I think Bradbury was something of a Libertarian, which is interesting to say the least. Characterized by more rationality but less compassion, individual rights over the greater good. Makes sense considering the themes of his works.
Further evidence that Bradbury was not only one of the best and most prolific scientific science fiction writers of all time but also a prophet can be found in the same work. Bradbury predicted iPods and other such devices with his description of the “shells” that people would wear to distract themselves from life. Wall sized televisions that broadcast meaningless crap that people would talk about instead of discussing real life. People who cared less about their fellow human beings than characters offered by mass entertainment media. The abandonment of humanity and people who are willing to harm and kill strangers for thrills. The view that war is some distant and harmless event that is just another entertainment. All of these were predicted in Fahrenheit 451, written sixty years ago, and all of them have come to pass.
I, for one, am investing in a very well hidden and secure fire safe for my collection of literature.
I think that’s a little pessimistic . People have always been saying that society is decadent . They said it 100, 200 years ago. Plus society isn’t uniform . Another factor is where you live, or how you were raised .
That’s fair, though I also think Bradbury was specifically criticizing middle-class American culture, for a better reference point. And to me, the quote is not so much complaining about decadence as it is an overwhelming cacophony of trivial information in people’s lives. At the time that Bradbury penned the sentiment (1953), television had just become a part of the people’s lives in a big way, and it was obvious how much it grabbed everyone’s attention. Since then, with the advent of the internet and, later, people having portable internet with them all of the time, it’s easy to argue that people are distracted from day-to-day events, even to a detrimental degree.
Whether all of that amounts to sinister means of control and governmental abuse (or just “bread and circus”) is entirely up for debate, but I don’t think the observation is overly pessimistic. At least, no more than your average dystopian novel. 😉
First I typed a huge TL;DR around ten paragraphs, it contained treats like government ineffeciency, US government scandals, comparisons with the usual suspects in foreign governments, filter bubbles, confirmation bias, echo chambers, information awareness throughout history, the US media landscape and the original context of “bread and circuses”. Yeah, it was a real thrilling read, an abomination of text.
Then I started typing a shorter and saner reply about agreeing with Kristopher and how people are just trying to get on with their lives. Political activism takes a lot of effort, and most just want to make it through the day. Trivial information is fine, that’s just being a normal curious human. We are reading about politics every day for crying out loud, there’s really no shortage. In fact, there has never been a greater access to political information. If anything the problem is there’s so much information that people surround themselves with only the part that satisfies their original opinion. (see echo chamber and confirmation bias)
Now I’ve reduced my reply to this:
American politics are getting incredibly polarized at every level. Congress gridlocks and the nation divides itself. Is the main problem really a lack of political interest?
——–
Observe the irony that I reduced ten paragraphs to a couple of lines in the end, given your original message about apathy. It’s probably because of the format. It’s inconvenient for chat-style discussion, and long replies look pretty crazy.
You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn’t that right? Haven’t you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren’t they? Don’t we keep them moving, don’t we give them fun? That’s all we live for, isn’t it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these.”
“Coloured people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator. Funerals are unhappy and pagan? Eliminate them, too. Five minutes after a person is dead he’s on his way to the Big Flue, the Incinerators serviced by helicopters all over the country. Ten minutes after death a man’s a speck of black dust. Let’s not quibble over individuals with memoriams. Forget them. Burn them all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean.”
Dystopian? XD
Dystopian!
Democracy s
uhhh… no
*DING*
Manhattan
Ten letters: Cyberpunk
Dystopian sounds about right…. My silly spell check wants to correct it to Utopian… heh.
Uh-oh, sounds like your spell-checker is working for the thought police.
I think Bradbury was something of a Libertarian, which is interesting to say the least. Characterized by more rationality but less compassion, individual rights over the greater good. Makes sense considering the themes of his works.
Is the ten letter word Nostalgics, because the word is better than it has even been and we still have the power to demand it improve more.
Further evidence that Bradbury was not only one of the best and most prolific scientific science fiction writers of all time but also a prophet can be found in the same work. Bradbury predicted iPods and other such devices with his description of the “shells” that people would wear to distract themselves from life. Wall sized televisions that broadcast meaningless crap that people would talk about instead of discussing real life. People who cared less about their fellow human beings than characters offered by mass entertainment media. The abandonment of humanity and people who are willing to harm and kill strangers for thrills. The view that war is some distant and harmless event that is just another entertainment. All of these were predicted in Fahrenheit 451, written sixty years ago, and all of them have come to pass.
I, for one, am investing in a very well hidden and secure fire safe for my collection of literature.
I think that’s a little pessimistic . People have always been saying that society is decadent . They said it 100, 200 years ago. Plus society isn’t uniform . Another factor is where you live, or how you were raised .
That’s fair, though I also think Bradbury was specifically criticizing middle-class American culture, for a better reference point. And to me, the quote is not so much complaining about decadence as it is an overwhelming cacophony of trivial information in people’s lives. At the time that Bradbury penned the sentiment (1953), television had just become a part of the people’s lives in a big way, and it was obvious how much it grabbed everyone’s attention. Since then, with the advent of the internet and, later, people having portable internet with them all of the time, it’s easy to argue that people are distracted from day-to-day events, even to a detrimental degree.
Whether all of that amounts to sinister means of control and governmental abuse (or just “bread and circus”) is entirely up for debate, but I don’t think the observation is overly pessimistic. At least, no more than your average dystopian novel. 😉
first time I have ever wanted to know how to make photoshop work
First I typed a huge TL;DR around ten paragraphs, it contained treats like government ineffeciency, US government scandals, comparisons with the usual suspects in foreign governments, filter bubbles, confirmation bias, echo chambers, information awareness throughout history, the US media landscape and the original context of “bread and circuses”. Yeah, it was a real thrilling read, an abomination of text.
Then I started typing a shorter and saner reply about agreeing with Kristopher and how people are just trying to get on with their lives. Political activism takes a lot of effort, and most just want to make it through the day. Trivial information is fine, that’s just being a normal curious human. We are reading about politics every day for crying out loud, there’s really no shortage. In fact, there has never been a greater access to political information. If anything the problem is there’s so much information that people surround themselves with only the part that satisfies their original opinion. (see echo chamber and confirmation bias)
Now I’ve reduced my reply to this:
American politics are getting incredibly polarized at every level. Congress gridlocks and the nation divides itself. Is the main problem really a lack of political interest?
——–
Observe the irony that I reduced ten paragraphs to a couple of lines in the end, given your original message about apathy. It’s probably because of the format. It’s inconvenient for chat-style discussion, and long replies look pretty crazy.
I really enjoy your strip. Thank you!
Жечь было наслаждением…
Along the lines of commentary on television..The Pedestrian in Golden Apples of the Sun hits on this. I highly recommend it .
RealityTV
You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn’t that right? Haven’t you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren’t they? Don’t we keep them moving, don’t we give them fun? That’s all we live for, isn’t it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these.”
“Coloured people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator. Funerals are unhappy and pagan? Eliminate them, too. Five minutes after a person is dead he’s on his way to the Big Flue, the Incinerators serviced by helicopters all over the country. Ten minutes after death a man’s a speck of black dust. Let’s not quibble over individuals with memoriams. Forget them. Burn them all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean.”
The 9-letter word is existence.