poetry

the foreword to 'amusing ourselves to death' by neil postman is the best thing i've read in recent times. 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. this book is about the possibility that huxley, not orwell, was right.

@TheeMajesticDee 🩵🩵

@verseweave Word! 🤍

life forms around its own habits of attention. what you return to repeatedly, begins to take precedence. it gathers weight and eventually it feels like the natural order of things. once you start moving within that, act where you can, and expect more than you should you slowly learn that results was never the goal. but what you get is far more lasting and far more important. what stays are the actions you repeat and after a while they stop feeling like choices at all. they settle into place and begin to answer on your behalf. that's automation for you.

a year or two ago i could walk into a random party full of people i had nothing in common with. i would stay, dance, laugh, then come home and sleep without a trace of it. it felt like a blessing at the time. much later it started to look like perfect hell. i was blessed that it went on long enough that something in me began to detest it. now i find it difficult to stay where nothing is being said that demands attention. i can sit through conversations that move somewhere, or ones that collapse into complete nonsense and become funny for what they are. everything in between feels heavy. if you want to pray, pray for a slow life. pray for a few friends with whom you raise a toast without a speech. pray for a heart drowned in gratitude in every beat. pray for a soul that knows less and less about wanting.

@IqraThePoet yes some of them are genuinely traumatic. and there are people who are extremely unfortunate. but this storm of self-help and life coach and all that are upto certain extent self inflicted.

@verseweave I agree If they are not from the childhood trauma then yes

@The_Greek_Muse thats amazing that's beautiful 😍😍😍😍😍 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵

@verseweave I can admit and boast, I do have a harem -and they all love me 😻😻😻😽😽😽 We also had new kittens recently, which my friends will adopt 🩷

@The_Greek_Muse no doubt about it. i love my cat so much & she of course doesn't. and we're cool about it. it's almost like a marriage now.

@verseweave 😄 the more the cats, the more the happiness 😻

@IqraThePoet yup. one of those days! 🎧🌤🥂

@verseweave One of those days?

you were never truly gone. in prayers, in pauses, in quiet evenings when your name rises in my heart, it rises like an adorned fragrance.

@conductr_ 🩵🩵

@verseweave banger...

@rebellicca strangely enough it is liberating

A path chosen of out of practicality or fear will often lead you back to square one. You cannot erase or outrun why you're truly here and what your soul is calling you to do.

@annaopes 😆😆 that is hilarious.

@verseweave It’s okay as long they respect me enough to not say it to my face ☺️

@BookTasters nah, that book's got something in it that could even tame a dragon. i'd even go so far as to say they'd handle it super gently.

Could dragons read books? Or would the pages catch fire?

Social media is free. Self‑respect is priceless.

@Pergament_F what a life to be blessed with

"We live for books." Umberto Eco

@Okaykimichi i didn't know it was possible until now.

“i avg 20k steps a day” bro u fucking unemployed stfu

@rebellicca i am currently. thsnk you for the insight my friend.

@verseweave If you haven't read the book, please do. It will forever change the way you see and think about media, information, ...and influence.

the foreword to 'amusing ourselves to death' by neil postman is the best thing i've read in recent times. 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. this book is about the possibility that huxley, not orwell, was right.

@rebellicca i’m reaching a similar conclusion. and the way it introduces an issue and then attacks it with that kind of precision is brilliant. it’s one of those books that you remain proud of simply for having read.

@verseweave I've read this book several times, know his work in depth. It remains the most incredible media critic of all times.

@Lovandfear eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

What’s one movie you wish you could watch again for the first time?