Anticipating the current monopolistic and highly centralized version of the internet, author Neil Postman argues that, given that consumers’ self-medication into “bliss” enables the voluntary sacrifice of their rights, amusement and entertainment are more effective means of social control than totalitarian oppression. Comparing George Orwell’s 1984 with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, he notes that “in 1984… people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.”
