3 ms·
A: Brave New World
by sthomas1618 11y ago
A: Brave New World
- loeber 11y agoI'm somewhat dismayed to find Huxley's work not mentioned at all in the article.
- pklausler 11y agoWhat in "Brave New World" was prescient, really? Maybe I'm an epsilon double minus on too much soma, but I'm not seeing a world government using genetic engineering to stratify society.
- TearsInTheRain 11y agoI think the GE aspect of that dystopia is secondary to the use of pleasure to keep everybody conforming and complacent with their place in society.
- ZenoArrow 11y ago> "the use of pleasure to keep everybody conforming and complacent with their place in society." That's been going on for a long time, it's telling but not exactly prescient... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses
- rayiner 11y agoI think the Brave New World comparisons are lazy. If people engaging in pleasurable things and people having a comfortable place in society is the criterion, "good government" becomes indistinguishable from "totalitarian government." There is more to that book. In BNW, the government used artificial or stylized pleasures (drugs; emotionless, recreational sex) to destroy individual autonomy, traditional families, and organic social structures. Our society, in contrast, condemns the instruments used by the government in BNW. We idolize work and glorify working families. We legislate "for the children." We frown upon sex outside of emotionally-involved relationships. We make escapism through drug use illegal. Now, our society has its own modes of indoctrination, but they are rather different than anything in BNW.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- sdfin 11y agoThis comic about the ideas of the book "Amusing ourselves to death" may answer your question http://www.avianbonesyndrome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/stuart_mcmillen.png http://www.avianbonesyndrome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/...