ourselves to Death, argues that television, and by extension, most visual media, shapes public thought and contributes to a decline in society’s ability to engage in meaningful discourse. He procures the idea that, with the shift from a print-based culture to an image-based culture, “[Americans] do not exchange ideas, they exchange images,” (Postman, N. 2010). This was the concept that stuck with me, as I feel I have experienced the transitional period between both realities. As a child, my main source of education was through literature and children’s books, and it was not until I was four or five that I started to become interested in television. Nowadays, it is harder to escape social media, television, and the internet; they surround everyone, everyday. Postman explores the connection between Brave New World and the world he saw years ago, and now more than ever his assertions seem relevant to me. The idea that technological advancements, entertainment, and instant-gratification are the components that society is actively seeking, whether consciously or subconsciously, alter my thinking in regard to media. It encourages me to participate in deeper discourse on the topics that surround my everyday life, and grow to understand the true affects and subtle subjugation of individual thought.