Brave New World vs. 1984

Today is the second anniversary of the death of Terri Schiavo. At the time she died, I wrote several blog posts about the politics surrounding the ruling to allow her to dehydrate. Her brother recently wrote an article for WorldNetDaily that fairly summarizes the press’ treatment of her life and death. I so appreciate the “alternative press’” handling of cases like these. You do not get an accurate picture of what is happening from the lamestream media (I didn‘t make that up, I read it somewhere else, but I forget where). They can make you think and feel however they want you to, just by the way they word their stories. Which leads me to the subject of today’s post.

I just finished reading Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and 1984, by George Orwell. Huxley’s book first came out in 1932, Orwell’s in 1949. They are both referred to so often in our culture, that since I hadn’t read them before, I thought I’d better give it a shot. They are what’s called “negative utopias” - visions of the future “perfect” society that obviously fall far short of real perfection. They are similar in that in both works, the value of the individual is nothing. All is for the good of collective society. Both societies are governed by an elite few. Huxley accomplishes this “good” through genetic engineering, conditioning, drugs, and encouraging promiscuous behavior. Orwell makes the accomplishment through force: continuous universal monitoring, constantly rewriting history, and physically reprogramming independent thinkers through torture.

We have a number of common words and phrases that come from these works: Big Brother, newspeak, “Orwellian”, thought police, thought crime, and doublethink all come from 1984. Huxley gives us the word soma (a drug used daily to even out people‘s emotions), as well as numerous plot line references in many modern books, movies, music, etc.

Basically, Brave New World keeps people in line through pleasure. 1984 controls through pain. We obviously have elements of both at work in our society today. More and more we are using genetic engineering to select for traits that we consider desirable. Conditioning is made easy through television, the press, and public schooling. Both adults and children are often drugged before even making an effort to discover the root cause of physical and psychological problems. Promiscuity is accepted and even encouraged. We are forced into allowing the government to decide whose lives are worth living and whose are not (quality of life has replaced sanctity of life as the overriding value). Computers and credit/bank cards allow tracking of almost everything we do or buy.

Here is what Neil Postman (in Amusing Ourselves to Death, a book I haven’t made it all the way through yet) says about the comparison between these two books:

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 those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.…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 hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

So, perhaps we could say that the United States is more like Brave New World, and any Muslim or Communist totalitarian regime is more like 1984. There are exceptions, of course. Such as the Terri Schiavo case, when government decides that death by dehydration is the best way to fix a disabled woman’s problems.

These are two very thought-provoking books. If you are a reader, you might consider reading them. I would not recommend them for anyone under 18 due to adult content. Bottom line: there will be no “perfect” societies this side of heaven. Jesus is the only perfector, and the fall of man through sin guarantees an imperfect world. We should all pray for wisdom in discerning evil and good.