Imagine a world where words and pages are burnt into ashes, a world that destroys and has forgotten how to build, where the human race cannot think thoughts except ones that they are given to them, and can't remember what it feels like to know why one cries. In this world, one created by Ray Bradbury in the novel Fahrenheit 451, humans have forgotten even themselves. These people are ignorant of the fire that surrounds them, and are blind that the match that created that fire came from their own hands. They are being censored by the government and are also censoring themselves from the knowledge that took humanity thousands of years to create and from feelings that are too painful to feel. .
In this future world, the humans have become disconnected from each other. No one talks to each other and has any real conversations. For instance, when a neighbor in the novel talks regularly with her family, she is considered an outcast and looked down upon. When talking was brought up to women, they "jerked and stared" (p. 96). .
Everyone is also isolated from the outside world and what's going on in it. They are detached from the decisions that their leaders make. They have all become remote people who are unaware of the "ignorant armies that clash by night" (p. 100) in the wars that are being fought. Everyone is certain that "nothing will happen to [them]" (p. 115). They feel like they are in their own little world, separate from the disaster that surrounds them. These people have become remote and are separated from the people and events that envelop them because these events are being bowdlerized. .
The people in this future world are given a sense of movement so that they feel purposeful, though in reality their censurers have given that movement no meaning and purpose. "We keep them moving. We give them fun." (p. 59). That's all the world wants -- fun. They have lost all reason, and they are left with gloom so they look to be entertained.
