"The Man" and Society

     Amusing Ourselves to Death is a comic strip that highlights two totally different types of fear. The fears stated are two extreme situations in which society is controlled.  Orwell's fear is that "the Man" will censor or completely withhold information from society and, subsequently, we would be forced to believe everything that the controlled media told us.  He feared that society would crumble because there would be no source of information outside of this extreme censorship. 

     On the completely other end of the spectrum, Huxley feared that we would be so overwhelmed with information that we would either ignore the important things, or maybe just not care. He feared that we would be so infused with the happenings of the world that we would never even take notice or put forth an effort to listen to the troubles of the world.  He feared that society would crumble because we would care less about war or starvation and more about that funny video on YouTube.

     Both arguments make valid points. Sure there is censorship in media and yes there are things that "the Man" "can't" tell us, but we have also become a society that is run by technology. At nearly any moment I can pull out my smart phone and almost instantly see what my friends are doing, what's the latest in the news, and find out how to make the TurBaconEpic. This stream of instant information can br ing our society together, but it can also pull us apart. By spending so much time texting and talking online, we lose our personal communication skills. All this information may bring the news, good or bad, right to our doorstep, but do we listen? Do we go out and do something about the wrong in the world, or do we just ignore it and move on to another article. 

     I think the author brought these two things together, not to show their differences, but to show how real they are. He wants to show us that their fears aren't as far off as they initially appear. I think it is quite ironic that the author chose to show the "Death" of our society in a comic strip.  By using a comic strip he combines a slight humor with cartoon characters to enlighten us on the ways our society is failing. And for that, I thank him.