Compare And Contrast Huxley Vs Orwell Essay

Huxley vs. Orwell
In the article excerpt, social critic Neil Postman describes two dystopian novels: George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Postman compares which novel is more relevant to today’s society, and leans more towards Brave New World. When both novels are compared side by side, it is evident that Huxley’s world is indeed more relative to modern day civilization.
Postman’s first notable point of comparison is when he describes how Huxley and Orwell believed the world would be controlled. According to Postman, Orwell predicted that the world would be controlled by an actual person, while Huxley predicted that the world will be controlled by technology. He [Postman] writes, “Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression… As he [Huxley] saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think” (Postman 1). While the world may not be controlled by a powerful dictator, many people are controlled by electronic pastimes such as cellphones and social media. Several times a day, people from around the globe constantly pull out their phones to check Facebook,

Twitter, and Instagram, completely ignoring the world around them. These technological features make it easy for one to agree with Huxley when he says that people will learn to love their oppression.
Neil then goes on to compare what the two authors believed would happen to classic items, like books.

Postman states that Orwell believed books would be banished, and Huxley thought that books would remain, but go unread. In the article, Postman writes, “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” (Postman 1). Once again, Huxley is more accurate with his prediction. Books still remain in libraries and book stores, however, only a few people read them. Now a days, society can use e-books, and small tablets like a Kindle or a Nook to read something that now collects dust. With digital books on demand, it is no wonder Huxley felt that there would be no reason to read actual

novels.
Postman’s final comparison that shows how Huxley’s vision more closely resembles today’s world, is when he comments on the authors’ ideas about knowledge. Postman summarizes that Orwell predicted a future with no outside knowledge, while Huxley foresaw a future with excess knowledge. Neil writes, “Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism” (Postman 1). Huxley’s claim is correct because with the power of the internet, people now have a world of information at their fingertips. Anything, and everything can be Googled, with countless websites to help them find what they are looking for. The internet, containing an endless amount of data and knowledge, is exactly what Huxley foretold.
Today’s society may not be as absurd as Huxley’s, with the orgy porgy, the feelies, or centrifugal bumblepuppy, but his ideas of the future share several similarities with modern civilization that Orwell’s does not. With social media, electronic books, and an almost infinite internet system, one can clearly see how Huxley’s premonition of a technological future has become our own society.