4 ms·
The whole point of Huxley's view was that all these hedonistic tendencies you describe can be used to control people, to box them into tiny little worlds of the
by john_b 13y ago
The whole point of Huxley's view was that all these hedonistic tendencies you describe can be used to control people, to box them into tiny little worlds of their own making and keep them safely there, no threat to the ruling powers. If you are only focused on how happy these people (or even everyone) are, then you are missing the point.
1984 assumed a certain amount of inherent human dignity in each person, and described a world where that human dignity had been stripped away by an all-knowing oppressive power. Huxley envisioned a world in which people are little more than animals and anything that could be called human dignity was rare. How happy the cattle are in their pastures is not what Huxley cared about.