Author Neil Postman wrote, while discussing disinformation:
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. 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. Orwell feared those who would deprive us information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy.”
Huxley seems to have been more correct. The books are cooked, the data manipulated to nonsense, and daily our lives’ reliance upon those lies increases simply to retain the status quo. We can’t even find two candidates for the presidency who have a whit of difference between them beyond the timing of hardly dissimilar proposals. In the midst of our participation in these conspiracies of opportunity, even imagined ethics become irrelevant.
Celebrate triviality; vote from your armchair. We’ve “worked” hard for it, haven’t we?
Robert Schneider
Vancouver
