Brave New World?

Who was right? Aldous Huxley in his revolutionary work named in the title or George Orwell, in his dystopian 1984? One tells a story and warns us of a totalitarian government taking away rights and freedoms from people, free thought -- all that which makes us human. On the other hand, Huxley presents a much more realistic future, one where people willingly give up their freedoms, their thoughts and in the end themselves.

I believe that as much as we fear 1984, we have already entered the age of the Brave New World -- we live it and we are surrounded by characters from the book, daily.

I have never before lived through a time where government and authority was trusted and believed in as much as is happening now. We have people who not only refuse to use their higher critical thinking skills and question those in power, they are actively trying to persuade others that everything is alright, just to trust in the government and that they will take care of us.

Look outside or look on these forums, and every day without fail, you will see numerous people or threads telling you it is ok to be lied to. Certain elements will almost daily tell us that they are being lied to and they see no issue with it. Then a colleague of theirs will chime in and make this same ridiculous, defeatist statement, to support the first one and give weight to it – conditioning others to be alright with it.

People say that everyone lies and everyone steals, therefore it's ok to trust in a government that does. Then they say that treating people as less than people is alright because they don't have the same papers as us. Then they say that children aren't really children, because they have a different shade of skin or that they disobeyed a law and deserve such treatment. Or that other people are worth less because of their religion and so on.

We could go on and on, the examples are plenty and it’s happening all around us -- being done by us and made alright by us -- no one else. We are handing out the Somas to each other, trying to get others to fall into the same hole we stand in, instead of trying to get ourselves and others out of those holes. We are creating the subclasses of losers from Brave New World whose only role is to support and idolize the winners at the top.

And we’re doing it to ourselves, with a Soma smile.

We need no assistance, we need no push, we need no government to tell us to do this to each other – we’re already there. The Brave New World is all around us and we didn’t even notice its arrival. We were preoccupied with sex and below average IQ entertainers and sports players, taking our Somas and enjoying the new world while we completely missed our values and morals stripped away.

- Hey you’re being lied to! - So what, everyone lies!
- Hey you can be tracked through that phone! - Oh well, they’ve been tracking us a while!
- Hey that guy evaded and broke the law! - It’s all good, he’s my guy, don’t worry about it!
- Hey those are children! - Hey, don’t… nom nom nom Somas.

Well, I’m not taking your Somas, and I’m not ok with being lied to! And I’m not ok with casual theft or tax evasion, no matter who it is. And I’m not ok with expedited investigations into sexual crimes, I’m not ok with bringing more money into politics and I’m not ok with having to fight for human rights established decades ago. Oh, did I say I was not ok being lied to?

I suggest people skip a few days of their Soma allotment and see if they can get a glimpse of outside. It’s not all sunny all the time and there’s a lot of work to be done.

Orwell thought fear would ruin us, but Huxley was wise enough to realize that what we love will ruin us. That which we blindly adore will ruin us.

Apt. I just finished reading Brave New World.

We've given an inch and they've taken a mile.

a reply to: Kharron

I know, Democrats want socialism and believe free speech should only be for Democrats and people support that. It's crazy.

a reply to: Kharron

That was a good read, Kharron. Well written.

I agree with you. Brave new world was more prophetic at least in states of affairs (though I would argue Demolition man was closer to truth), than 1984.

But the main thrust of Orwell's "1984" was the policing of thought and language, and thus the assault on free thinking and speech. That, it turns out, provides the effects of soma better than any drug,

a reply to: NiNjABackflip

Yep, make people think free speech is a tool of oppression and ask the government to take it away.

originally posted by: KharronOrwell thought fear would ruin us, but Huxley was wise enough to realize that what we love will ruin us. That which we blindly adore will ruin us.

In this they are both right. Those in power are idolized because they stoke people's fears. Fear of foreigners, fear of false allegations, fear of a conspiratorial "other-side", on and on... And the leaders promise solutions.

Hype the fear - Hype the solution.

Just watch a Trump rally, if you can stomach it. The fear is stoked, the crowd becomes emotionally involved, and then the Messiah lashes out at the object of those fears - ALL HAIL! Some call Trump the puppet - I see Trump as the master of puppets (his followers).

I have never before lived through a time where government and authority was trusted and believed in as much as is happening now.

Someone clearly missed the last administration, and the one before it, and the one before it, and the one before it, and the one before it going back to the GD days of George Washington himself.

World State of genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning that are combined to make a utopian society that goes challenged only by a single outsider.

en.wikipedia.org...

Take a good look at what the antagonists have pushed for the last two decades.

Take a good look at who the outsider is (Trump).

We're on the verge of legalization of Soma( Weed).

Take a good look at medically modifying humans turning them in to whatever sex they identify with.

Were there.

Just not in the way the op implies.

Both were wrong.

The truth is somewhere in between.

Police thought and speech. What do you think PC is? It's a rigid code of thought and behavior. Step outside it's bounds and you are prosecuted every bit as much as one of the victims of the infamous Spanish inquisition and this is done in the name of fairness and tolerance.

You have people policing their neighbors and angry social mobs like the two minutes hate.

On the other hand you have the push for legalized vices like marijuana which you could see as Soma. All manner of libertine behavior is encouraged as means of easing the stress and intolerable state provoked by the conditions above.

And things proceed to walk down that path between.

I bet this reality will surprise us. Maybe the totalitarian gulag control will produce a population that craves freedom above all else, and in the numbers necessary to make it happen. The powers that be are creating their own demise, thinking the entire time that they almost have this wrapped up.

The morphic fields out there are growing and connecting more people together every single day. The field that creates the seeds of 'what if' are starting to allow people the realization that our entire government is a fraud. It will be the easiest for the younger generations to understand and implement.

The older generations will have the most difficulty in adapting, especially those that have devoted the most time into tracking and following all of the theatrics of our government. They have spent hours a day soaking up and regurgitating information that they believe actually matters. It will actually be a form of pain for these people to rewrite their reality, if they are able to adjust at all. They will be the last to admit the entire political spectrum is simply song and dance.

Changes are coming, you can feel it in the air. The actors are getting desperate now as they also sense a big change is just around the corner.

originally posted by: and14263
Apt. I just finished reading Brave New World.

We've given an inch and they've taken a mile.

Brave New World - where everything was planned, everyone had their place, information was restricted to a need to know basis and guarded jealously because it was valuable and indicated your predestined position in society. Based on the idea of Eugenics and free love to keep the population happy.

1984 - where information was disinformation. There was so much information that it became meaningless within minutes. A society under constant surveillance from paranoid authorities. Based on the disinformation society of World War II. No need to try and keep the population happy because there wasn't a word for unhappiness. English language was restructured so that only purethought approved by groupthink was possible.

a reply to: Kharron

I've always felt Farenheit 451 got it closer than the rest of them. A world where everyone spends their time high on happy and anti-anxiety pills and constantly hooked up to earbuds and a giant screen while actively encouraging stupidity and destroying knowledge. Sounds a lot like today to me.

Not a bad post. I've been saying that we've been living in A Brave New World for years.

BUT, to say you've never lived through a time when people trusted and believed in a authority?

Did you not live through the Obama Presidency?

Or any other?

From my point of view it looks like less and less people are buying the bs by the day.

I think the youngsters are more in favor of a Logan's Run where they get rid of everyone over 30 but without the experience and wisdom of the older generation they may end up eloi.

The new struggle will not be against exploitation (unlike the 20th century), it will be against irrelevance.

When technology and machines do everything, you won't even be able to sell yourself into slavery.

Nobody wants to exploit you, in fact, nobody wants you at all.

You will become irrelevant, and so will your entire existence.

originally posted by: halfoldman
The new struggle will not be against exploitation (unlike the 20th century), it will be against irrelevance.

When technology and machines do everything, you won't even be able to sell yourself into slavery.

Nobody wants to exploit you, in fact, nobody wants you at all.

You will become irrelevant, and so will your entire existence.

Very true... also the reason we will all be moving toward basic income in the near future.

Robots will make most jobs obsolete, so what do you do with the people? And basic income for some 8 billion people?

But if it were, say... 500 million people.