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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Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.
When all Earth’s seas shall Levitate,
Dark shawled within the skies,
Upon our eyes will Starfish dance
Their waltz of Blind surprise.
The sun will Rise within wine Dark
As Argonauts imbibed,
Whose drunken arms embrace that sleep
Where Phaeton’s horses Stride.
Upon all of Earth’s wind-sanded shores,
As dolphins Learn to soar,
All we once were on the land
Shall be sealed behind the door
Of Ivory and Chastened Gold,
That the Mystery solved complete
Shall never til the seas’ Long fall
Wake mariners from their sleep.
— Van der Leun
I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this
air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
— Walt Whitman
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
— The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot
![[OOPS]Why Is Today Different from All Other Days? [Passing on fake news is so easy]](https://americandigest.org/wp/wp-content/plugins/contextual-related-posts/default.png "[OOPS]Why Is Today Different from All Other Days? [Passing on fake news is so easy]")
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