Aldous Huxley
What kind of world are we building? Can we predict how the future will look based on today’s state? Reflecting on this, English writer Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) wrote the cautionary novel Brave New World in 1931, which has become synonymous with a world heading in an inhumane direction.
Today, we can assess whether some of his predictions have come true. Huxley prophetically imagined a society of technological progress where people are no longer born, but instead created through biological engineering in test tubes and conditioned to become cogs in a society that functions like an assembly line. And not just any cogs, but happy cogs because the purpose of the entire conditioning process is to make people love their inevitable fate. The conditioning includes hypnotic teaching, known as hypnopaedia, which implants everything children need to fulfill their predetermined roles from a young age: One hundred repetitions, three nights a week, for four years… Sixty-two… Four thousand repetitions form one truth.
Society is divided into castes that differ in the abilities and skills they are given through processing. The society needs a mass of people who will be employed in inhumane jobs because an important condition for maintaining such a system lies in the fact that a certain caste is processed to love a job that someone from a higher caste would not accept to do.
In addition to the different patterns that are instilled in members of specific castes, there are also universal elements of processing. For example, everyone is processed in a way that they do not cultivate interpersonal relationships. Developing close relationships with a sense of connection and responsibility is considered deviant. Mass consumption at all levels is highly desirable, and a consumerist approach dominates human relationships. A person is created to be a happy worker and consumer who maintains the system. And nothing more. In the event that a moment arises in which a person does not feel completely satisfied with what is offered to them, whether by doing their job or by enjoying leisure And there is no third option, the state has a solution in the form of daily free doses of narcotics called soma. The state cannot take risks, any opportunity for doubt or questioning about the purpose of such a way of life is prevented by regular doses, and more frequent consumption is recommended as needed. Now a person can afford a break from reality whenever they want, without hangovers or mythology. This ensured stability.
Huxley portrays to us a totalitarian social system in which highly advanced science and technology are used to produce dehumanized human beings who ensure system stability through their automated obedience.
A scene from the film Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin.
Such a system emphasizes comfort and apparent happiness, it is not interested in truth or beauty. A civilized person has no need to endure anything unpleasant. The truth, of course, is not always pleasant, it forces us to think, to change, to live in harmony. Being with her, and those are all undesirable characteristics, as they threaten the stability of the system. For the same reasons, philosophy and art, as segments of humanity’s cultural heritage that can inspire and evoke recognition of beauty, are hidden from modern individuals. No form of artistic or creative activity is practiced, what is offered are sensory representations that serve only for entertainment and relaxation because there is no need for anything else.
It is believed that a civilized person should serve the state by doing what the state has designated for them, not thinking, not developing emotional life, but surrendering to physical pleasures without any responsibility because industrial civilization is only possible without sacrifice. Industrial civilization supports self-indulgence, limited only by hygiene and economics requirements.
The abundance of “pleasant sins” is an important factor in ensuring stability. A person who is comfortable doesn’t have the need to question themselves or reevaluate their desires. Protecting values, nor questioning the quality of the materials used for building the future world. If, in addition, he is encouraged to spend his free time as a joyful consumer, with a whole range of different ways to satisfy sensory desires, we have created a way of life in which a person can spend their lifetime painlessly – without truly living. Protected from encounters with temptations, a person is also shielded from the possibility of discovering their own potential and strengths hidden deep within them.
But the people are happy; they have everything they want, and what they don’t have, they won’t even wish for. People are wealthy, they feel secure; they never fall ill, they are not afraid of death; they live in blissful ignorance of passion and old age…
In addition to the absence of emotional suffering, in modern society, the discomforts that accompany a person in facing their physical transience have been “solved”:
All physiological markers of old age have been removed. And, of course, along with them, all mental characteristics of old age. The characteristics remain unchanged throughout. Throughout life.
Work, fun – in our sixties, our strength and inclinations remain the same as they were at seventeen. In those unfortunate old times, older people gave it up, retired, engaged in religion, wasted time reading and thinking – thinking!
A society in which a person is reduced to a happy servant serving the preservation of meaningless stability is a society in which no one has the opportunity to behave nobly or heroically. In order for such an opportunity to be given, the situation must be extremely unstable. When there is war, when there are conflicting thoughts, when one needs to resist temptations, defend a loved one, or fight for them – then, obviously, nobility and heroism make sense. But in today’s times, there are no wars. The greatest attention is paid to preventing excessive love. There are no opposing opinions; everyone is so manipulated that they do what they must. And what they must do is actually so pleasant and so much freedom is allowed in satisfying natural needs. means that there are really no temptations to resist.
With such a modern, developed society, Divljak, the main character of the novel, comes into contact. He was born in a primitive reserve separated by an electric wire from the rest of the civilized world. Although the reserve is a place with remnants of the old world where people are born, raised in families, and adhere to religious customs, it does not represent an idyllic contrast to civilization. Due to racial prejudice, Divljak never felt accepted, and because of his spiritual quest, he remains unadjusted.
Faced with the madness of the modern world in which there is no concept of a soul, let alone anyone attending to its needs, Divljak quotes Hamlet: “…You remove everything that is uncomfortable instead of learning to live with it. Is it nobler to suffer in the soul, bullets and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them?…” And he adds: But you neither do one nor the other. You neither suffer nor resist. In fact, you eliminate slings and arrows. It is the easiest.
The savage is only offered two options, which Huxley himself later indicated as the most significant flaw in the entire story. He can choose between an unhealthy life in Utopia and a life of the primitives in an Indian village, a life that is in some ways more human, but on the other hand no less depraved and immoral. And so, the only way out is found in suicide, as an escape from a life unworthy of a human being.
It is necessary to find a possibility for a life worthy of a human being. Huxley later saw it in the third option, the option of a healthy spirit, namely a community focused on the spiritual development of the individual, establishing harmony between the mental and physical aspects. A community in which the economy is decentralized, the politics are cooperative, science and technology serve humanity, religion is conscious and intellectual search for the Ultimate Purpose of man, and philosophy is such that the principle of the Greatest Happiness is subordinated to the principle of the Ultimate Purpose – the first question that needs to be asked and answered in all circumstances. The essence of life would be: How will this thought or action help or hinder me and a larger number of individuals in achieving the Ultimate Purpose?
Inspired by the option of a healthy mind, Huxley doesn’t just provide a warning description of a brave new world devoid of such things, but in his novel “Island” he offers a utopian example of an ideal community where those things are realized. On such an island, there is an awareness of deep human needs, and society is organized in a way that promotes the development of individual human potential. It is focused on providing a model in which a person can live and die with dignity, without neglecting their transcendent aspect.
We can see that in both cases, education plays a key role and shows us the direction in which society plans to develop, whether it wants to create a community of robotic obedience and consumers or self-aware human beings who will fulfill their purpose within the community. While in the brave world, the family has been abolished, on the island, the upbringing of children is actively involved. It is an extended family. Each child, in addition to their immediate family, belongs to a group of about twenty families that provide different experiences for the child with the same common goal.
When asked by the newcomer what the boys and girls on the imagined island are designated for, Pala, the assistant minister of education, responds: Not for mass consumption, nor for strengthening the state. The state must exist, of course. And there must be enough for everyone. There is no debate about that. Only under those conditions can we help them with that.
– But what are they actually designated for? – the newcomer asks again.
– To become complete human beings.
For this reason, children are taught about ecology at a very early age. Never let a child imagine that anything exists only for itself. From the very beginning, children must understand that everything is interconnected. Point out this interconnectedness to them in forests, fields, lakes and rivers, in the city and around it. Repeat this to them constantly. – explains the school principal in the novel and adds: At In mutual reciprocity, we always teach about the ethics of reciprocity. Balance, cooperation, moderation – this is the law that governs in nature and which, when transferred from concreteness to ethics, should also be the law that governs among people.
Consequently, in the described society, there is no poverty. It is not overpopulated due to the awareness of the importance of maintaining balance, and there is no excessive consumption because they have not allowed themselves to be hypnotized by the idea that two televisions will make them twice as happy as one television, unlike the brave new world where paradigms such as “it’s better to throw away the old than to repair it”, “I love new clothes”, etc. are implanted.
The importance of balance and connection is further explained through the approach to all areas of human interest and action: Patriotism is not enough. But nothing else is enough either. Science is not enough, religion is not enough, art is not enough, politics and economy are not enough, and neither is love, duty, work, no matter how selfless, or thinking, no matter how sublime. There is no benefit in anything that is separated from another.
We can ask ourselves, what kind of relationship do we have towards this issue today? Are we building a world trying to ensure humane coexistence with a desire for discovery and fulfillment of meaning or are we encouraging a factory of personal desires? Are we more attracted to physical youth than to the youthful urge for exploring the mysteries of life? Have we fallen for the appealing idea of happiness hidden in an eternally youthful body without wrinkles, or are we seeking it in the ability to use our bodies to act in the world and make it better and more beautiful?
If we consent to reducing our own lives to the pursuit of comfort, without truly questioning what it would be worth dedicating ourselves to, we have bought a ticket to the “brave new world”. We are offered tempting arrangements for that destination on a daily basis. A destination where comfort is set as the pinnacle of human achievement, and the needs of the body are presented as the only human needs. Can we resist this appealing call and turn away from it? Are we aligned with the direction of a healthy spirit? Regardless of which aspect of human activity or society we are talking about, by making that decision we choose and determine the direction of development. If we don’t like the direction in which the world is developing today, cosmetic changes in individual segments will not be of great help. It is necessary to reconsider where our focus is. If we want a different world, we as people must be different. Perhaps we think that as individuals we are insignificant and that we cannot influence many things. But what is our inner world like? Are we aware of deep inner aspirations or do we prefer one of the offered escapes, avoiding a meeting with ourselves? We can justify ourselves by saying – why should I bother, everyone lives like this. However, our inner world is our responsibility. And since everything is interconnected, our choice not only affects our own life, but also the world around us…