The culture in F451 doesn't take time to think. They fill their time with entertainment to distract themselves. They only want to consume, not contribute. Mildred only watches television. Also, people in the novel don't have intelligent conversations with each other or lasting relationships. Mildred doesn't remember where she met Montag and she doesn't care. They are lazy and shallow. They try never to show emotion. They don't even care if someone dies. Mildred didn't tell Montag about Clarrisse's death for four days. Mildred's friends don't seem to care if their husbands or other people they know die. My question is, how close is our culture to theirs?
I believe we aren't that extreme. We care if somone dies. We still have intelligence, even if we try to fill our time up to avoid thinking about big questions. Most of us still have culture and lasting relationships. We seek knowledge, even if we watch television sometimes. Although, I admit, sometimes it seems the media can become a huge part of our lives. I have a quote from Brooks to share. Its about businessmen addicted to technology. They are in an airplane in this quote: "They're talking faster and faster, because [...] they'll be ordered to turn off their cell phones and it'll be like someone ripped out their trachea. Cut off! Severed from the information superhighway! Restricted to the tiny capsule of their own immediate experience!"
They businessmen don't want to put away their technology. Its as if it is their life. They need to feel connected to someone so they can feel important. They don't want to be by themselves and think about things, they want to busy themselves with information that doesn't matter in the long run and won't help them find happiness.
This is the same with the younger generation, us, who uses the Internet and texts on their phone for hours at a time. We absorb media and care more about what Britney Spears' next move is than contributing to society. We only care about making ourselves busy, and thus important, than doing something constructive with our lives. However, I don't believe we are exactly the same as the people in F451. We still read, and even though we live in a society that consumes, we still contribute. What do you guys think?
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3 comments:
I agree that we are heading in the direction of the culture of F451. Fortunately, however, I don't think that we'll make it to the extreme that they do in F451. At least we as a society still engage in our world, for the most part.
However, I do think that we are VERY much like the culture of F451 in the fact that we don't really engage in the stories of the world - it's all about us. If we're not occupying, trading with, interested in, or fighting with a country, we'd rather not hear about that country. It's not just the lack of foreign news, either, but the quality of any news. I couldn't help but link our lack of quality news to what Montag says on page 73-4, when he's arguing with Mildred about why it was important for them to read, "Is it because we're having so much fun at home we've forgotten the world? Is it because we're so rich, and the rest of the world's so poor and we just don't care if they are? I've heard rumors; the world is starving but we're well fed. [...] Is that why we're hated so much?"
How long is it until our lack of quality news, as opposed to this infotainment we're being fed, escalates into a lack of news completely? We already see the side that the owners of newstations want the viewers to hear, how long is it until they stop wanting us to know what's going on competely?
Just illustrating my point: According to a study reported by Nick Kristof of the New York Times, in the entire year of 2005 ABC news ran a grand total of 18 minutes on the Darfur genocide, however that's considerably greater than the 5 minutes of covereage that NBC devoted, and even greater than the 3 minutes CBS spent covering the genocide - that three minutes is about a minute of coverage for evry 100,000 deaths. What was reported on the news instead? Well, Kristof goes on to say that in June of 2005, Fox news, CNN, NBC, MNBC, CBS, and ABC collectively ran 55 TIMES as many stories on Michal Jackson than they ran on the genocide in Darfur!
Instead of reporting a major genocide (which is still continuing today), the owners of the news stations thought that Americans would rather hear about the latest celebrity gossip. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that most times, people would rather hear about celebrities, than the important stuff. It's like what Hoagland said in his poem "America," we can hear that there's other people who need our help, and something in us wants to help, and stop focusing on the celebrity trash, but "[...]it seems to be your own hand which turns the volume higher." While there are people who want to get the whole truth, they seem to be the one's turning up the volume, content to stay in their own world.
Fortunately, we can become less the culture of F451 by becoming aware. As soon as we know what's going on outside of our lives, than we become connected to life. We stop being a clone, and we become an individual.
DON'T INCLUDE IN THE ACTUAL PAPER:
If you want some satire-laced humor, check out this video by Jib Jab, it basically illustrates my point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q2EPKKVrqI
This is an edit to my previous comment: When I said, "At least we as a society still engage in our world, for the most part." I ment that we as a society, still do have SOME substance regarding our world - as long as we're involvedint he country in some way, other than that, we don't really care.
Sorry for the confusion.
I definately agree with you, Laurie. Looking at this a psychologic way I noticed F451 depicts a society in which everyone must be consistently entertained by the media or have connections to actually feel that sense of security. Looking at our society, media is the only connection to everything. If media was elminated we would view our world meaningless. Yes, we might not actually want to admit that I am speaking truth, but inevitablly people usually talk and communicate with other people because of media. Subconsciously people view media as that safety net. If we do what the media is doing we have a better chance of actually being in that inner ring. And we all know (sarcastically) being in that inner ring makes us feel safe and secure. Throughout the whole book Mildred always seems to be doing one thing, watching TV. The TV walls that cover the parlor are located on three sides. Its as if she has almost enclosed herself in a different world, the world of media. Later Mildred says to Montag she wants to fill that extra spot and dive in deeper to her special little world. Mildred realizes that if she can fill her days with just TV, than she must feel that sense of security. Even as I watch TV I actually feel secure. I always like and enjoy TV but I think I can handle it better than the people in F451. Especially during the Montag chase, we saw how ridiculous this society was. How odd it was that everyone was to open their windows at the same time in order to find Montag running up and down the streets. All of these scences togeather acted as if there was this live movie happening. Practically all of the city wanted to feel connected and they did that throught media. Overall F451's culture is a far stretch from our own, however, I do believe many new developments are starting to enhance the way our society is closer to F451's.
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