Our Brave New World

How many of you have ever read Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”? This book was released in 1939, yet Aldous had the foresight to see what direction society would be headed in. Sure, his knowledge is limited in some ways by the level of technology that was available. Sure, he’s writing a science fiction book about the future. But you know what? The concepts are there. The ideas have been around for a long time, even if shrouded in the cloak of a science fiction story. How would Aldous Huxley know about the trend towards world government, the social and intellectual dumbing down of the majority of the world’s population, and a plan for world population control? He’s just a writer. Right?

Let me shed a little light on history for a moment, if you’ll allow me that opportunity. History holds the answers to the future. You must know history to understand how things got to be how they are. Thomas Henry Huxley (Aldous’ grandfather) was a good friend of someone else you’ve probably heard of… Charles Darwin. After Charles Darwin printed his evolutionary theory in “The Origin Of Species”, it really didn’t catch on. It was the passion and cunning plan from Thomas Henry Huxley that swayed the minds of scientists to leave their belief in God’s creation of the universe for Darwin’s unproven evolutionary theory. That’s connection number one.

Connection number two is his brother, Sir Julian Huxley. Julian Huxley was the first Director General of the of United Nations’ UNESCO. (Google “UNESCO Eugenics and look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics). Julian was quoted as such, “Even though it is quite true that any radical eugenic policy will be for many years politically and psychologically impossible, it will be important for UNESCO to see that the eugenic problem is examined with the greatest care, and that the public mind is informed of the issues at stake so that much that now is unthinkable may at least become thinkable”. As you can see Aldous was rather well connected with those that have shaped public thinking for a century. The question we need to ask, is if this book is just a story, or an allegory that sheds light on some of these folks most sinister plans?

It’s fun to speculate. As I’ve read this book, I see so many parallels with today’s society, or at least the path that we’re on. Let me show you a place in the book where I think he got it right on. In “Brave New World” the world’s population is genetically engineered into worker classes from alpha to epsilon. All of their hard held beliefs come from years of strict conditioning. Enter John, brought back as an experiment from a native reservation in New Mexico to London. The reservation has not been affected by the practices of “civilization”. In this part of the book, he is talking with the head guy for his area of the world (The Controller). They are having a discourse about the way society is, and was, and John finds out that The Controller knows what life was like, and how dangerous it is to keeping control of everybody.

“Othello’s good, Othello’s better than those feelies.”

“Of course it is,” The Controller agreed. “But that’s the price we have to pay for stability. You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art. We have the feelies and the scent organ instead.”

“But they don’t mean anything.”

“They mean themselves; they mean a lot of agreeable sensations to the audience.”

“But they’re… they’re told by an idiot.”

The Controller laughed. “You’re not being very polite to your friend, Mr. Watson. One of our most distinguished Emotional Engineers…”

“But he’s right,” said Helmholtz gloomily. “Because it is idiotic. Writing when there’s nothing to say…”

“Precisely. But that require the most enormous ingenuity. You’re making flivvers out of the absolute minimum of steel—works of art out of practically nothing but pure sensation.”

The Savage shook his head. “It all seems to me quite horrible.”

“Of course it does. Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”

This is an amazing passage of literature. The popular music of today is all about moving your body for sensation. The message takes a back seat. We can’t have people thinking, now, can we? That would ruin everything. An informed public is a public not ready to give up their liberty. We have to be “drugged” into a state of not caring about what is going on around us. We wrap ourselves up in entertainment that feels good. Music used to be the language of the counter-culture. Now, it’s the language of shake ya booty, cash money, and oooo baby. Clubs are packed with young people wanting to move with the music. Cars drive around on “dubs”, with the bangin’ stereo, but play the soundtrack to vapidness, instead of projecting the sounds of free humanity. The celebrity culture and pop music are empty… bankrupt.

We need to get back to things that mean something. I’m finding more and more, however, that people don’t care. They don’t see a problem. They don’t want to rock the boat. We’re comfortable. We took the drugs they fed us. Their entertainment makes us feel good. Not that entertainment is bad, but it has become a crutch, a way to deal with the unpleasantness of the corporate culture and reducing civility in the world.

1 John 3:16 states this, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” I used to think that this passage meant that we should be willing to die for the sake of those we love. On it’s surface, it does. I also believe that it digs much deeper. I believe that it means that the things we hold onto in this life, which create our lifestyle, need to be laid down if they ever come in the way of protecting and helping those that God asked us to protect and help. There’s no end to the need in this world. There’s nothing wrong with watching a movie, going jet skiing, or playing Guitar Hero. If those things, however, consume a great deal of your time, then you need to be willing to put those things down in order to keep our priorities straight.

Whether it be our job, desire for material goods, or desire to escape that hinders our desire to help, we need to be willing to lose our current life, and create one in which we can be a positive influence in this world. I challenge you to challenge others. I challenge you to take John’s words to heart. You can do the things you enjoy, without getting caught up in the “feelies”. You can choose to submerge yourself in things that matter. Listen to music and watch movies that make you think and make you feel. Comfort = inaction. Don’t be afraid to get uncomfortable. Study history and current events. The people of the world are counting on you.