On my way to lunch today, I, for no reason whatsoever, became obsessed with whether it was 1984 or Brave New World that had the lottery as an opiate of the masses.
I asked my lunch companions, and they were pretty much split down the middle, as no one had read either in many years. One of my companions, a 6’4″ or 6’5″ programmer with long hippy hair was pretty sure it was Brave New World, because he had been in a staged reading of 1984 as the Voice of the Screen, and he didn’t remember any mention of a lottery.
So, literate types, which was it?
I vote for 1984 because I don’t remember reading it, and I know I didn’t read that book.
I’m leaning towards that myself.
I think sex was the opiate in Brave New World. And soma, an opiate, was the opiate as well.
I believe you are right about that.
I had to read that for Honors Seminar. And then write a 10-page paper about it. All over Christmas break. Along with five other books pitting Utopia vs. Dystopia.
According to several websites, gorditas are the opiate of the masses.
That is a whole other book.
Perhaps the one you’re going to write. *hints*
Let me be clear on this: I have never had a gordita.
As an Imaginative Person, I’m sure you can fake it.
You’ve been faking that handle thing this long.
We’ll need the first draft Monday.
Let me be clear: I have only been faking the one handle thing.
Once the handle is faked, can gordita faking be far behind?
I would first have to overcome my distaste for fast food that isn’t DQ.
1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
“They were talking about the Lottery. Winston looked back when he had gone thirty metres. They were still arguing, with vivid, passionate faces. The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. There was a whole tribe of men who made a living simply by selling systems, forecasts, and lucky amulets. Winston had nothing to do with the running of the Lottery, which was managed by the Ministry of Plenty, but he was aware (indeed everyone in the party was aware) that the prizes were largely imaginary. Only small sums were actually paid out, the winners of the big prizes being non-existent persons. In the absence of any real inter-communication between one part of Oceania and another, this was not difficult to arrange.”
http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/1984/1984_c8.htm
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
Well, that about settles it, don’t it?
Is there anything the web can’t do?
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
It cannot make somebody love you and it cannot keep somebody from dying.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
Yet.
The technology is still in it’s infancy, you understand, and as soon as we get the bugs worked out…
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
I want no part of that.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
Just tell the Adware you want to opt out.
I’m sure it’ll listen.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
It won’t, but I don’t even know what Adware is. Must be some PC thing, and I’m a Mac girl, living in a Mac world.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
Ah. Well, since it’s important to learn the language of any foreign country you might have to visit, Adware is Evil Software that installs itself on your machine when you visit some websites, even seemingly benign ones. It then goes out and installs other software on your machine, all of which is tailored to pop up ads or otherwise market stuff to you.
It’s evil. Really evil.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
Oh, well that would never do.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
But only if you run windows. Mac, Linux, OS/2 users tend to be less bothered.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
As a side note, I knew a batch of assembly line workers at Panasonic that, in between making cellphones, actually and truly believed that the winning lottery numbers could be found encoded in Snuffy Smith and Family Circus comics.
I kid you not.
The belief revolved around the fact that one of the line workers had once indeed won $300 from lottery numbers found in a Snuffy comic.
As my roommate once said, the lottery is a tax on those who can’t do math.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
The woman in charge of me at the paper got the numbers from Ziggy. She won all the time.
I thought the lottery was the surcharge for stupidity. For many it’s a financial plan.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
Not Family Circus, Ziggy was the other one. That’s right.
Sometimes a bad plan is worse than no plan a’tall, I’ll wager.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
I’ll say. I need to add another plan to my planning, now that I’m rapidly approaching another decade.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
Will the plan involve tropical drinks with little umbrellas?
Those are always the best plans.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
I seem to be unable to pass up a box of little umbrellas in the store, thus I have lots of them. I just can’t ever find them when I need them.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
Yes, just the other day there was a tiny thuderstorm over my beverage, and I had nothing to stop it with.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
They are also good for wearing in the hair upon reaching an acceptable level of tipsyness.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
Oh, well that would never do.
I mean, my hair’s too straight.
Re: 1984. Part 1 Chapter 8
I actually put them behind my ears, a la Esther Williams, only without the bathing suit and the synchronized swimming.
In any event, the pissy Marx brother, Karl, started the whole thing with Religion being The Opiate of The Masses.
So does the discussion turn to The Masses leaving religion for something else, thus essentially (depending on what you believe) making themselves inconsolable?
It didn’t, in the case of the luncheon. It turned to politics.
But had it turned to Marx, I would be comfortable positing that The Masses are effectively consoled by American Idol.
I should watch that one time, but it seems too painful. I need to save any of my pain-inducing spectating for that whole ultimate frisbee thing.
Do they mock people in Ultimate?
I understand Idol has mockery.
They? Who is this they?
I’m going to try not to, but as has been demonstrated, sometimes I can’t stop myself, even when I see the ground rushing up toward my face.
isnt that why people watch that boring dribble?? i would hope so.
My best guess is that the Muppet Show isn’t on anymore, and what else are you gonna watch?
rosanne.
It’s a crying shame that the Muppet Show isn’t on anymore.
The day Sammy Davis Jr and Jim Henson died all at the same time was one of the worst days of my life.
The person I feel compelled to go watch is forsaking tennis to pursue her “lifelong dream of playing ultimate frisbee.” Frankly, I’m more worried that she’s going to have a stroke than get an injury.
If he just played Ultimate Sponge instead, we wouldn’t have these problems.