I think this lifestyle was originally made to make everyone happy. If they are constantly distracted, they have no time to think about anything, let alone anything wrong with the world. In fact, sitting and thinking are almost outlawed. There are no longer porches, gardens, or rocking chairs, all places where people like to think. No one is allowed to talk to one another for the sake of talking, have a real conversation. If you want to converse you are considered an oddity and are kept watch on by the government. All so that you don't think, or discover that there is evil in the world .
"If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names or state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned 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. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change."
Because the people are being kept from knowledge, they are also kept from books. Owning books is a crime, if you are found in possession of one, the 'firemen' come and burn your house down with the books inside. This makes most people think that books are some great evil, an elusive force that must be kept far away. They think that the books have power, but the power is in the knowledge that the books contain.
"This is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us."
Within the mindless society there are a few that are 'aware'. They don't really go along with everything. They actually think. Montag is one of these people. What I wonder is what makes a person able to resist the messages everywhere telling them to just go with the flow and stop thinking. Are there certain people that are stronger and are able to see through the fake society? Or do they all need help? Montag is aware because Clarisse showed him how to slow down. Clarisse has her family to show her what to think. Does everyone need someone else to help guide them?
But it is dangerous to be like them. The government does what it can to lock them away. When they find someone who owns books, they take that person away. If someone has too many ideas, they might mysteriously disappear. So these people hide.
"With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual', of course, became the swear word it deserved to be."
Montag is just realizing how to be alive himself, maybe he can still become strong enough to help others think, and be alive too.
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