Fahrenheit 451

I read the 60th Anniversary edition of the book and the biggest thing that stuck out to me is the relevance to today's world. So many people are following the "screens" and not living life, only looking for something easy, just like much of society in this world.

We need to do a better job understanding that "it depends" is a valid answer and that our understanding of things can and should change.

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[[Neil Gaiman]] writes the introduction to this 60th edition and says that there are three phrases that make it possible to write about worlds that have not yet been brought into being. Pg XI

1. What If, gives us a change...a departure from our lives
2. If only...lets us explore the dangers and glories of tomorrow
3. If this goes on...is the most predictive of the three according to Gaiman. It doesn't make random jumps, it looks at the world of today and supposes the consequences to the world if one specific aspect continues on.

> "Let you alone! That's all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real. Pg 49

- Montang to Mildred as she doesn't share his pain from burning a woman that was holding onto her books
- this is instructive, what have we been bothered about enough that we're willing to step into it and make some sacrifice instead of gazing from afar and giving a minor tisk-tisk

- the larger your market the less you handle controversy, you want bland content so no feathers are ruffled and you don't get cancelled. Pg 55
- take away all the books that might offend someones sensibilities so they can live a bland comfortable life
- then those people take it further working to ensure no one can read something they don't consider bland.
- [[politically correct]]

- If you don't want people to question anything politically, don't give them any choices. Pg 58
- this ties in with [[regulatory capture]] as companies run the regulators so that the people have no say in how their community is developed
- [[politics]]

- [[books]] are dangerous because they show us the uncomfortable detail of life. Pg 79
- most people want comfortable drivel which is fed from [[social media]] and [[TV]] which is the problem
- [[social media]] companies traffic in drivel that is mind-numbing or outrage that compels us to stay in their thrawl

> Off hours, yes. But time to think? If you're not driving a hundred miles an hour, at a clip where you can't think of anything else but the danger, then you're playing some game or sitting in a room where you can't argue with the four-wall television. Pg 80

- always a distraction around and never peace
- how much does our society today mimic that?
- with [[Puritan Work Ethic]] pushing us to "do something" all the time and then [[social media]] always enticing us from a single screen away...when do we have time to sit and think where we don't feel guilty about the sitting

- does tech push so much noise because it distracts us from liesure that would let us see how bad the stuff that tech wants us to be interested in really is? How hollow their offerings are? How little life-long worth can be derived from clicking a like button? ^ab60ba
- what I spent all the time I spend on [[social media]] and instead spent it thinking, reading, writing so that something worthwhile was produced?

- you can't make people listen, they have to come around in their own time as they wonder how the world blew up under them. Pg 149

- [[Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler]] Pg 167
- was one of the inspirations for this book.