The prompt about whether Huxley's vision is more relevant today than Orwell's asks students to "write a carefully argued essay that agrees or disagrees with Postman's assertion." Unfortunately for me personally, I feel the need to be in partial agreement with Neil Postman rather than complete agreement or disagreement. The reason why is that there are examples of societies in the current world that can fit either Orwell's vision or Huxley's vision. For example, China and North Korea are Orwellian because the government "[deprives] people of their autonomy, maturity, and history" (Postman). (I should mention that Orwell actually based 1984 and Animal Farm on the Soviet Union, which I assume you already knew as a communist country like China and North Korea). As for Huxley's vision, the contemporary nation that I know that is closest to the vision is Russia. Indeed, Vladimir Putin may be an authoritarian criticized by other countries, but he is popular in Russia because he created a relatively strong economy while in power.* As for the United States, I think is is undeniable that Orwell's vision is less relevant than Huxley's (just like what the sample essay said). After all, I doubt that the current American administration is trying to impose authoritarianism (even though I am tempted to say it is doing so). I will rather argue that Trump's supporters sort of fulfill Huxley's vision because they praise Trump so much, that they wouldn't mind giving up their rights to give him power. In fact, many Trump supporters may be identified as being "reduced to passivity and egotism" because many of them seem to reject the science behind global warming all because Trump doesn't quite believe in it (Postman). (Please note that I am not saying Trump is an totalitarian dictator yet, our country is still very well a democracy and a majority of Americans dislike him). However, I do extremely disagree with the sample essay (I assume you remember what it discusses) about the degree of Huxley's relevance in America. While it is true that there are some programs that "[inflict] too much pleasure" (I would describe more as an addiction to pleasure rather than an excess), it is definitely not true that all "informative stations" provide documentaries that are meant to feed the "fascination" of "the bad guys." Not all documentaries are created equal. I personally saw documentaries of Nazi Germany, such as The Third Reich, that does not try to feed pleasure, but instead understanding and depression. Also, there are scientific documentaries, such as Cosmos, that actually try to help us understand the "modern world," not falsify it. Also, the sample essay seems to imply that "too much information" is inherently unhealthy, which I found a bit ironic. There is nothing wrong trying to know a lot of information. In fact, I think the more information one knows, the better off he or she is. After all, ignorant people can be susceptible to manipulation and treachery simply because they know too little, not "too much." I also want to point out that we can't really escape information in the modern world. For instance, Postman would have not written his passage without any knowledge of Huxley and Orwell. Similarly, the sample essay used examples from his or her prior knowledge, which is information in itself. We cannot even write any sort of essay without any information of how to write! Even the way College Board creates its prompts and find its sources (especially for the synthesis essay) involves information! Even the computers and technology used today was created from information of science. The fact that we learn English, science, history, and other subjects in school is information. I had even written this post using information I know. There are countless other examples of information that I can name. And it is the prevalence of information in our current society that makes me want to poke holes in the sample essay's argument since it needs and uses information of Huxley, Orwell, Postman, Amazon (which the writer uses an example from the knowledge the Internet provides), and PBS to even exist in the first place.
*I may be outdated with this information.
