During Bradbury's time, America had fear for the growing communism, and they reacted to it similarly how Hitler and the Nazis had censored all ideas and information in the public media, during Bradbury's time. The American government censored the media and it's productions such as literature, due to their fear of communism, Bradbury expresses this in his novel. The government burns books and literature work so that individuals don't think or ask intelligent questions, this unites individuals and makes everyone intellectually equal as Beatty says 'fill people up with useless facts so they aren't harmful but also feel full'. Bradbury criticizes those who used their power to repress individual freedoms and also warns individuals to fight for their rights.
The lack of freedom and desirability of conformity is portrayed in Fahrenheit 451 though the education system. Education is used to make everyone conform by overloading society with idle information and by book burning which is to prevent individuals from thinking on their own. Education is used as a catalyst to form on indistinguishable individual within society. This notion is illuminated through filling the individuals mind with 'non-combustible data' that inevitably leads to a clueless brain. This allows the government to subjugate individuals from thinking and to conform to society, allowing them to have dominant control over the state. Useless leisure activities are found upon students to further prevent them from socializing, gaining intelligence and individuals building strong relations, thus portraying the lack of individual freedom, desirability of conformity and defect individuality. .
Mindless entertainment is used to make everyone conform by occupying citizens with so much work that they don't have time to think. Fahrenheit 451 appeared at a time where technology was changing people's lives. The mindless programs that were viewed on television had an affect on people's intellect at the time, as citizens didn't think or reason what they viewed but accepted whatever the government portrayed on media.
