The difference between Orwellian totalitarianism and Huxleyan totalitarianism is the permission for “fun.”

In Orwell’s world, there was no fun at all. It was pure drudgery. Sex was outlawed. No pleasure at all. No sports, no entertainment, no leisure time. And so in our minds we believe that if we are allowed to have fun—watch sports, watch porn, go to music festivals, have casual sex with many partners, enjoy movies and TV shows, lose ourselves in online content and video games—then we are not oppressed. Hedonism equals freedom!

But on the contrary: the Brave New World view of tyranny is not that pleasure is outlawed, but that it is leveraged against you and used to oppress and control you. It is a distraction. Entertainment and fun are the opiates of the masses, because without them, the masses will have nothing to do but sit and think about how awful things truly are.

Modern-day tyrants don’t want to deprive you of fun. They don’t want you to live a life of constant drudgery and seriousness.

They want you overwhelmed with superficial pleasures. Do drugs, get drunk all the time, obsess over sports and TV dramas, pour countless hours into video games, watch tons of online porn, buy Nice Things from Desirable Brands—anything but think about how corrupt the government is.

They want you distracted. They want you focused on trivial pursuits. They want your life to revolve around the next big music festival.

When you’re not wasting away in a cubicle pushing paper for some Megacorporation, they want you mentally sedated by entertainment.

People whose lives revolve around entertainment of course, in the back of their minds, ultimately feel unfulfilled. They wonder if there’s more to life than obsessing over sports, entertainment and nightlife. Materialism is unfulfilling. Most people are aware of this on some level.

They may not know what, exactly, is missing in their life, but they are at least partially aware that something isn’t right. Maybe it’s visceral, but once you get a bit older you begin to realize that you will never find fulfillment and meaning in life through entertainment and materialism. For me, this first started to dawn on me around my senior year of high school.

Yet even though most people are partially aware that there is more to life than entertainment and materialism, most people still nonetheless believe that they are free because they can enjoy superficial pleasures like entertainment, drinking, partying and materialism […]

via Just Because the Government Allows us to Have Fun Doesn’t Mean We’re Free —