Ruminations on a gloomy future, Huxley style.

In my recent rereading of Brave New World (see my review here), I was struck by the uncanny relevance of the book, some 70 years after its initial publication. Aldous Huxley himself was fully cognizant of the continued applicability of his satirical novel, and apparently felt prompted to revisit some of the themes he explored therein later in his life. Thus, in 1958, Huxley penned Brave New World Revisited, essentially a state-of-the-Brave-New-union address. While he did discuss a few of the changes he might make to the original novel were he to rewrite it, he was primarily interested in examining how society in the past three decades had changed, and especially how it had come closer to his vision of a dystopian future. The results, while dated now, are typical of Huxley in their cleverness, their wit, and their continued applicability.

Structure
The organization of Revisited is set up around chapters that deal with a number of specific issues from Brave New World. Huxley begins by discussing some of the forces that he views as having the potential to propel society in a Brave New direction. The first chapter deals with Over-Population, followed by a chapter on Quantity, Quality, Morality (speaking of the hidden cost of effective healthcare), and the third dealing with Over-Organization. Upon this foundation is built the main body of the book, which focuses on methods of mind-manipulation on several different levels. Propaganda in a Democratic Society, Propoganda Under a Dictatorship, and The Arts of Selling look at the more “benign” methods of propagating a cultural ethos. Benign, in this sense, connotes a non-intrusive approach to mind-control. More invasive methods are treated next, with chapters on Brainwashing, Chemical Persuasion, Subconscious Persuasion, and Hypnopaedia. All of this would be rather depressing without the final two chapters, in which Huxley discusses Education for Freedom and What Can Be Done, finishing the work on a slightly more positive note.

Positives
The social and cultural commentary that was Brave New World returns here in Revisited. Huxley, now having the benefit of thirty years of hindsight, can dissect many of the issues he was discussing in the original work. Despite the brevity of the book, it manages to convey a great deal of information, much of which may be applied today, fifty years after it publication. If over-population was an issue in the middle of last century, when "there [were] two billion eight hundred million of us," how much more so today, when that figure just barely exceeds the combined populations of China and India? Similarly, the chapters on propaganda have become even more relevant in the past half-century; we are more inundated with advertising and cultural message now than ever before. The task for the advertisers of our day remains precisely the same as it was in Huxley’s:

"Find some common desire, some widespread unconscious fear or anxiety; think out some way to relate this wish or fear to the product you have to sell; then build a bridge of verbal or pictorial symbols over which your customer can pass from fact to compensatory dream, and from the dream to the illusion that your product, when purchased, will make the dream come true."

Just as Huxley’s critique of advertising and propaganda retains its potency, so too do his critiques of the world’s power structures. When he borrows from C. Wright Mills the concept of the Power Elite, he propounds an argument that has yet to be refuted. We can still say "that modern technology has led to the concentration of economic and political power, and to the development of a society controlled (ruthlessly in the totalitarian states, politely and inconspicuously in the democracies) by Big Business and Big Government." Huxley’s social commentary, though half a century old, is still relevant. In large part, this is the triumph of Brave New World Revisited.

Negatives
Science has a way of progressing, and in its progression confounding all predictions concerning its future. For example, we can read old issues of Popular Mechanics that predict the construction of supercomputers that take up only the area of a small room. Because of this, there are some inevitable missteps in Huxley’s vision of the future. Granted, he is in the business of documenting, not predicting in this work, but his assertions concerning science detract from the believability of his thesis. For example, hypnopaedia has yet to become a mainstream event, and does not seem as though it will ever be so. Television and advertising have proven to be much better brainwashing media for the modern society. In the same vein, large-scale subconscious persuasion (as far as I know) is not in widespread use at the current time, so the chapter on this form of mind-manipulation now seems somewhat superfluous. Finally, when we read that LSD-25 is the new drug on the block, we realize that Revisited is a bit dated, and as such is a slightly flawed work.

Conclusions
Despite its anachronisms, Brave New World Revisited contains much that remains applicable to our current day and age. Big Business and Big Government are more ubiquitous than ever, and advertising has become the great equalizer (everyone is a consumer). At less than 100 pages, Aldous Huxley’s musings on a potential dystopian future are well worth a couple of hours of your time. Anything that requires one to think, in my opinion, is well worth the investment, in terms of both time and money. Besides, if we do not ask questions, do not think, we will be slowly, but surely brainwashed by our culture, and its apologist the television. As Huxley said, "Perhaps the forces that now menace freedom are too strong to be resisted for very long. It is still our duty to do whatever we can to resist them."

© SL, 2004