In 1932 Huxley’s Brave New World was published.
19 years later Orwell’s 1984 was published.
In the 21st century both dystopian classics began to blend:
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Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Stone-cutters fighting time with marble, you foredefeated
Challengers of oblivion
Eat cynical earnings, knowing rock splits, records fall down,
The square-limbed Roman letters
Scale in the thaws, wear in the rain. The poet as well
Builds his monument mockingly;
For man will be blotted out, the blithe earth die, the brave sun
Die blind and blacken to the heart:
Yet stones have stood for a thousand years, and pained
thoughts found
The honey of peace in old poems.
— Robinson Jeffers
Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
formerly used to kill men, but here
In the sense of a symbol. The sword: that is: the storms
and counter-storms of general destruction; killing
of men,
Destruction of all goods and materials; massacre, more or
less intentional, of children and women;
Destruction poured down from wings, the air made accomplice,
the innocent air
Perverted into assassin and poisoner.
The sword: that is: treachery and cowardice, incredible
baseness, incredible courage, loyalties, insanities.
The sword: weeping and despair, mass-enslavement,
mass-torture, frustration of all hopes
That starred man’s forehead. Tyranny for freedom, horror for
happiness, famine for bread, carrion for children.
Reason will not decide at last, the sword will decide.
His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fade behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six o’clock;
And short square fingers stuffing pipes,
And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties,
The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.
— Eliot
The scientists are in terror
and the European mind stops
Wyndham Lewis chose blindness
rather than have his mind stop.
Night under wind mid garofani,
the petals are almost still
Mozart, Linnaeus, Sulmona,
When one’s friends hate each other
how can there be peace in the world?
Their asperities diverted me in my green time.
A blown husk that is finished
but the light sings eternal
a pale flare over marshes
where the salt hay whispers to tide’s change
Time, space,
neither life nor death is the answer.
And of man seeking good,
doing evil.
In meiner Heimat
where the dead walked
and the living were made of cardboard.
Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Gerard Van der Leun
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I’d include “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis, too. Lewis, like all so-called progressives, got it wrong when he assigned responsibility for the authoritarian government to a rabid right-wing movement. It’s always the oh-so-tolerant-left that cannot abide anyone breaking cadence with their goose-stepping ways.
As for Amazon’s Alexa: I am completely baffled why any sane person would have one of those devices in his house. (He typed as the NSA recorded everyone of his keystrokes). Oh, well…..
Those quotes are taken from the Foreword to Neil Postman’s AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH. It is an absolute must-read for anyone who wants to understand how we got to *Clown World 2019*. Like Christopher Lasch, who wrote the equally prescient THE CULTURE OF NARCISSISM, Postman was a clear-eyed old-school liberal who saw the media-/entertainment-driven behavioral-sink that America was sliding into, and warned us about it *decades* ago.
I was gonna comment on this but Siri said I shouldn’t.
When did Jeb Bush start selling blenders.
Blendtec is the best blender out there.
Sorry got distracted the View was on.
“What you need is a gram of Soma.”
“All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol,none of their defects.”
“And do remember that a gram is better than a damn.”
They went out,laughing.
Huxley,the eternal Savage,rules.
The final verdict isn’t in on Orwell v. Huxley. I suspect the 2020’s will supply it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HKTx5WFcs0
Richard, it may interest you to know that NSA is hiring.
To apply, just message your resume anywhere.
@H:
Groovy! And the bestest part of that is that there’s no need for an interview because they already know everything.
“Siri”. “Please open the link for ‘American Digest'”.
“I’m sorry John, there is no such link”.
Simply amazing, and amusing. I sent this to ALL my associates around the world!. Boff Em.
Made my day.
DW