Society as I know it

[jehoshabeath]

From Fahrenheit 451:

"Well, I'd say it really got started around a thing called the Civil War. Even though our rule book claims it was founded earlier. The fact is we didn't get along well until photography came into its own. Then -- motion pictures in the early twentieth century. Radio. Television. Things began to have mass... And because

Comments

[olifhar]

I'm not scared by any of this, because I don't think this narrative describes our reality. The narrative in Farenheit 451 takes a lot trends and changes that are supposed to be good or associated with progress and turns them on their head by creating a scenario where they were signs of decline or impending doom all along. That's called a framing effect. Ray Bradbury does this to tell a great story, but politicians do this as well

[jehoshabeath]

Agreed - reality is complex and this is a very short, simplified description from a fictional work. But the narrative struck me in it's pace - it echoes the feeling of going, going, going and getting dizzy in daily life today. I realize that there are many good things that come with progress and that one country's experience is not the same as all others. I'm thankful to have as many good things as I have. But the rate of change and that underlying desire for happiness above all that I find echoed all around me make me feel anxious. Those are the aspects that captured my attention here.