In the future, I’m right: Letter from Aldous Huxley to George Orwell over 1984

I did a search and cant find any reference here in ATS about this event, so if this already was posted before, I apologize.



That said, today I was looking for interesting news and came across this gem:

In October of 1949, a few months after the release of George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four, he received a fascinating letter from fellow author Aldous Huxley — a man who, 17 years previous, had seen his own nightmarish vision of society published, in the form of Brave New World. What begins as a letter of praise soon becomes a brief comparison of the two novels, and an explanation as to why Huxley believes his own, earlier work to be a more realistic prediction.

I'm a big fan of these two authors, as well as of their most famous works which in my judgment were:

In the future, I’m right: Letter from Aldous Huxley to George Orwell over 1984 novel sheds light on their different ideas

They were both critically acclaimed writers who were ahead of their time, creating imaginative visions of the future in their novels.

But an enlightening letter sent by Aldous Huxley to his fellow author George Orwell more than 60 years ago reveals that the two men had very different ideas of how the world would change.

Huxley's 1949 letter - the latest addition to a website that collects fascinating missives from the past - praises Orwell for the novel 1984, which offers a terrifying portrayal of a future totalitarian society....

Read more: Dailymail

Here the Full letter:

Wrightwood. Cal.
21 October, 1949

Dear Mr. Orwell,

It was very kind of you to tell your publishers to send me a copy of your book. It arrived as I was in the midst of a piece of work that required much reading and consulting of references; and since poor sight makes it necessary for me to ration my reading, I had to wait a long time before being able to embark on Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Agreeing with all that the critics have written of it, I need not tell you, yet once more, how fine and how profoundly important the book is. May I speak instead of the thing with which the book deals — the ultimate revolution? The first hints of a philosophy of the ultimate revolution — the revolution which lies beyond politics and economics, and which aims at total subversion of the individual's psychology and physiology — are to be found in the Marquis de Sade, who regarded himself as the continuator, the consummator, of Robespierre and Babeuf. The philosophy of the ruling minority in Nineteen Eighty-Four is a sadism which has been carried to its logical conclusion by going beyond sex and denying it. Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful. My own belief is that the ruling oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World. I have had occasion recently to look into the history of animal magnetism and hypnotism, and have been greatly struck by the way in which, for a hundred and fifty years, the world has refused to take serious cognizance of the discoveries of Mesmer, Braid, Esdaile, and the rest.

Partly because of the prevailing materialism and partly because of prevailing respectability, nineteenth-century philosophers and men of science were not willing to investigate the odder facts of psychology for practical men, such as politicians, soldiers and policemen, to apply in the field of government. Thanks to the voluntary ignorance of our fathers, the advent of the ultimate revolution was delayed for five or six generations. Another lucky accident was Freud's inability to hypnotize successfully and his consequent disparagement of hypnotism. This delayed the general application of hypnotism to psychiatry for at least forty years. But now psycho-analysis is being combined with hypnosis; and hypnosis has been made easy and indefinitely extensible through the use of barbiturates, which induce a hypnoid and suggestible state in even the most recalcitrant subjects.

Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large scale biological and atomic war — in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely imaginable kinds.

Thank you once again for the book.

Yours sincerely,

Aldous Huxley

I have no doubt that we live in society that is ruled by an Inner-party that uses both machine guns and hypno-screens to keep power.

” Thanks to the voluntary ignorance of our fathers, the advent of the ultimate revolution was delayed for five or six generations.” – This is something I find fascinating.

Source: Dailymail
Source2: Lettersofnote

Enjoy.

Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons

damned

ty OP - again a good example for their high inside knowledge...impressiv

Agreed. Thanks for sharing; very interesting and great topic

Here is an illustrated example (click picture to full size)

www.recombinantrecords.net...

Star and Flag!
nice find !
I agree with the statement in the letter regarding hypnotism..to the extent that I took on an internship doing av and web work for a hypnotist a while back...
Problem reaction solutuion
this goes hand in hand with MAKING people think they want to submit to this tyranny


perfect

again awsome find and post
IMHO it should be required reading on the front page.
hypnotism can deny OR entrench ignorance

I am sure huxley would change his mind if he was around nowadays, and saw the power the internet has on all our lives. I think the ultimate revolution will turn out to be a kind of anarchic state where people reject the long established power structure and herald in a true form of democracy accessible to all. We can already see the seeds of such a thing happening in the world around us right now. Why else do you think TP TB fear the web so much?

reply to post by Danbones

this goes hand in hand with MAKING people think they want to submit to this tyranny

perfect

You said well. Perfect.

I wonder how Huxley and Orwell could be so visionaries about the future. It seems PTB have prepared the battlefield to their advantage by passing totalitarian laws nowadays.

reply to post by RUSSO

Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience.

This right here, in bold emphasis, is the true meaning of life as we know it.
People love their servitude more than anything in this world.
They are all blindy attracted to the desires it perpetually engrains into them.
They all love everything this world has to make them happy, not caring about the forced debt.
Every generation teaches the next, how life is "supposed to be".
Which, in turn, dumbs down the next group of willing slaves.

We all think we are "free", but the truth is, we are forever indebted to this gov't.
There is no true freedom when you always owe this gov't a debt of money or labor.
We follow what our liars in CONgress tell us so much, as to permanently enslave our grandchildren!

Who would allow this to happen?

WHO?

Those who love their servitude.
That's who.





Great thread and great authors...

Originally posted by Atzil321
I am sure huxley would change his mind if he was around nowadays, and saw the power the internet has on all our lives. I think the ultimate revolution will turn out to be a kind of anarchic state where people reject the long established power structure and herald in a true form of democracy accessible to all. We can already see the seeds of such a thing happening in the world around us right now. Why else do you think TP TB fear the web so much?

I wish I could share the optimism in your expectations on the internet's influence in change.
However, my observations show me the internet basically is yet another channel (or collection of channels in this case) to distribute entertainment. Of course there are things like ATS, there's the boom of alternative news organizations. But then again, where's the audience? And what's that audience doing? Trowing silly birds and pissing their pants while acting as stupid as possible (ok, this is a generalization ;-) )

I've always thought that the world was moving more towards a "Huxlian" society, rather than the Orwellian ways of 1984.

Great thread...though I gotta admit I was pretty surprised to see this topic presented in an MSM outlet, such as the Daily Mail.

S&F.

Great thread, and thank you.

1984 has remained one of my most favorite books ever since reading it in school, Orwell and Huxley were two incredibly smart people. I have yet to read Brave New World but seeing this thread got me interested in it again.

s+f!

Originally posted by RUSSO
reply to post by Danbones

 

this goes hand in hand with MAKING people think they want to submit to this tyranny

perfect

You said well. Perfect.

I wonder how Huxley and Orwell could be so visionaries about the future. It seems PTB have prepared the battlefield to their advantage by passing totalitarian laws nowadays.

They were both eugenicists and had ties to other people of the time with the ideal. Literature was an insight to a planned utopia.

They were both absolutely right. We are now living in a combination of the two. If the people don't fall for the Brave New World paradigm (sex, drugs, entertainment inducing apathy and acceptance) like the US, where they have swallowed it hook, line, and sinker; they get the 1984 treatment, like Libya, if they don't fall for the BS.

I KNOW this is true; I sell TIMESHARES. We don't have the 1984 or "Shock and Awe" option, only the Brave New World option. Just so you know, they are a scam. Don't ever buy one, it is NOT a good deal no matter what they told you. Ask anyone who "owns" one. They own nothing.

I do the Brave New World plan on suckers every day. First, tug at their little heartstrings. Give them coffee (a drug). Get them to agree to a bunch of emotional stuff. The more they agree with me as I tug their little heartstrings, the more they are going to agree that they should BUY this crap, as in, GIVE ME THEIR MONEY in exchange for smoke and mirrors. Then give them some alcohol (another drug) to congratulate them on their wisdom. If I do it properly, and I always do, they will THANK me for "helping them out". Just like they thank the govt for "helping" them and "protecting" them.

The easiest is when they have kids with them. I can EASILY get the kids to be on my side, and then BAM, I take their money. Just like the govt does, for example this Kony thing going on all of a sudden right now.

I could go on and on. If you ever get on the dishing it out end of this stuff, you can ALWAYS see right through it when it's being tried on you.

Great thread, if I knew how to 'flag' I would do my first one.

Wasn't Huxley in the Fabian Society? No so much predicting the future as seeing what they'd got planned for us I always thought.

reply to post by SmoKeyHaZe


After reading both i got the feeling the PTB are using both, Huxley's method snags most of the population and are happy about it, but the measures are in place so that if you do see too far beyond the veil and starting acting apon it, then 1984 is ready and waiting.



As far as the internet goes, it is another great way to distribute entertainment but also for any information at all and for the time being (until TPB gain control over it) that means once people start to see things are amiss the internet is there to help find out what is really happening in the world...well as long as they have a working BS filter

Things seemed amiss for me in my teens but the net wasn't as developed as it is now and it resulted in me going back to sleep and learning how to drink everyone under the table as an attempt to just enjoy life and ignore what was blatantly wrong.

reply to post by NeverSleepingEyes
The internet is a tool limited only by the users imagination. If someone wants to use it for entertainment only, then that is a bad reflection of that person as an individual. It does not diminish it's capacity for spreading ideas and knowledge at a speed undreamed of by our parents generation. As an example consider the arab spring. Twitter, Facebook and youtube were all used to coordinate the uprisings by the people themselves, and the same sites have provided the best window into what's happening on the Arab street 'not the msm'.

Another example at how fast the internet can spread information and generate interest is this video here. 34 million hits in 4 days. The start of the vid actually talks about what i am trying to say here 'but finding hard to express'. I realy believe the internet is a tool that can bring all of humanity together and set us free. We must never let them take it away from us.

Originally posted by SmoKeyHaZe

..though I gotta admit I was pretty surprised to see this topic presented in an MSM outlet, such as the Daily Mail.

S&F.

Sadly, MSM know at least 80% will not even read the tittle of the article.

Orwell was not predicting the future at all, what he as doing was showing the people at the moment how things were. Things have always been this way on the planet, he was only using "tech" metaphors that would exaggerate the presentation and allows folks to digest it. Folks at the time failed to notice their reality was all that and more - minus the cameras. If you look at Heinlein's books you'll see the same stuff, only he openly pointed out how the 1984 world was their world.

Orwell was not a prognosticator, he was a very accurate observer of the reality he lived in, only the folks at the time were unable to see it at all, let alone as he presented it, and failed to adjust.

Both books are amazing pieces of work, but without a doubt A Brave New World left more of an impact. I do think we will be (and currently are) going through a version of 1984 but the end result will be closer to A Brave New World for similar reasons Aldous listed. Same thing slave masters found out; a physically beaten down and constrained slave will never work as hard or be as loyal as a psychologically conditioned (brainwashed) slave. Take the mind and you have the body.

Thanks for the letter, it was a great read!
Peace

I started a facinating thread on these two books awhile ago

but nice job OP

Originally posted by Atzil321
reply to post by NeverSleepingEyes

 

The internet is a tool limited only by the users imagination. If someone wants to use it for entertainment only, then that is a bad reflection of that person as an individual. It does not diminish it's capacity for spreading ideas and knowledge at a speed undreamed of by our parents generation. As an example consider the arab spring. Twitter, Facebook and youtube were all used to coordinate the uprisings by the people themselves, and the same sites have provided the best window into what's happening on the Arab street 'not the msm'.

Another example at how fast the internet can spread information and generate interest is this video here. 34 million hits in 4 days. The start of the vid actually talks about what i am trying to say here 'but finding hard to express'. I realy believe the internet is a tool that can bring all of humanity together and set us free. We must never let them take it away from us.

Perfect example of the Brave New World in action. The "arab spring" and this Kony crap are govt psy ops, all the way. You think you are gaining "knowledge at a speed undreamed of by our parents' generation". HA. You are being PROPAGANDIZED at a speed undreamed of by your parents' generation. Yet you THINK you are free and know what's going on. You are falling right into the honeypot.