One of the more interesting points in Bill Wasik’s book And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture is his conception of a ‘Gladwellian Dystopia’ (see p. 136). Now, I am a reader of Malcolm Gladwell, and have gained something from reading him, but Wasik’s point is well taken.
The trend of sociological/quasi-scientific writing has served to demonstrate that humans are fascinated with humans. It has also served to demonstrate that humans are fascinated with controlling humans. The scary thing, from my perspective, is that these fascinations – with humans and controlling humans – are becoming more and more digital. For instance, there are people who I would not even speak to if I saw them on the street, yet I am absolutely fascinated with their existence online. Take another example: think of the grubby, anti-social teenager who would be scared to death to smart-talk someone to their face, and yet trolls everyone and their mother online.
Wasik puts it simply thus: The old Orwellian dystopia envisioned a future in which Big Brother was watching you. Modern reality is that we are Big Brother – and we are all watching each other.
So, if you take Neil Postman’s paradigm from Amusing Ourselves to Death, Orwell saw a future of state power lording it over the common man by taking all things away from him, and conversely Huxley saw a future of state power lording it over the common man by giving man all that he wants. We now find ourselves, having experienced some of Huxley’s future, using all that we have gained and attempting to lord it over each other.
