The Guardian - My dad predicted Trump in 1985...

In this piece, author Andrew Postman presents claims from his father's novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, looks at the "predictions" his father presented about our "current public discourse" - concerns raised over patterns of social, media and personal behaviour in the 1980s.  While many media outlets are making almost daily allusions to George Orwell's famous dystopian fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Postman highlights that it is more of an Aldous Huxley reality we need to fear - that Huxley's novel Brave New World was a much closer illustration of social patterns than Orwell's text.

An excerpt from Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985):

"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture."

My dad predicted Trump in 1985 – it's not Orwell, he warned, it's Brave New World

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