1984 v. Brave New World
I love BNW. It is such an magnified representation of the post-war world. Like all literature, it's a metaphore, not to be taken too literally as a prophecy--although it was clearly a possibility in Huxley's mind. BNW may never be, but we're already there, in many ways. We are not clones, but we are expected to specialize, to identify with roles that aim to produce value, get paid, buy things, entertain ourselves, to feed the system and forget about it. It is a really seducing utopia--compared to the more openly overt dystopia of 1984, at least. Huxley, I believe, saw it coming and wanted to warn us about its costs and limitations.<p>People said about Aldous Huxley that he could have an in-depth conversation about virtually any subject. As a well read person, he was aware the current developments at the time in the fields of psychology, management and life sciences--to name a few. It is no surprise that he came to speculate about the rise of advertisement and human resources management, which turned psychology on its head by applying it as a tool to generate and maintain a compliant supply of consumers and producers before anything else. His utopia is one where life is ruled by convenience, from the crib to the death. The more alarmist speculations of managed births and intitutionalized overmedication are simply logical extensions of this philosophy. It may be too easy to just go along with it without asking ourselves if life shouldn't be about something else than finding purpose through our given social functions. There's something deeply tragic about BNW, which isn't so unfamilar and requires us to take a step back from such ideals. The questions it raises are terribly current to us.<p>BNW is far from perfect, but the last century showed us that Huxley was right. Most of us want to love their servitude, and we're willing to work pretty hard in order to do so. The spectre of 1984, of surveillance and repression, is mainly reserved for those who stray away from what's expected of us. It stands as a menace to keep us in check. When people occupy the streets or participate in activity that undermine the accepted order, only then does it show its ugly head. In a way, 1984 and BNW are complements to each other.