Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – Thoughts
Guy Montag starts fires – because that’s what firemen do, they start fires and don’t quite remember when they had put them out. Firemen start fires where people are reading books and thinking. But Guy Montag meets a seventeen year old girl who reminds him of a time when people weren’t afraid to read books and think for themselves.
As a part of my personal goal to read books published before 2000 in addition to rereading those I had been assigned in school, I’m so happy I picked this up. Fahrenheit 451 was a great dystopian reminder that, in my opinion, the west is venturing closely to fascism.
Some of what I came across felt exactly like what we’re experiencing now – “Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick” – what influenced getting rid of books.
“Our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred.”
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
This quote seems to speak for itself, honestly, and this is what I’m seeing a lot of on the internet and in real life as well. We can’t say certain words, can’t speak about certain things because we’ll hurt those groups of people so we should just hush it all up and avoid it. Well, I say fuck that. Aside from making people terrified of what to speak about [and we shouldn’t be afraid to speak our minds], this is opposed to previous fights over the rights to personal opinions and freedoms.
Additionally, you can’t cater to everyone’s desires. From how, for lack of a better term, soft people seem to be now, anything could upset anyone. So wouldn’t it just be better to let people speak their minds and share their opinions, so we can discuss our different opinions and understand that not everyone thinks alike? Likewise, that way we understand that we’re not all fake on the surface and just imitating and hiding. Because, surprise, people are still going to have their own opinions and do what they want. Depending, they’ll just potentially do it in secret, i.e. Guy Montag.
Side note: This is part of why I love Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins so much. Goggins knows all of that’s bullshit and understands that life doesn’t work in this woke way.
Cheers to those who defy the status quo.
“‘I hate a Roman named Status Quo!’”
Grangers grandfather: Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Read on, don’t burn books, and fuck fascism.
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