the vision of huxley was a soft fascism, everybody drifting off into la-la land. sorry, but you know what i mean. what the united states is doing, not necessarily consciously, but it's what it worked into, is something happening between the two of them. the surveillance of every citizen, everybody sitting here, they recorded your phone conversations, recorded your e rails. don't think you're exempt. everybody here is in that category, not just me. so the sort of state police style is growing in the united states, and that harshness is characteristic of a nation or civilization that very anxious about itself and overreacting all the time. that's the orwell part. the huxley part is that there are so many available ways now to drift off into concern about anything. it's not merely a television administered in the late 40s and done its work greatly, but the mention of an ipod, cell phones, and all that stuff, and ralph nader pegged it well, give them gadgets in their hands, and they think it's power. that's not the power. it's political power. the sort of soothing kin

the vision of huxley was off dashes. everybody taking so much and drifting off. you know what i mean. what the united states is doing not necessarily consciously is something happening between the two of them. the surveillance of everybody sitting here. they recorded phone conversations. the sort of soviet police style is growing in the united states. the kind of harshness that is characteristic of a nation or civilization that is very anxious about itself and it is overreacting all the time. that is the orwell part. the huxley part is there are so many available ways -- it is not merely television which is with us from the late 40s. but the internet and ipods and all the sulfone this. ralph nader pegged it well when he said give them gadgets to hold in their hand and they think they have power but real power is not there. it is political power. the sort of soothing rise of drugs, enormous and giving them to toddlers which is quite a part of big pharma's agenda. so finally you get some cross and that is what they have done. i don't think orwell is necessary. just

nothing much has changed except for the personal computer which most people use in the all this huxley sense. for entertainment. i find it very odd when steve jobs starts saying just before he died, people talking about the new iphone and various products and their great and they're terrific but there has to be more to a society than inventing a slightly smaller device on which to download justin beaver or lady gaga or whatever and i don't think we're making progress on that front. it takes longer to fly from new york to london than it did in the 1950s by the time you add in the shoeless shuffle. we are not making progress on a lot of these. >> host: this is booktv on c-span2. every weekend 48 hours of nonfiction book coverage and once a month, first sunday of every month we have our in-depth program and this month featured author is mark steyn. we have one of her on to talk about his or her body of work and mark steyn is the author of nine books. here they are. beginning in 1997 with babies say goodnight" lead "the face of the tiger: and other tales from the new war" "from head to toe

has changed except, except, for the personal computer, which most people use in a kind of adolph huxley sense for entertainment purposes. i find it very odd when steve jobs started saying, -- just before he died people talking about the new iphone and they're great. they're terrific, but there has to be more to a society than just inventing a slightly smaller device on which to download justin bieber or lady gaga or whatever, and i don't think we're making progress on that front. actually takes longer to fly from new york to london than it did in the late 1950s by the time you add in the shoeless shuffle. so we're not making progress. >> host: this is book tv on c-span 2. every weekend 48 hours of nonfiction book coverage and once a month the first sunday of every month, we have our in depth program, and this month, the featured authors mark steyn. one author on to talk about his or her body of work, and mark citizen is the author of an echeck collection: >> mr. steyn will be here to take your calls, e-mail and tweets. the numbers are on the screen. >> host: mr. steyn, when did your sta