Neil Postman's Assertions Analysis

Postman’s Assertions The social critic, Neil Postman, created six assertions he believed supported Huxley’s visions in, Brave New World. Out of the six, the three most relevant ones regarded the fear of the truth being drowned in a sea of irrelevance, a trivial culture preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and centrifugal bumblepuppy, and the loving of technology in order to make us think less. What these three assertions all seem to have in common is that they are all linked to egoism. They prove that the citizens of the World State rather remain in their comfort zones in order to avoid being interrupted from their happy world beliefs. Like, the assertion that mentioned the truth being drowned in a sea of irrelevance,
Huxley created the phrase, “A gramme is better than a damn,” (Chapter 6) to describe how ignorant the World State is. It turns out the people rather avoid feeling down by avoiding obstacles that come up by being under the influence of a drug; soma. That same phrase is similar to the phrase, “the more stitches the less riches,” (Chapter 3) signifying that the more negativity there is the less productive and happy they will be. Which of course, is something that would be avoided by taking soma or attending some sort of sex driven activity. In today’s world, this is something that is becoming more active. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “From 1991 to 2011, there was a near tripling of opioid prescriptions dispensed by U.S. pharmacies: from 76 million to 219 million prescriptions.” Most likely because just like the World State more people are taking more drugs in order to feed their addictions and be temporarily numb from problems and or negativity. Lastly, there is a part where Mond tells John about how unnecessary art and literature is since only happiness is what matters the most, “You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call art. We’ve sacrificed art.” (Chapter 16) So happiness is what’s most important in the World State. If there was art, there would be a possibility of different expressions and opinions, which is something that must be avoided in their society. The main goal for the totalitarians of the World State is to convince their people to not have not have opinions, but happiness. It is in their best interest to keep them drugged so they don’t worry about a change in beliefs or perception. They must all remain in a sleep-like trance for their society to remain balanced and for the government to remain as the all powerful. Huxley feared that our civilization would become a trivial culture preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and centrifugal bumblepuppy. In the World State sexual activity is another method of staying happy and productive. If they aren’t taking soma, they will most likely be having or watching sex; it’s all a recreational activity. The scene where the Assistant Predestinator asks Henry about going to the Feelies is a clear example of how sex has become a recreational thing and something to openly talk about, “Going to the Feelies this evening, Henry? I hear there is a love scene on a bearskin rug; they say it’s marvelous.” (Chapter 3) When compared to the real world, it’s as if they are referring to the adult film industry because they are paying to watch people have sex. Especially, since in our present day, adult films are becoming more and more popular because of the Internet. Eventually, it will become something normal and not taboo. Just like how in the World State toddlers are having “elementary sex” (Chapter 2) and “erotic play” (Chapter 3), it will become a daily activity. Depending on a person’s beliefs they might say our world is becoming trivial and immoral like theres is. With the constant advertisement of looking sexually appealing, affairs and premarital sex going on the rise and the constant references to sex in movies and music, sex to us is losing meaning as it it’s lost its meaning to them. It is becoming something to casually talk about, it’s not remaining as special as some people were taught. Postman asserted that Huxley would fear a society that would come to love technology in order to think less.
This also goes along with the theme of egoism because the citizens rather work less in order to remain happy, and not become worn out. The assertion can be proved by quote where the D.H.C talks about the process of how technology can now produce life, "These," he waved his hand, "are the incubators." And opening an insulated door he showed them racks upon racks of numbered test-tubes. "The week's supply of ova. Kept," he explained, "at blood heat; whereas the male gametes," and here he opened another door, "they have to be kept at thirty-five instead of thirty-seven. Full blood heat sterilizes." (Chapter 1) This next quote is only a representation of the caste system the technology of the World State has developed, “Alpha children wear grey They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse.” (Chapter 2) As a result, they now have a system that can control population and intelligence. The government needs a system where everything can be at equilibrium so that they don’t have to worry about the shifts that occur. They now know that there will never be a shortness of workers for a certain job, because it’s not popular or because the workers are unproductive. The World State has used their advanced technology to develop a system that will always have what they need and need to be able to do right away. With this equilibrium, the government and its people can be happy and not have to deal with any of these problems in the future. The real world has also developed technology that’s capable of allowing us to think less. We have the Internet, machines that can build for us
and cars that allow us to travel without the need of a driver. Postman asserted that Huxley feared that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance, that we would become a trivial culture preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and centrifugal bumblepuppy, and that technology would make us capable of thinking less. In other words, Huxley feared that our world would become self- centered and egotistical because like the World State, we also try to blind ourselves from our problems in order to remain in our comfort zone.