books The Literal Future

[The Girl with the Books 57]

For those of you who know me (so approximately one or two of you), you may know of my undying love of books. You may also know my particular love for the book "Fahrenheit 451". This book brilliant tells of a distopian future were books are forbidden and a uniform "fun" is oppressed on all people.

 

Now, after rereading this book for the umpteenth time, I decided to pick up another, similarly dark book called "A Brave New World" and following that, I decided to purchase "1984" which is another book describing a possible future.

 

Anyway, all of these books resulted in the very obvious thought of "what if one of these books actually foretells our future?" So of course, the natural thing to do is log on to an MLP fan forums site and post a topic, asking the users for their opinions on the matter.

 

There you have it, now discuss.

[Standard User 2,127]

I haven't read Fahrenheit 451 yet, but I read 1984 in seventh grade and Brave New World a couple of months ago. Both are very chilling reads.

 

Honestly, I see elements of both 1984 and BNW implemented someday. An oppressive government does not seem that far off, and one way or another we will either need to colonize other planets or implement some method of controlling birthing rates. Which I would be semi-okay with...

 

Regardless, I hope that none of these books ever become a reality.

[null1 606]

Brave New World was an interesting tale, I don't think something like that is going to happen now, but it feels depressing to live in that world.

[MelancholicMemory 2,025]

So I put a lot of thought into this, and I'm just going to warn you that this is pretty depressing.

 

 

How these books are coming true:

 

 

To some extent the problems of the futures presented in these books are already with us.

 

Ray Bradbury once said that, "you don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." Now, if you ask the average person what they rather do, read Fahrenheit 451 or watch the Jersey Shore, they will probably choose the Jersey Shore. If you ask a person to name three cast members of the Jersey Shore, they probably could do it, but if you asked them to name three poems by Robert Frost they'll almost certainly fail. Mindless entertainment has begun to replace intelligence and imagination.

 

In 1984, an oppressive government keeps the people in a circle of poverty and war, blinding them with dogma and hate all for the benefit of the government elites. I would argue that, to at least some degree America, and other countries as well, have become like Orwell's fictional Oceania. Though we are not watched or ensnared as deeply as in Oceania, it seems such force is not needed. People will blindly follow orders and believe things without question. Governments are gaining a great deal of power over their people, and the people put up little, if any resistance. Just look at the Patriot Act. Meanwhile, just like in Oceania, war is often used to gain political power and sway public opinion. People have shown that they are willing to sell their freedom, for a little security and to avoid thinking for themselves.

 

I have not gotten around to reading Brave New World yet so I can't tell you if we're moving in that direction.

 

 

The future:

 

 

Sadly, I think the future is even more bleak. Instead of some dramatic crazy, oppressive government taking over; some great revolution like in 1984, we are far more likely to slowly become a more horrid version of our current society, rotting intellectually, culturally, etc. from the inside out, and the sad thing is we'll never know it. If any of these novels do come true literally, it will be 1984, but figuratively, it would be Fahrenheit 451.

 

 

 

I do hope, though, that humanity can overcome its faults, and we can all one day live in a utopia rather than a dystopia.

 

 

[Circadian 1,273]

We're already living in Orwell's 1984. Only instead of Big Brother watching us we're watching Big Brother.

 

That's why social media is so important, and why we shouldn't let the government censor the internet and distort our perception of reality.

 

The internet is the best thing to happen to mankind since sliced bread.