1. While most people consider Fahrenheit 451 to be a book on the dangers of censorship and the destruction of knowledge, Bradbury himself identifies the ability of technology to replace reading and critical thinking as the dominant theme of the novel. http://www.laweekly.com/2007-05-31/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/ Over fifty years after his book was published, do you think Bradbury was right? Has television and the Internet destroyed Americans' ability to read and think critically about ideas? Could we be heading toward a time when the authorities burn books for our own good, and the population allows it to happen?
To Antagonize a Police Officer
The reason that most people have considered Fahrenheit 451 to be a book about government is because that is the most prevalent message. From Montag’s role as a fireman in a corrupt organization to the sterilization of free thought outside governmental messages, it’s quite obvious that government is a bloated, dangerous, corrupt, and manipulating juggernaut in the book. This isn’t the intended message Ray wanted despite his efforts. Ray’s main purpose in writing this book was to show people that technological advances that provide easy factoids that are taken without reservation and caution are likely to replace worthwhile and beneficial sources of knowledge like books. Now that it’s fifty years after his book’s publication, I’d have to say that Ray was right. As he stated in an interview, “Television gives you the dates of Napoleon, but not who he was.” I don’t think that television or the internet has yet taken away the ability to think critically but it is certainly capable doing so. Although Ray writes a book set in a time where the result of no critical thought among the individual prevalent, I believe that he wrote it as a warning. Who knows? His book’s nightmarish civilization might become our reality in another fifty years. There are however naysayers who would advocate that a civilization that moves at the speed of light, figuratively, would have the ability to learn more effectively.
Society has always hammered away this message: The future will always be better than now. This has proven to be basically right in today's world. Medicine is more effective than ever before, we have better weapons of war, life expectancy has increased across the board, and This theoretical future leads me to my next point: Are we, America, on the fast track to developing a society where the authorities burn books for our own good because we allow it to happen?
I personally believe that we are. Society has already proven that it’s capable of allowing the government to dictate knowledge and in particular, what is read in books. One look at what the Nazis did during WWII should provide enough evidence. As society is today, we are a lazy bunch. It’s a safe bet to say that most times we don’t check our history books for contradictions, biases, opinions, and lies. This alone leaves our most cherished sources of knowledge open to corruption and dictated omission of facts by the government. It’s most obvious in the efforts by revisionary historians. As a final example, one only need view the conversation between the fire chief and Montag. He explained revisionist history and how, because of America’s inattention and faith in the “powers above”, the U.S. government was allowed to rewrite history. All of my commentary basically culminates in a wrongly interpreted but nevertheless true message of Fahrenheit 451: We are the ones who allow the government to manipulate us. We must be preventative and not reactive by learning the lesson that Ray Bradbury communicated in his book. Don't allow technology to ever override your desire to sit down and learn something and keep your eyes open for sources of corruption wherever they may lie.
