20 sats \ 5 replies \ @siggy47 26 Dec 2023 \ on: What books served as your foundation? BooksAndArticles
Brave New World and 1984, both of which were required reading before my sophomore year in High School. I wonder if either are still taught in the U.S.
I recently asked an English teacher from a public high school in an urban (but fairly affluent) area what book he recommends for a teenager, and I was pleasantly surprised he suggested 1984.
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I'm glad to hear it too. I was in high school during the Cold War. The obvious implication and motivation for reading those books was to contrast the dystopian Soviet system versus the "free country" United States. It almost seems funny now. I can see school boards avoiding those books like the plague today.
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The interesting thing about that book is that anyone can read it and obviously see the evils of totalitarianism, but then simultaneously view the world through their favored political lens and fall for the exact thing the Orwell tries to warn us against (i.e. the "my team is always right, your team is always the bad guys" mentality).
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Maybe, but I think after the fall of the Soviet Union and the post 911 Patriot Act it would be hard not to see the obvious.
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Definitely the ying and the yang of dystopian novels, carrots in Brave New World for the compliant and the stick in 1984 for the contrarians. Atlas Shrugged is extremely long but some parts are full of incredible wisdom worth being patient for
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