i just finished up reading through ray bradbury’s classic novel fahrenheit 451 for the first time since i read it in high school…it’s amazing how much more you’re able pick up when you’re not being forced to read and you don’t have to worry about assignments due the next day…plus having a few years of maturity and knowledge under your belt definitely helps…this time through i picked up two major themes…i’m sure there are countless others that you may pick up…the book is pretty deep and definitely has connotations to life back in the 50’s when bradbury wrote it…but it also has some applications for us here in the 21st century as well…and not really how michael moore would like to think it does…i’m glad bradbury is suing him for copying the title…i’m sure moore thinks his movie is somehow up to par with bradbury’s work…but then again moore as always been prone to wishful thinking…
anyways…this isn’t a political post…but you can’t get around the fact that bradbury included some political undertones in his book…the first major theme i got from 451 was that “if you don’t remember where you’ve been you’ll never get to where you want to go”…bradbury doesn’t specifically state this in the book but it’s definitely there…especially at the end when granger’s breaking it down for montag…the reason the society of montag’s day had spiraled out of control was because they had no way of knowing their history…which was most likely why the government had outlawed books…to keep control over the masses…if they didn’t know what happened in their past…they had no way of knowing what was in their future…and as the old saying goes…those who don’t know their past are doomed to repeat it…the only way a society advances is by taking the knowledge that is given to them by their families, schools, colleges, etc. and then progressing and building upon that…while the society in the book was advancing technologically they were devolving socially and psychologically…the people were mindless and numb…glued to their glowing walls and having conversations with their “families” on their large screen tv’s…it’s a pitiful picture that bradbury paints…especially of montag’s wife, millie…
but the point of all that is to show that a society must remember where it came from if it is to avoid making the same mistakes again…so while the society in the book’s technology was so far advanced to the point that it created bombs to totally decimate whole cities…the people of that city were totally inept in figuring out a way to get around the looming war…which lasted only a few minutes and laid the whole city to waste…
sound alot like today? well yes in some aspects…but definitely not near as far downhill as the society in the book…this is where i don’t get why moore stole the likeness of bradbury’s title…see, from my own perspective, i think the leaders of our day have learned from our past mistakes at least as far as war is concerned…while they are in no way perfect and i don’t agree with everything that goes on in d.c. (and often choose not to get involved with all of that)…i do know a decent bit about history…
i know one thing for sure…the war in iraq is no vietnam…as much as the neo-hippie, movie stars wanna tell me it is…it’s most definitely not vietnam…for one thing…the french started all that vietnam business and we made the mistake of coming in to help (and we wonder why the french aren’t coming to aide us? they’ve learned from our mistakes)…this current generation hasn’t seen real war…we haven’t witnessed a real war-time president in action…we dont’ know that most war-time presidents are sharply contested by the general public (at least the general public that is portrayed by the media)…
but as you read in your history books you’ll note that those are the presidents that are highly-touted and featured in your history books…why was lincoln, roosevelt, etc. such popular presidents? well i guess lincoln was shot (which is really the only reason jfk is popular sad to say)…but they all had major conflicts of some sort during their presidency…with lincoln it was slavery and the civil war…heck, half the country split off in revolt back then…roosevelt got the nation through the depression and world war 2…i hate to say it folks…but i do think ol’ dubya’s gonna get a pretty big spot in the books as well…he’s got all the makings…9/11 being the big one…the iraq war and holding his ground on that is another…plus he’s very highly contested…depending on how the iraq/terrorist war turns out…he’ll probably be praised for that in the history books…just take a look at history…it’s all there…
i could also go into a whole bit about how we’ve learned from our mistake of stopping really bad situations before they get out of control (i.e. adolf hitler and world war 2 which the world failed miserably at)…you have to agree all this terrorist business could be a whole lot worse if we would have just sat back on our arse’s after 9/11 and didn’t have enough resolve to at least try to put a stop to all the madness…i shudder to think what gore would have done in that position…yikes…
so here’s the bottom line: take bradbury’s advice and read…get a history book and read about our past…read about the history of the world…find your own conclusions based on what we’ve already done…the mistakes we’ve already made…the great things that we’ve accomplished…don’t settle for what your glowing big screen tv’s and popular media voices are telling you…draw, or better yet, write your own conclusions…
ok…well…now i’ve gone and done it…i went all political…now dang it…i hate that…why did i have to go off on that tangent…i didn’t even wanna go there…oh well…take it or leave it…geesh look how freaking long it is…holy moses…no one is gonna read that, ryan…what are you thinking dude? ok, tomorrow or soon after i’ll post about the 2nd theme i caught from 451 and believe me it’s a lot less political and alot more personal…so don’t you worry about that…oh and if you’re in the mood for challenging my view on all this war nonsense don’t expect to get a response back from me…after all…that’s what michael moore does…
haha…see i can’t stop…man i really am a nice guy…
really…
######Note: This post is from a very old Xanga blog of mine. A very, very old blog. In fact, it’s practically a museum. Be sure not to touch any old references or links. You won’t break them, they are most certainly already broken.