We've got the great firewall of Australia & China, and the camera on every street-corner in England, and coming soon to Chicago, New York, and more.
And we've also got American Idol.
We've also got the propaganda war of Iraq, the jackboots on the neck of countless vilified populations worldwide, the haves and the have-nots.
I'm not quite so sure it's wise to linger on pop culture while military power still murders many every day, keeps untold others in the dark, and the all-seeing panopticon is part of the effect of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, and others.
Focusing on pop-phenomena and wringing hands over the trite uselessness of pop culture can be just another way to be self-righteous and better than thou. In a perfect world perhaps all we'd worry about is social networks and gossip. But we can't because Orwell's world is real and true, and power continues to absolutely corrupt.
I could go on and on. The treatise is interesting and thought provoking, but weak.
They are both combined to large extent in the later dystopian novel "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. The authorities have outlawed books, so the only source of information and entertainment is the internet, which they control.
I always wondered how those to dystopia came about, I think we can all see it know. It came about because the majority wanted it, step by step, they wanted safety, entertainment, and not to have to think. Just glad I am born know, when intelligence is not despised so much (not saying that I am intelligent!).
We've got the great firewall of Australia & China, and the camera on every street-corner in England, and coming soon to Chicago, New York, and more.
And we've also got American Idol.
We've also got the propaganda war of Iraq, the jackboots on the neck of countless vilified populations worldwide, the haves and the have-nots.
I'm not quite so sure it's wise to linger on pop culture while military power still murders many every day, keeps untold others in the dark, and the all-seeing panopticon is part of the effect of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, and others.
Focusing on pop-phenomena and wringing hands over the trite uselessness of pop culture can be just another way to be self-righteous and better than thou. In a perfect world perhaps all we'd worry about is social networks and gossip. But we can't because Orwell's world is real and true, and power continues to absolutely corrupt.
I could go on and on. The treatise is interesting and thought provoking, but weak.