If
1984 was about the abolition of freedom, Aldous Huxley's
(1894-1963)
Brave New
World was about the abolition of man. Where Ingsoc took the
hard approach and
tortured and brainwashed men into utter submission, the year of 632
After Ford nipped the problem in the bud and bred and conditioned people like
sheep so that they were
incapable of anything other than submission. In fact, the people
of Our Ford had a lot of common with sheep, or at least one (or is it
two?) real life sheep. Have a problem with people not liking their
place in society? In Brave New Word people aren't born,
they're cloned and decanted from bottles in a manner analogous to the
late Dolly pictured at left. These factory-bred people are
conditioned from the moment of conception to produce job lots of
workers to suit every level of society like ants in a hive. Divisions
aren't a matter of class or income, but a real physical and mental
divide with various types of people from intelligent Alpha humans,
slightly less intelligent Betas for middle management work,
semi-moronic Gammas for manual labour, simian Deltas for assembly line
work, and sub-human Epsilons as Big Brother contestants.
Aldous Huxley
Where
1984 was horrifying, Brave New World was profoundly
disturbing because it undercuts the main argument of prevailing
against tyranny-- after all, how can man defeat tyrants if man no longer exists?
The people who inhabit Huxley's world look human, but they have as
much in common with real people as a lap dog does with a wolf.
From birth they are subjected to sleep teaching, aversion therapy, and
all sorts of things that twist babies into human bonzai trees who
become adults that are perfectly suited for the job selected for them,
yet are as utterly malleable as an infant outside of working hours.
Then it's simply a matter of keeping the masses happy and free
from all thought with every sort of game, "feelies," rampant sex,
unbridled consumption, and, if all else fails, drug them with soma to
the point where they're incapable of making any decision moral or
otherwise.
Rebellion will never occur, because rebellion
belongs to an extinct species.
If
1984 was about the abolition of freedom, Aldous Huxley's
(1894-1963)
Brave New
World was about the abolition of man. Where Ingsoc took the
hard approach and
tortured and brainwashed men into utter submission, the year of 632
After Ford nipped the problem in the bud and bred and conditioned people like
sheep so that they were
incapable of anything other than submission. In fact, the people
of Our Ford had a lot of common with sheep, or at least one (or is it
two?) real life sheep. Have a problem with people not liking their
place in society? In Brave New Word people aren't born,
they're cloned and decanted from bottles in a manner analogous to the
late Dolly pictured at left. These factory-bred people are
conditioned from the moment of conception to produce job lots of
workers to suit every level of society like ants in a hive. Divisions
aren't a matter of class or income, but a real physical and mental
divide with various types of people from intelligent Alpha humans,
slightly less intelligent Betas for middle management work,
semi-moronic Gammas for manual labour, simian Deltas for assembly line
work, and sub-human Epsilons as Big Brother contestants. 