![]() In the book, there is a single political party, referred to as “The Party,” ruled by a dictator called “Big Brother.” People are expected to love The Party and are subjected to constant propaganda and distortion of history for the sake of mind control. In such a society, the government crushes individual freedoms and controls people through mass surveillance and fear. ![]() 1984 critiqued such regimes by presenting a fictional future society grounded in the same methods through which Hitler and Stalin ruled. Though different in ideology, they shared totalitarian control over their respective societies. The 1930s and 1940s brought two authoritarian regimes, Adolf Hitler’s Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. Orwell’s 1984 has perhaps had the stronger impact on the imagination of Americans because of its similarities to actual societies in the 20th century, and because of the length and intensity of the Cold War. Both are dystopian novels with warnings about the future. Some knowledge of two novels is needed to fully understand this: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell’s 1984 (1949). Neil Postman summarizes the history of information dissemination through education and entertainment by describing its affect on the population enacting its consumption. Victor Navasky, National Book Award-winning author of The Art of Controversy All I can say about Neil Postman’s brilliant Amusing Ourselves to Death is: Guilty As Charged. The Foreword and final chapter of Amusing Ourselves to Death create a framework for interpreting Neil Postman’s overall argument. 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' describes the modern age of cultural and societal development in relation to mass media entertainment propagated through television culture. I can’t think of a more prophetic, more thoughtful, more necessary and yes, more entertaining book about media culture.
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