Chains of Illusion

Professor J,

This Housewife gives you an "A" for the thoroughness of your answers to all my questions. I'm reluctant to move on to our next discussion if for no other reason than that I love the vintage photo of the newspaper readers we have up. Since, however, you have invited me to open our discussion on Hedge's work, move on I shall. It isn't exactly a dramatic shift from the news though, is it? The segue was an easy one. I expect that the discussion of this book will frequently have recent headlines dragged into it.

As a whole the book wasn't quite what I expected. I suspect the reason is that the first part of the subtitle led me to believe it was going to be another book about how Americans read less, watch too much television and are losing their connection to the printed word. So let's start by redefining and enlarging the definition of "literacy" because the author is using it at times in its more modern and broad sense. Beyond the "ability to read and write" the  more comprehensive meaning now embraced is one that includes comprehension and critical thinking in addition to lots of kinds of specific literacy. Hedges is often referring, though he never says it explicitly, to a moral literacy (Knowing this helps make sense of the title of Chapter 1). A literacy of compassion and community. The "triumph" is not only of "spectacle" but of the crass and common. The collective vulgar. The corporate drain on our morality.

Our words become less important, images more so as the thing unravels: "We are a culture that has been denied, or has passively given up, the linguistic and intellectual tools to cope with complexity, to separated illusion from reality. We have traded the printed word for the gleaming image."  Hedges turns to Plato early on for an explanation and a warning:

"In The Republic, Plato imagines human beings chained for the duration of their lives in an underground cave, knowing nothing but darkness. Their gaze is confined to the cave wall, upon which shadows of the world above are thrown. They believe these flickering shadows are reality. If, Plato writes, one of these prisoners is freed and brought into the sunlight, he will suffer great pain..."

I liked this book a lot even though it's dark and the message is difficult. I agreed overall with what he had to say about the disintegration of the culture. He occasionally let his anti-Christian bias shine through and tossed it in at times when I felt the connection was weak.  Of course our friend Gibbon had lots of issues with Christianity and the organized church and I suspect that to be only the first of many connections that we may draw between these two works before we're finished. In addition to excerpts from The Decline and Fall, often while reading I found bits and pieces of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 rattling around in by brain along with Orwell and Huxley. In Chapter 2, The Illusion of Love (again, this title is misleading having nothing to do with love but more with the illusion of intimacy) Hedges includes a great quote from the book Amusing Ourselves to Death:


"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books,' Neil Postman wrote:

'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 our desire will ruin us.”

How chillingly accurate Huxley's fears seem to have been. "...man's almost infinite appetite for distractions."  Hedges does a magnificent job of pointing out just what some of them are and how they are keeping us from an honest view of the situation at hand and causing us as a culture to lose our grasp on reality. I had difficulty getting through some parts, the first two chapters were downright painful to me because they so graphically depicted some of those things you pointed out in your last post that you couldn't find the "other side to"because there isn't a defensible one. Ever.

Note to the reader: This is not a book for the faint of heart. Much of what he is documenting in the culture is disturbing, ugly, and cruel. But stick with us. He is making some very necessary points.

To view an interesting cartoon based on the Orwell/Huxley comparison, click HERE.