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I 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.
by TearsInTheRain 11y ago
I 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.