quoted 6 lines I would have to disagree on this. 1984 is almost exact exaggeration of
> I would have to disagree on this. 1984 is almost exact exaggeration of
> representation the United States today...It's eerie at times.
> I'll go into it a little later, if you want, right now I am too tierd I
> haven't slept in 2 days.
>
> zach
Self-government is in inverse ratio to numbers. The larger the constituency,
the less the value of any particular vote. When he is merely one of
millions, the individual elector feels himself to be impotent, a negligible
quantity. The candidates he has voted into office are far away, at the top
of the pyramid of power. Theoretically they are the servants of the people;
but in fact it is the servants who give orders and the people, far off at
the base of the great pyramid, who must obey. Increasing population and
advanced technology have resulted in an increase in the number and
complexity of organizations, an increase in the amount of power concentrated
in the hands of officials and a corresponding decrease in the amount of
control exercised by electors, coupled with a decrease in the public's
regard for democratic procedures. Already weakened by the vast impersonal
forces at work in the modern world, democratic institutions are now being
undermined from within by the politicians and their propagandists.
Human beings act in a variety of irrational ways, but all of them seem to be
capable, if given a fair chance, of making a reasonable choice in the light
of available evidence. Democratic institutions can be made to work only if
all concerned do their best to impart knowledge and to encourage
rationality. But today, in the world's most powerful democracy, the
politicians and their propagandists prefer to make nonsense of democratic
procedures by appealing almost exclusively to the ignorance and
irrationality of the electors. "Both parties," we were told in 1956 by the
editor of a leading business journal, "will merchandize their candidates and
issues by the same methods that business has developed to sell goods. These
include scientific selection of appeals and planned repetition..Radio spot
announcements and ads will repeat phrases with a planned intensity.
Billboards will push slogans of proven power..Candidates need, in addition
to rich voices and good diction, to be able to look 'sincerely' at the TV
camera."
From Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
pages 65-66
©1958 Aldous Huxley
quoted 5 lines I go back and forth on this, but yes...Huxley seems more the prophet than
> >I go back and forth on this, but yes...Huxley seems more the prophet than
> >Orwell - at least today.
> >And that's very topical on IDM-l.
> >
> > jeff
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