I really enjoyed reading these! I love the direction that your essay series took regarding magic and predictive programming and the deeper mechanisms behind propaganda. This was so interesting (and if I recall, I think Huxley mentions this type of thing in "Brave New World Revisited"). It seems I've only scratched the surface... thanks so much for sharing this.
Isn't that amazing. This seems to be one of those rare synchronicities where many isolated individuals come to the same conclusion independently. For a while now, I've been joking about how we always used to wonder whether the future held 1984 or Brave New World. None of us imagined it even could be both, at the same time. Great essay, as is that of your friend.
I actually bought a 'Make 1984 Fiction Again' T-shirt a couple of months ago from Amazon. I doubt it will do any bloody good, but it makes me feel good every time I put it on! Sometimes trivial acts of rebellion can feel like a psychic balm.
Well, when I read both essays my mind wandered to H.G. Wells The Time Machine. He may have been wrong about the mechanics of Morlocks and Eloi, but he got the division completely right! The Eloi are the vicious ones.
I'd say Brave New World & 1984 with at least a smidgen of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange tossed in, no matter if satire, prophesy, or whatever, pretty much describes, defines delimits the chaos that's today.
The year is 2024, and I own a flip phone. When people ask -- and they invariably do -- why I don't get a smart phone, my response is always the same. "I'm smart enough already."
Yes, the addictive dopamine hits our brain's produce when we view entertaining media continually on our phones and social media platforms, is like an analogy of the "soma" pleasure drug that the Brave New World government used to control it's citizens.
I started seriously limiting my social media a month ago. I feel so much better for it. Of course, I still look at my phone all day for other reasons, and I want to limit this in the future too. We all need to do this, I think.
Very subversive. Yes, the boot is stamping on the human face.
We individuals are ignored as only people in racial/religious/religious classes are recognized.
When all the individuals are gone(Marxist War in progress), then only classes are left to fight each other.
The Communists at the government have gene technologies beyond your wildest dreams, and you need them for being a violent bigot following a terrorist cult.
If your just an ethnocentric bigot in a cult, you don’t deserve freedom or civil rights. You need to be put in a cage like 1984….That’s what Donald Trump is for. Trump is Orwell’s Big Brother.
Orwell was a real British Intel Agent studying Stalin and its always been the same plan. Orwell Got it right. Huxley got it right about what happens after 1984. Yes, you will enjoy being transformed into designer slaves of the communists indeed.
The US is sliding into a mix of the 2 books with the college-educated running toward the "Brave New World" while the non-college-educated are rebelling from having the "1984" experience.
England is becoming overrun by Islamists which was not mentioned in either book.
Are you ready for Sharia Law to be imposed in the UK, and the Union Jack to be recolored as black, white and red with a green crescent over it like other Islamic state flags in the Middle East?
"A system of government would have a very difficult time persisting indefinitely if its people were constantly miserable". Depends where you land in the socio-economic ladder. People on the lower end are consistently miserable, but lack the means to do fuck-all about it. The system knows this, the middle-to-upper classes know this, and both quietly agree to let it continue, lest they lose their tenuous status and escape the described misery.
As soon as you quoted: “The ideal stimulant, powerful but innocuous,” which will “temporarily alter the chemistry of the brain and the associated state of the mind without doing any permanent damage to the organism as a whole.” I immediately thought "Sounds like social media", too funny.
In regards to the Orwell vs Huxley debate, I too have always thought that both are relevant today, it is almost as if the powers that be used both books as instruction manuals for authoritarianism. A multifaceted approach.
Glad we’re on the same page regarding the social media thing, haha!
Sometimes I wonder if these books really were used as instructional manuals for totalitarianism. It’s a scary thought—how do you issue a warning without also giving your opponent some great ideas?
I think you will find this video on Orwell very interesting. Alan Watt, said that Orwell was raised within the 'family" but turned on them in his late years and exposed the system for what it was, and what they had planned.
Brave New World = carrot
1984 = stick
2 sides, same coin
Exactly! :)
OMG! I wrote the same thing a couple years ago! Huxley got it right! Here’s my analysis: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-brave-new-world-of-1984-part
I really enjoyed reading these! I love the direction that your essay series took regarding magic and predictive programming and the deeper mechanisms behind propaganda. This was so interesting (and if I recall, I think Huxley mentions this type of thing in "Brave New World Revisited"). It seems I've only scratched the surface... thanks so much for sharing this.
I agree, I think both. Brave New World was the cheese luring us to the mousetrap that is 1984.
Fun fact: Huxely was actually Orwell’s high school french teacher!
Both
Isn't that amazing. This seems to be one of those rare synchronicities where many isolated individuals come to the same conclusion independently. For a while now, I've been joking about how we always used to wonder whether the future held 1984 or Brave New World. None of us imagined it even could be both, at the same time. Great essay, as is that of your friend.
I actually bought a 'Make 1984 Fiction Again' T-shirt a couple of months ago from Amazon. I doubt it will do any bloody good, but it makes me feel good every time I put it on! Sometimes trivial acts of rebellion can feel like a psychic balm.
Totally agreed about the little acts of rebellion.
It’s so weird how all these dystopian authors manage to be right in different ways.
Well, when I read both essays my mind wandered to H.G. Wells The Time Machine. He may have been wrong about the mechanics of Morlocks and Eloi, but he got the division completely right! The Eloi are the vicious ones.
Good un, Melissa!
I'd say Brave New World & 1984 with at least a smidgen of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange tossed in, no matter if satire, prophesy, or whatever, pretty much describes, defines delimits the chaos that's today.
Interesting times.
Yes, definitely A Clockwork Orange! It’s a shame that it’s rarely brought up in the discussion (probably because of the awful Kubrick movie).
Yep but hey, I thought the movie was Хорошо!
The year is 2024, and I own a flip phone. When people ask -- and they invariably do -- why I don't get a smart phone, my response is always the same. "I'm smart enough already."
Yes, the addictive dopamine hits our brain's produce when we view entertaining media continually on our phones and social media platforms, is like an analogy of the "soma" pleasure drug that the Brave New World government used to control it's citizens.
I started seriously limiting my social media a month ago. I feel so much better for it. Of course, I still look at my phone all day for other reasons, and I want to limit this in the future too. We all need to do this, I think.
Well Done!
Thank you, Albert! :)
Very subversive. Yes, the boot is stamping on the human face.
We individuals are ignored as only people in racial/religious/religious classes are recognized.
When all the individuals are gone(Marxist War in progress), then only classes are left to fight each other.
The Communists at the government have gene technologies beyond your wildest dreams, and you need them for being a violent bigot following a terrorist cult.
If your just an ethnocentric bigot in a cult, you don’t deserve freedom or civil rights. You need to be put in a cage like 1984….That’s what Donald Trump is for. Trump is Orwell’s Big Brother.
Orwell was a real British Intel Agent studying Stalin and its always been the same plan. Orwell Got it right. Huxley got it right about what happens after 1984. Yes, you will enjoy being transformed into designer slaves of the communists indeed.
https://jbiophysics.substack.com/p/2-minutes-of-maga
They BOTH got it right. Different perspectives from different countries on the same results. Huxsley was seeing the US. Orwell was seeing England.
Hm, interesting perspective. Do you think that’s still true (that England looks more like Orwell’s vision today)?
No.
The US is sliding into a mix of the 2 books with the college-educated running toward the "Brave New World" while the non-college-educated are rebelling from having the "1984" experience.
England is becoming overrun by Islamists which was not mentioned in either book.
Are you ready for Sharia Law to be imposed in the UK, and the Union Jack to be recolored as black, white and red with a green crescent over it like other Islamic state flags in the Middle East?
"A system of government would have a very difficult time persisting indefinitely if its people were constantly miserable". Depends where you land in the socio-economic ladder. People on the lower end are consistently miserable, but lack the means to do fuck-all about it. The system knows this, the middle-to-upper classes know this, and both quietly agree to let it continue, lest they lose their tenuous status and escape the described misery.
That’s a good point. I guess a population can be miserable, so long as they don’t have too much free time to think about it.
As soon as you quoted: “The ideal stimulant, powerful but innocuous,” which will “temporarily alter the chemistry of the brain and the associated state of the mind without doing any permanent damage to the organism as a whole.” I immediately thought "Sounds like social media", too funny.
In regards to the Orwell vs Huxley debate, I too have always thought that both are relevant today, it is almost as if the powers that be used both books as instruction manuals for authoritarianism. A multifaceted approach.
Glad we’re on the same page regarding the social media thing, haha!
Sometimes I wonder if these books really were used as instructional manuals for totalitarianism. It’s a scary thought—how do you issue a warning without also giving your opponent some great ideas?
I think you will find this video on Orwell very interesting. Alan Watt, said that Orwell was raised within the 'family" but turned on them in his late years and exposed the system for what it was, and what they had planned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG-Lfk4GSPU
Thanks so much for sharing this, @Karafree! Can’t wait to watch—this might be the information I’ve been looking for about Orwell’s background.
at about 15:25 in he discusses Huxley and Orwell and their differences, relationship.
Look at the Slot Machine Effect as applied to social media.