Neil Postman's Assertions Analysis

The Legitimacy of Neil Postman’s Assertions Neil Postman made six assertions based on Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, of which I’ve decided to take a bilateral approach towards. Postman’s assertions about the people accepting their lower social status, embracing a narcissistic and egotistical lifestyle, and controlling citizens via pleasure all contain points that I agree and disagree with. His assertions are somewhat relevant in our contemporary society. Neil Postman claimed in his first assertion that people love their oppression and adore technologies that make them intellectually passive. People of the lowest rank in Brave New World “don’t really mind being Epsilons” (50). Epsilons know other classes are more intelligent than them, but
The Betas in Brave New World are egotistical because they believe they’re “much better than the Gammas and Deltas” (21). People in each social class in Brave New World believe they’re better than everyone below them. People in our society build their egos through social media based on how popular they are, how many likes they get on a post, or maybe even by how much wealth they show off. However, not even the citizens in Brave New World were passive people, like Huxley feared they would be. When John stole the soma from the deltas and started throwing them out the window, “A great shout suddenly went up from the mob [of deltas]; a wave of movement drove it menacingly towards the Savage” (146). It is similar to today’s society, where people will fight for what they want. Huxley was able to accurately describe our current society’s egoism with how higher social ranks in Brave New World think of lower ones, however he was not able to provide an example of how passiveness would look in today’s society as mentioned in Postman’s third
An example of citizens being controlled by something they love was when Linda returned to the World State and “clamoured for ever larger, frequent doses [of soma]” (103). Linda’s greed for soma, something she had longed for years, drove her to her own death by overdosing. In today’s society the government does not directly control citizens with drugs, however, it allows access to substances such as marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes. However, supplying people with things they desire may be counter productive due to it being distracting, or in the case of drugs, causing impairment while under their influence. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, Tomakin, retired just to take a soma “holiday from humiliation and pain, in a world where he could not see or hear those words, that derisive laughter, could not see that hideous face, feel those moist and flabby arms around his neck, in a beautiful world” (162). While soma may work to control the lower castes as an incentive for them to work, higher castes abusing their opportunities to take soma holidays is counter productive and technically not controlling them to do their work. This can be related to people in today’s society who lack productivity due to their engagement in activities that are distracting. However, inflicting pleasure on citizens can boost their productivity if done correctly, if the society