Comparison Of Orwelll And Huxley
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In 1984, George Orwell wrote, “with the development of television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end.” Orwells novel was not a doomsday prophecy so much as a chilling metaphor of externally imposed oppression by the state. Orwells prophesy spoke of a totalitarian government. The people would be deprived of everything private, even their thoughts. “Big Brother” saw everything and controlled every aspect of daily life. This prediction placed emphasis on an “external” factor, which would alter freedom of thought and speech, a cherished part of our democratic society.
Huxleys Brave New World, written a few years before Orwells book, entertained a similar prospect of the future – but with one fundamental difference: in Huxleys vision, people would be come oppressed by their “internal” love of distraction. Huxley saw the Western society becoming preoccupied with television and caring less about reading and original thought. Huxley implied that advancing technologies would hinder or stop the production of print media. As Neil Postman states, “what Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
The significant difference between the two philosophies is the way in which they have played out in modern society. Orwells view was skewed by his travels and ideas from Central and Eastern Europe. His prophesy came true in some communist governments, which controlled many aspects of peoples lives. The Soviet Union and China were strong supporters of government censorship of all media. They often concealed the truth from the masses of people, which ultimately controlled their thought pattern. Huxleys prophecy is playing out in many Western democratic societies. People are