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RE: Are We Headed Towards 1984 or Will We Just Amuse Ourselves to Death? An Analysis of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Life
Great points. I'm a fan of both authors. I think it is a combination of both processes. I think eventually the masses will stop reading altogether and worse than that people will completely lose the ability to think for themselves. The points about TV brings to mind Philip K Dick's idea of the mood organ - a device that would anaesthetise people to any kind of emotional discomfort. I think in many ways TV and most modern forms of entertainment do something similar by distracting us from reality in a way that we think everything is fine.
I forgot to reply.
But I agree, and I'd point out that it's actually important - or I'd argue - to feel pain sometimes. Both physical and emotional. If we numb our emotional pain all the time, what signals do we have to let us know that things are not as they should be?
There is that very rare disease that causes people to not feel any physical pain at all. On the surface, it sounds like a real life superpower, but the reality is that it's extremely dangerous for kids, since pain is how we learn. When a kid doesn't feel pain, he doesn't learn to avoid doing things that will break his bones.
Yes that is why loss of pain sensation (e.g. in diabetes) can be so dangerous too. It is also why leprosy used to cause disfigurement as it damaged the sensory pain perception.