Reading: The Giver
Yesterday I finished reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. Technically it's a kids' book - the Normal Public Library is having a promotion where adults read kids' books along with their kids. I think you can win prizes or something.
I picked up The Giver, which won a major prize. It's a good quick read. The basic story follows a 12-year-old kid who lives in a futuristic community where people have given up almost all their freedoms in exchange for a world with no pain, hunger, etc.
The kid, of course, has problems in this world.
Just one thing bothers me about it. I don't think that we'll ever see anything like this kind of world. The idea seems to be that eventually humans will give up their aspirations in exchange for a peaceful world with no troubles.
And I don't think that's the way things are working out. If I were to predict the future, based on the way things are going, it would be much more of an every-man-for-himself affair. A world where life is, you know:
Solitary. Poor. Nasty. Brutish. Short.
I think we're far too self-interested to give up our own desires for a common good, especially to the degree that it happens in the book. (Trust me - the people in this community give up just about everything interesting.)
Honestly, I'm not sure which would be worse.
I picked up The Giver, which won a major prize. It's a good quick read. The basic story follows a 12-year-old kid who lives in a futuristic community where people have given up almost all their freedoms in exchange for a world with no pain, hunger, etc.
The kid, of course, has problems in this world.
Just one thing bothers me about it. I don't think that we'll ever see anything like this kind of world. The idea seems to be that eventually humans will give up their aspirations in exchange for a peaceful world with no troubles.
And I don't think that's the way things are working out. If I were to predict the future, based on the way things are going, it would be much more of an every-man-for-himself affair. A world where life is, you know:
Solitary. Poor. Nasty. Brutish. Short.
I think we're far too self-interested to give up our own desires for a common good, especially to the degree that it happens in the book. (Trust me - the people in this community give up just about everything interesting.)
Honestly, I'm not sure which would be worse.
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