Examples Of Utilitarianism In Fahrenheit 451

In a dystopian society where a government has the power to remain unquestioned as it rules with an iron fist, conformity prevails. While societies suggest that burning books and taking daily intervals of drugs will cure the world of all of its problems, those who comply are instead blindly supporting their government’s beliefs while being stripped of their freedoms and identities. Without the ability to express individuality through thoughts and opinions and experience emotions, people live in a society where their knowledge is fueled by propaganda and where they are unaware of reality and what it means to be an individual. The society controls what its people see and believe; without a way to revolt, many learn to tolerate the lives they have.

Therefore, within Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 and Kurt Wimmer’s movie Equilibrium, censorship shapes society by restricting basic rights and freedoms and by altering important information.

In order for a dystopia to successfully censor public sentiment in a society, it must remove emotionally stimulating material and objects that prompt feelings of unhappiness. Specifically, Fahrenheit 451’s society gives its people a false sense of happiness by replacing books with several forms of visual and audible “entertainment” that contain nothing but meaningless and uninspiring information. It is a lot of “funnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and out the bottom, and them telling us it’s wine when it’s not” (Bradbury 27). Essentially, the government is substituting healthy, beneficial “water” with what it wants its people to believe is a new, improved, and lavish “wine” when it is not. While this new form of “entertainment” solely distracts people from the world around them, books embody texture, quality, and allow for the generation of thoughts and opinions. Unfortunately, with books and the awareness they provide, many find it difficult to come to terms with the negative aspects of life. Bouts of unhappiness ensue; as a result, the government entrusts its firemen with the task of burning books, claiming that “fire is bright and fire is clean” (Bradbury 57). Dedicated firemen like Captain Beatty take pride

in acquiring such an important responsibility, believing that “fire” is the one thing that can truly “clean” and purify the world of the many troubles and disturbances that coexist with books. Since books provide people with the freedom of thought, speech, and free will, some are able to excel intellectually; however, others either stir objections to ideas in books that offend them or experience the undesirable feelings of inferiority. Just as burning books eliminates these negative feelings within Fahrenheit 451, forbidding artistic items achieves the same goal in Equilibrium. Within the movie, the Grammaton Cleric is responsible for eliminating paintings, music, sculptures, and literature within the society that are warranted for destruction. In efforts to avoid a fourth world war, the government censors objects that are likely to trigger hateful emotions that will lead to conflict and bloodshed while infringing upon its people’s rights. Overall, by denying people the freedom to access meaningful information and the chance to experience feelings, societies are able to successfully censor public sentiment.
Dystopian governments alter specific information to enforce the abolishment of freedom and emotion through propaganda.

Society’s revisions of fundamental aspects of history are showcased within Fahrenheit 451 as Guy Montag doubts his occupation as a fireman and questions its role in society. His boss, Captain Beatty, takes the liberty of explaining and reading about the history of firemen, which were “Established, 1790, to burn English-influenced books in the Colonies. First Fireman: Benjamin Franklin” (Bradbury 32). Contrary to the rule books, “Benjamin Franklin” was the complete opposite of what the society regards as a “fireman.” In fact, he organized the first fire department and worked to prevent and stop fires. He was a prolific writer of specifically, “english-influenced books” who refined and popularized the printing press and founded the first library. By rewriting history and twisting Benjamin Franklin’s achievements, Fahrenheit 451’s government is able to fuel its people’s belief in the society by feeding them the information that they want them to hear and is able point to historical events to enforce the abolishment of books and the freedom they provide. The same practice of altering information in society’s favor is utilized within Kurt Wimmer’s Equilibrium. Throughout the movie, Father, the leader of Libria, addresses the public over television and broadcasts the government’s justification for the use of Prozium, a drug circulated by the government that

eliminates human emotion. In order to prevent another costly and deadly world war, Father speaks out against feelings of hatred, anger, and jealousy and uses history to back up his claims. Specifically, Father alludes to death and the fact that two thousand years ago, “in his conquest of the known world, Alexander the Great slaughtered more than one million human beings. Three centuries later, purely out of jealousy, Gaius Germanicus, ‘Caligula’, murdered his own sister, impregnated with his own child” (Wimmer). Although “Alexander the Great” was responsible for tens of thousands of casualties in battle, he did not kill as many as “one million human beings.” In addition, even though “Caligula” was suspected of having sexual relations with his sisters, he did not impregnate, let alone kill any of them. One of his three sisters was “murdered”; however, she was executed on the orders of her son, Nero-- not Caligula. Therefore, in this dystopian society, historical information is censored to stress how destructive feelings are in order to support its goals of mass-producing Prozium and eliminating emotion.
Thus, the societies in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 and Kurt Wimmer’s movie Equilibrium enforce censorship by infringing upon essential rights and freedoms and by rewriting important historical information. Although censorship is often viewed as simply removing a few books or slightly changing the way history is remembered, it is much more dangerous than it seems. In hopes of wiping out unhappiness and ending world wars to have better and safer lives, people in these dystopian societies are unknowingly leading worse lives while being deprived of their individualities and freedoms to feel and think. Some things that people are told are too good to be true and it is a matter of time before these people realize just how much they deserve and are lacking.