Where Are We Headed?
In the book Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, firemen start fires instead of put them out.
Books are illegal, and because they are illegal nobody reads them. It is all T.V. and radio. The members of society have lost their ability to think and form opinions.
And they have been completely shut off from the world around them. Bradbury makes a point that if our society today were to continue on the path it is on of people watching T.V. instead of reading books, then books would be completely shut out, and T.V. would be the only thing left.
This reality is possible but not if we take certain precautions. We need to keep books more available in libraries and stores. We also need to give children more chances to read and study books. We need to take these precautions otherwise our society will end up similar to how Bradbury predicts. Today we have the option of having a book on tape.
You can listen to a book in the car or on a C.D. player at home. This is very convenient for some people and in my opinion is a good thing if you still spend some time actually reading a book. When you actually read a book then you are thinking and when you are thinking you study the book and doing that helps you to expand and to learn. That opportunity is not around as much when we just listen to books on tape.
Libraries today are starting to sell more books on tape instead of on actual paper. In Fahrenheit 451 they do not listen to books on tape but only listening to books on tape promotes the idea of T.V. and radio and pushes us towards the society in Fahrenheit 451. Children in school are put into classes to teach them to read, and study. When children are in these classes they learn how to form opinions and how to grow and expand.
The more children are in these kinds of settings then the more they will keep us from ending up in a society like the society in Fahrenheit 451. In the society we have today, one thing always leads to another. When we stop going to school and learning then we stop becoming interested in things. When we stop becoming interested in things then we will stop discovering and inventing. When we stop discovering and inventing then people do not know what to do with their time so they result in watching T.V.
and listening to the radio. When we are at that stage for a certain amount of time then we have become the society in Bradbury’s book. Bradbury’s prediction is possible, but not if we take the precautions necessary to keep us away from it. We need to keep books available. And we need to keep giving students the chances to study and learn. Once we stop taking these precautions than we will be in the society that Bradbury predicts our society will become.
