Comment by beatty on Review: Amusing Ourselves to Death · 2022-12-15T17:22:51.500Z · LW · GW

This is the review I'd write, but better. I'm glad you're bringing it to this forum -- Postman is underrated and more relevant than ever. I've re-read Postman a few times recently, and finally read-to-the-end Brave New World. One thing that I fear: once we've amused ourselves into a dangerous situation, we then become open to illiberalism (perhaps all the way to techno-authoritarianism) to guarantee safety (on the rise of cultural safety-ism: see Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff). It seems plausible we risk a Orwellian-Huxleyan hybrid: Huxleyan societies might grasp Orwellian elements for safety, and Orwellian authorities might turn to Huxleyan techniques to pacify.