Aldous Huxley's most terrifyingly accurate prediction about our society (from 1948)

In 1948, Aldous Huxley sent a letter to George Orwell regarding the novel "1984." The letter is very revealing and was only released in 2012.

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

www.lettersofnote.com...


THOUGHTS??!

reply to post by doesntmakesense


Those two English writers were way ahead of their time.
It makes you wonder if they were in fact Time Travelers

reply to post by doesntmakesense


Give cattle enough to roam and the illusion of freedom is prevalent where as tight confinement offers no illusion and the cattle become quickly frightened and uneasy as to whats happening. This is very insightful indeed and hope the part about biological or nuclear war never becomes the truth. The future is still uncertain, we have the power to alter it when darker days loom over the horizon, that is, if we so choose to.

reply to post by doesntmakesense


Nice find, thanks.

We are really screwing ourselves by allowing mainstream science and "debunkers" to distract us from parapsychological findings.

They were working from the models of Psychology they had available their day.

There's far more sophisticated means by which to govern, influence and control a population now.
Asch Conformity, Social Sympathetic Compliance, and other Social Modelling methods come to mind.

Most people's compliance, for instance, can be graphed according the amount of time they spend plugged into Online Social Network programs.

AliceBleachWhite

They were working from the models of Psychology they had available their day.

There's far more sophisticated means by which to govern, influence and control a population now.
Asch Conformity, Social Sympathetic Compliance, and other Social Modelling methods come to mind.

Most people's compliance, for instance, can be graphed according the amount of time they spend plugged into Online Social Network programs.

Does "poop shaming" fall under any of them categories?

reply to post by BlueMule


That reminds me of an old thread: Aldous Huxley was correct not George Orwell.

I think A Brave New World is very much like what is happening today, with 1984's style of surveillance.

by this time, both men had a good idea how hitler was able to influence the german people by the type of propaganda used. the power of hitler to fool his own people into believing what he wanted them to believe, cannot be dismissed.

The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency.

The felt need for increased efficiency is something which permeates now all aspects of social, economic and political paradigm we live in. The Brave new world or the Orwellian vision, is it possible to blend them both together?

jimmyx
by this time, both men had a good idea how hitler was able to influence the german people by the type of propaganda used. the power of hitler to fool his own people into believing what he wanted them to believe, cannot be dismissed.

I have spoken with many German's that lived during that era in Germany. The only thing many of them felt fooled about was the Jewish death camps and even then they had some idea of what was happening. Frankly I think they knew all to well and shame is making them say they were fooled.




Bad men gain and retain power using suffering. When people are suffering they will demand change and then the progressive oligarchy will give them some change. It worked back then and it works till this day. Hitler was a progressive and took inspiration from the early progressive movement in America.

alldaylong
reply to post by doesntmakesense

 

Those two English writers were way ahead of their time.
It makes you wonder if they were in fact Time Travelers

Damn, I wish I was a time traveller so I could back to a time when you could write freely without being arrested or disnfo'd about.

SubTruth

jimmyx
by this time, both men had a good idea how hitler was able to influence the german people by the type of propaganda used. the power of hitler to fool his own people into believing what he wanted them to believe, cannot be dismissed.

I have spoken with many German's that lived during that era in Germany. The only thing many of them felt fooled about was the Jewish death camps and even then they had some idea of what was happening. Frankly I think they knew all to well and shame is making them say they were fooled.




Bad men gain and retain power using suffering. When people are suffering they will demand change and then the progressive oligarchy will give them some change. It worked back then and it works till this day. Hitler was a progressive and took inspiration from the early progressive movement in America.

Good point, and some Americans even supported Hitler during WW2.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


I think that's what's happening. We have a 1984 type world growing underneath a veneer of Brave New World on the surface.

Most of the world seems like a frothy, consumerist Brave New World, if it feels good do it Soma dream land, but fall out of line, and you cross into a darker 1984-style psychological punishment regime.

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


Most of the world admired both Hitler and Moussolini and fascism in the lead up to and even after the opening of WWII. A lot of people felt that fascism was the new way to go in the world and that it was only a matter of time before all the world went fascist, even America. In fact, there were plenty of people who were openly in favor of FDR making America fascist.

In some ways, it's not unlike all the demands for a new socialist way today.

The narco-hypnosis part stuck out to me, haven't most all of the recent mass murderers been on prescription narcotics? The Aurora movie theatre shooter told his cellmate that his psychiatrist brain washed him into doing it, sirhan sirhan made a similar claim. The navy yard shooter claimed the government was using technology to put voices in his head. No proof of any of these claims, however I believe tptb have the ability and motive to do so.

reply to post by jaws1975


I think they were on anti-depressions or anti-psychotics. Narcotics by definition are derived from opium and generally used as pain killers.

With the internet, TV, and radio we are bombarded with so much information and most of is absolute junk. For the most part our society is controlled by inflecting pleasure ala A Brave New World.

Evening,

I don't see it as a prediction at all.
It was/is the plan being adhered to by those who follow in the footsteps of the Grandpa of Eugenics himself.
It's no more a prediction of man's future than a recipe is a prediction of food.
At least this is how I see it.

-Peace-

You have to go through 1984 to get to the Brave New World. The 1984 phase is the stamping out of individuality and consolidating power. Once the resistance is crushed then they unfold the high tech new society. Radically different from anything we have ever seen. Growing humans for specific task and more.

The fact is, you do not need to look too hard, or search with great focus for the way our societies today reflect many elements from both 'A Brave New World' and '1984', but I would agree with Huxley that his vision is more reflected in presentation and function, whereas Orwell's vision reflects the means by which Huxley-an elements are brought into being and preserved.

The one aspect about our societies that we should always bear in mind, is that a minority is determining itself as the 'ruling elite' above all others. That is to say, human beings whom perceive themselves above their fellow man, and having acquired and secured the social apex, now determine the means and method for remaining in that position. You will never remove them whilst adhering to the rules and regulations they have written by which the 'self-claimed' elite want societies to function. Only by counter-revolutionary action driven by an alternative ideology will change to the present system be brought about.

In 'A Brave New World', children are no longer born naturally, but 'decanted' as test tube babies, artificially grown and chemically interfered with to lessen intelligence and increase docility, and determined by selection to the level of society they will function in. Most of you, reading these words, will have been determined - following Huxley's plot - to be of the lower caste cattle-servants for the elite. Think about that plot device for a moment, and then apply it to your real life situation as it is now. Do you see any commonalities? Perhaps, the only thing you may perceive as missing is the cow-bell around your neck and a brand of ownership on your forehead? George Carlin often joked..."You are owned, 'they' own you!"

The surveillance elements of Orwell are already in place and very active, and indeed, the 'Doublespeak' language used in media. Right now, British Society is being attacked by its own government, where the poverty-stricken, the unemployed, low-wage earners, long-term disabled, are having their social security lifelines cut, whilst the government uses the media to stigmatise them as feckless layabouts, skivers and parasites. Meanwhile, they open up immigration gates to bring in immigrants from other countries whom will take up employment at less than minimum wage rates, all the while being exploited by unscrupulous landlords charging rents that take most of their wage, trapping them in servitude.

What these two authors had in common, the warnings they made, have been used as loose blue prints for the elite's vision. That is what you are being faced with today. I adjure you...read the books, and then see just how close your life is to their nightmares...then recoil in horror at your leisure.

reply to post by doesntmakesense


Dont you think that, living in a time when '1984' was available to the wider public, would have affected one's opinion about how the future would turn out?

Its like nobody could predict the future without somehow referring to '1984'!

reply to post by doesntmakesense


This one is quite scary.

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.

Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large scale biological and atomic war

The sequel to 2010's Metro 2033 takes place in the year 2034, where nuclear war has turned the world into a post-apocalyptic wasteland meaning the former inhabitants of Moscow must take to the tunnels of the Metro to survive. Players will take control of Artyom, as he tries to fight off the various mutants that haunt the wasteland as well as stop impending civil war.

Can you imagine a world like that? lets try not to. Is this what the War Mongers, interventionists want? a total complete destruction of our beloved world because of their some mental insane fantasy?