Aldous Huxley and Brave New World: The Dark Side of Pleasure

“In a report released in 2021, scientists on a subcommittee of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) in the UK admitted to using “totalitarian” mind-control tactics to obtain mass-compliance. One scientist went as far as to state that he was “stunned by the weaponisation of behavioural psychology over the last five years”, while another admitted:

“You could call psychology ‘mind control’. That’s what we do… clearly we try and go about it in a positive way, but it has been used nefariously in the past. Psychology has been used for wicked ends.”

Laura Dodsworth, A State of Fear

Along with conditioning the thoughts and behaviors of the citizens, in Brave New World the latest in technology is used by the ruling authorities to provide the population with “non-stop distractions of the most fascinating nature”. The purpose of this readily available entertainment was twofold: firstly, to ensure that the citizens did not pay attention to political and social realities, and secondly, to promote docility and stupidity and thus create a population that cared little for freedom. Is something similar happening today?

Whether intentionally imposed on society, or not, one thing is certain: Technology and the endless supply of stimulating yet morally degrading entertainment that flows from it is creating a passive, ignorant, and spiritually crippled population uninterested in resisting the implementation of its political chains – just as Huxley warned:

“As the art and science of manipulation come to be better understood, the dictators of the future will doubtless learn to combine [techniques of propaganda] with the non-stop distractions which, in the West, are now threatening to drown in a sea of irrelevance of the rational [information] essential to the maintenance of individual liberty.”

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited”

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one…Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture…In 1984 people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

They were both right at the same time.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books (relevant information). What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book (relevant information), for there would be no one who wanted to read one (relevant information).

We are drowned in a sea of irrelevance (irrelevant information/entertainment) and at the same time truth is concealed from us (we get censorship and propaganda). We are captive to a culture of triviality (irrelevant information/entertainment). We are controlled by inflicting pleasure (entertainment/money/status/etc) and we are at the same controlled by pain/punishment (example of such punishment can be Julian Assange who wanted to give us relevant information).