1. Man is about to be an automaton; he is identifiable only in the computer. As a person of worth and creativity, as a being with an infinite potential, he retreats and battles the forces that make him inhuman.
The dissent we witness is a reaffirmation of faith in man; it is protest against living under rules and prejudices and attitudes that produce the extremes of wealth and poverty and that make us dedicated to the destruction of people through arms, bombs, and gases, and that prepare us to think alike and be submissive objects for the regime of the computer.
ATTRIBUTION:
Justice WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS, Points of Rebellion, pp. 32–33 (1970). The quote above is making a pointed statement about dissent and our capacity to engage in it. Are we more or less prepared or capable of dissent in the U.S. relative to when he wrote this? Why? What does this have to do with our next novel, Brave New World?
Wednesday addendum: Everything should be a "reply" to another's post after the first five, earliest comments. Let's avoid the one-off comments and deepen the discussion. -RMH
