as a 24 year old…yeah, I feel like the constant watching and surveillance of citizens is now not that bad.
The thing that did bother me the most is the constant changing of the statistics or the spinning of stories to fit whatever purpose needed–which is something our news and corporations currently do, especially in things of say, race issues–the other day I saw a large stack of stats–the one that stood out? Are there more black men in jail or in college?.. there was at least 5 times more black men in college than in Jail, but the prevalent stereotype in the media is still that black men are stupid and have no interest in academia–the stereotype is spun a certain way to not only make people afraid of black men but also to put the entire group at a disadvantage. It’s similar to the perpetuated idea that all fat people are slovenly and smell bad–an idea perpetuated because someone profits off of it.
Although it was once discussed that we’ve ended up more like Brave New World than 1984–“ending is better than mending”–clothing and fashion are now throwaway trinkets you buy every season at a big box store, we’re constantly surrounded by distractions and although we haven’t quite gotten to Decanting and universal birth control yet, we’re almost there.
It is interesting how we got aspects of both societies—the constant Survellance of Big Brother, the editing of history books and the need for fact checkers to make sure that people aren’t lying, as well as the entertainment and societal structure of Brave New World, where we have Alphas and people considered to be Deltas–there’s a reason why these are two of my favorite books.
