Monthly Archives: March 2024

“We were keeping our eye on .1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. the roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another–slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. 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, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.”

Amusing Ourselves to Death
by Neil Postman

I recently met a woman on reddit who reached out and introduced herself as a roleplayer.

She came across my boudoir subreddit and liked my photos so she reached out wanting to know more about how I do what I do, and ultimately she wanted to know about stories I might have with the models I shoot.

I chose not to get into those details, but we got pretty into some open conversation about roleplaying (I was curious), about gaming (ARPG’s RPG’s and how they relate to roleplaying), Dungeons and Dragons, sexting etc.

I dug a bit deeper (cause that’s what I do). Turns out she’s married and her husband doesn’t approve of her roleplaying (she left windows open on her computer once and he read it all).

Like a drug, she’s addicted (she’s been roleplaying since she was 15), and she’s always kept it a secret from her husband.

She then admitted she wanted to roleplay with me, but I said whilst curious I wasn’t interested as A) I have no idea how to roleplay, so when I do it I’ll be shit at it (IE: it takes time to ‘get good’ at anything, right?!) and B) Just because I now ‘know’ her more than her husband doesn’t mean her husband doesn’t exist, so I’d rather not put my energy into something that would potentially upset someone (IE: I don’t really want to have fun at the expense of others).

The last few hours of our convo has been me suggesting (that if it was me) I’d prefer to talk about it openly with my partner rather than keep going with a dark and dirty secret.

Now she’s thinking of telling her husband about our conversations in hopes she can start talking to him about her passion for roleplaying (I suggested she simply show our entire chat history to him!). Not my place to push though, it’s 100% on her and I’m just happy she let me be open in my thoughts.

IMHO if he’s negative in any way about what makes her happy it screams a lack of confidence. IMHO: “Happy Wife, Happy Life” and “Behind every good man is a great woman”.

Fuck, this would make good content for a Monday Morning Rant hey?