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Brave New Oceania

Jan 22, 2010
By .
Books, Humor

This is absolutely brilliant.

The only comment I'd add is that Orwell wasn't writing, primarily, about Britain and America.  He was writing about the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.  Thanks in part to his efforts, Britain and America never became Oceania.  Huxley, on the other hand, was definitely writing about Britain and America.

If you disagree, you must concede that Orwell was a better prophet than Huxley.  Orwell's warnings staved off the Hell that he feared.

We all live in Aldous Huxley's Hell.

Last 5 posts by Patrick

9 Comments
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9 Comments

  1. Doug  •  Jan 22, 2010 @4:23 pm

    Wow.

  2. Little Raven  •  Jan 22, 2010 @4:35 pm

    Right. Time to up Pat's Soma 'script.

    Up for a little Left4Dead?

  3. Ken  •  Jan 22, 2010 @6:35 pm

    Yep. Incredible.

  4. Matt Raft  •  Jan 22, 2010 @6:42 pm

    Awesome find. Here's more on Huxley v. Orwell:

    http://willworkforjustice.blogspot.com/2009/10/wise-words-from-neil-postman.html

  5. Mike  •  Jan 22, 2010 @8:30 pm

    I was kind of jealous by that comic.

    I had this long post in my head that I was going to type about Huxley was right. Then I Googled to see if anyone else had posted similar thoughts. Found a comic. PWNED. (Being PWNED never felt so good!)

    Relatedly, a friend told me in response to my question about Orwell that the phrase we had been looking for is "self-defeating prophecy." Orwell was a prophet whose prophecies never became true because he made the prophecies.

  6. TomH  •  Jan 23, 2010 @11:57 am

    Mike –

    There is room for a post around here. Do you reduce the Huxley by adding Orwell? or vice versa? Is that a good thing? What is the alternative?

  7. Paul Baxter  •  Jan 25, 2010 @7:09 am

    To me the sad part of this is that Orwell's ideas (specifically from 1984) are still a common part of political discourse here in the US even though they have almost no relevance, while Postman is still unknown despite being one of the most perceptive critics we've had in the last fifty years.

  8. Patrick  •  Jan 25, 2010 @8:01 am

    They absolutely have relevance Paul, even in the US. China isn't Eastasia anymore, but it was 30 years ago. The Soviet Union hasn't been dead that long, and Russia is re-Sovietizing. Countries like Belarus, Uzbekistan, North Korea, and to an extent Iran are all Orwellian in government.

    Moreover, Orwell's true genius, which Huxley never touched, was in his description of euphemism and reengineered vocabulary through government and media. "Newspeak" is alive and well and thriving in the United States.

  9. Base of the Pillar  •  Jan 25, 2010 @12:55 pm

    I think Chavez read 1984 while on acid and sees the Orwellian colors by which he manages the country.