Examples Of Propaganda In Fahrenheit 451

In Ray Bradbury's World of Fahrenheit 451, set in a dystopian society where books are banned and the government holds many ways to manipulate its citizens. Bradbury makes many predictions throughout the book about how society could end up. These predictions surprisingly share many similarities when compared to current society such as an influx of information but lack of knowledge, Media getting dumbed down, and the use of propaganda to manipulate the masses.
First, in both societies through advanced technology, there is an immense influx of information but a lack of overall knowledge and thinking skills, dissociating citizens from reality. An example of that is during a conversation between Montag and Mildred where Montag has just come back

How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?” (Bradbury pg.49). This quote outlines how people are being given everything they need to stay happy, everything they need to keep themselves occupied. This quote also expresses Montag's opinion on the need to be intellectually challenged, something that would improve people's critical thinking skills. Fahrenheit 451’s society has so much yet so little. So little to starve them, but so much to give them a false sense of satiation, so much information and so little knowledge to keep them on a boring and shrinking path, an ocean of stagnant, rotting water. An endless sky of gray, dull clouds. This relates to when Beatty talked about schools learning less but instead focusing on entertainment, this is due to the advancements in technology their society has made, the need for skilled workers decreased and instead replaced with robots. Although current day society is not hooked on this extreme path, it is getting more similar than it might seem. For example a sentence of human writing imputed into an Ai which can give any type of information and even write a complete

Another example to prove my point is during beatty's speech at Montag's house about how society in Fahrenheit 451 got that way, in this example he said, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damn full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving" (Bradbury pg. 58). This quote explains how the government and the people in power are overcrowding their citizens with useless information. Information that will not push people to think critically, but instead feel like they are. The society in Fahrenheit 451 is dumb, and the people in power want it to stay that way so they can keep controlling them. The government will give them useless knowledge mainly through their “walls” or televisions to keep them feeling smart so they do not try to learn, think, and fight against their control. Although not as government regulated as seen in the novel, today's society shares similarities to the overload of information and decrease of