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I've always been really interested in a claim made in the foreword of Brave New World by Huxley that sexual freedom is inversely correlated with economic and po

I've always been really interested in a claim made in the foreword of Brave New World by Huxley that sexual freedom is inversely correlated with economic and political freedom: > As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase. And the dictator (unless he needs cannon fodder and families with which to colonize empty or conquered territories) will do well to encourage that freedom. I'm not aware of what historical (as of 1946, when it was written) examples this was premised on, and I've never seen it expanded on anywhere else (though I have looked). I'm curious if anyone who cares to defend Huxley's dystopia has any actual rational basis for this claim, since it forms a core component of the world he builds. More generally, I am not terribly sympathetic to the overall world built in Brave New World as a possible future. It definitely seems to me as if the 1984 predictions are much closer to reality than BNW's. We live in a constant state of readiness for wars that have unclear purposes and the governments we have seem much more interested in tearing down ideas like full employment or sexual or narcotic freedoms. So it's surprising to see people think that Huxley got it right and Orwell didn't.

dreamfactory 13y ago
1984 wasn't really about predictions. Orwell was writing about Britain and Russia in 1948.
emn13 13y ago
It's not really an either or: they both identified bad habits modern society is falling into. But whereas Orwell may have more recognizable details, the in the broader strokes it's Huxley that seems more apropos: people are choosing for this life. In Orwell's world dissent and choice were suppressed; in Huxleys they were voluntarily discarded. No matter how nasty the scandals surrounding the NSA are or how overblown the rhetoric in the neverending "war on terror", I don't think anybody (sane) is suggesting we cannot end them. Sure, some dissent is punished harshly (manning, snowden), but for society at large the current state of affairs is entirely by choice.
- eli_gottlieb 13y ago
  >No matter how nasty the scandals surrounding the NSA are or how overblown the rhetoric in the neverending "war on terror", I don't think anybody (sane) is suggesting we cannot end them. Yes we are. There are large mass movements calling for revolution precisely because we don't want neverending war, don't want a surveillance state, and don't want neoliberalism.
DanBC 13y ago
> We live in a constant state of readiness for wars that have unclear purposes and the governments we have seem much more interested in tearing down ideas like full employment or sexual or narcotic freedoms. But we also have instant gratification with cat pics and low cost low value food and low quality disposable trash toys.

dreamfactory 13y ago

1984 wasn't really about predictions. Orwell was writing about Britain and Russia in 1948.

emn13 13y ago

It's not really an either or: they both identified bad habits modern society is falling into. But whereas Orwell may have more recognizable details, the in the broader strokes it's Huxley that seems more apropos: people are choosing for this life. In Orwell's world dissent and choice were suppressed; in Huxleys they were voluntarily discarded. No matter how nasty the scandals surrounding the NSA are or how overblown the rhetoric in the neverending "war on terror", I don't think anybody (sane) is suggesting we cannot end them. Sure, some dissent is punished harshly (manning, snowden), but for society at large the current state of affairs is entirely by choice.

eli_gottlieb 13y ago
>No matter how nasty the scandals surrounding the NSA are or how overblown the rhetoric in the neverending "war on terror", I don't think anybody (sane) is suggesting we cannot end them. Yes we are. There are large mass movements calling for revolution precisely because we don't want neverending war, don't want a surveillance state, and don't want neoliberalism.

DanBC 13y ago

> We live in a constant state of readiness for wars that have unclear purposes and the governments we have seem much more interested in tearing down ideas like full employment or sexual or narcotic freedoms. But we also have instant gratification with cat pics and low cost low value food and low quality disposable trash toys.