Phenomenal letter sent from Aldous Huxley to George Orwell in 1949, just before the publication of 1984.
Here’s a short thought provoking passage:
Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large scale biological and atomic war — in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely imaginable kinds.
One might consider the widespread acceptance of GMO food and synthetic pesticides biological war, waged on a global scale against nature herself. Additionally, our educational system is designed more to teach children capitalist work ethic (show up on time, meet deadlines, respect authority, become obedient), and to regurgitate facts versus how to think analytically for themselves. Couppled with the fact that, “Children spend more time watching television than in any other activity except sleep” (Huston and Wright, University of Kansas. ”Television and Socialization of Young Children”) — I suppose one might deduce that Huxley was right. That our generation has taken up the suggestion to ‘love our servitude’ as Huxley puts it.
Herbert Marcuse writes at length in his book “One Dimensional Man” about consumerism as a form of social control. The book is an amazing read for anyone interested in the evolution of, and psychology behind how and why Americans began to ‘love our servitude’.
