(2 minute read)

We used to sit in the same movie theater and watch the same movies. This gave us a foundation for conversations. Now we sit in our own movie theater watching our own movies. It’s a terrifying list: echo chambers, division, fake news, shortening attention spans, polarization, extremism, addiction, manipulation of our attention, habitual time spent that we regret, delusions of grandeur, and the rise of preteen/teen self-harm and suicide. We compare their highlight reels to our behind-the-scenes. It’s like we’re a celebrity in our own world. The illusion feels real. It’s very scary.

We see parts of it, but add them up, multiply it by two billion people (users on social media) and then compound it over time. Doesn’t it seem odd that the founder of Lunchables didn’t let his kids eat Lunchables? It’s quite sobering.

“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, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. 

As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." 

In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. 

In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.” 

- Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

The movie gives us a view from behind the curtain from the creators themselves. Many of them left for ethical reasons.