Customer Reviews

Brave New World Revisited

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
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That is the message which Huxley conveys through this follow-up to his masterpiece, Brave New World. Huxley's obsevations of modern day mind control methods, brainwashing, and propaganda are chilling. What is even more chilling is that this book was written in 1958, one can imagine what advances in these dark sciences man has taken since then. A key point in this book is that if a totalitarian state is going to exist in the present day it will almost surely be more like Huxley's Brave New World, rather than Orwell's 1984. The main reason for this is that whereas Orwell's society revolves around the threat of violence, torture, and death, Huxley's revolves around the reward system. Huxley's Brave New World lulls the masses to sleep so that they have no idea that their freedom is being taken away. Huxley predicts that we will drug people who are even slightly out of the norm for "mental illnesses" (does Prozac ring a bell?). He predicts that valuable information, information necessary for the preservation of freedom, will be subtly, very subtly, taken away from the masses while replacing it with a seemingly terrific reward (does television ring a bell?). Huxley's most frightening premise in this book is that the individual (what he and others identify as "The Great Man") is being done away with by modern "science". He recapitulates for us the great debate between the behaviorist psychologists (like Watson and Skinner) and the philosopher psychologist William James. Skinner and company believe that the individual is powerless over his environmental influences while James strongly believes in the idea of "The Great Man". (In other words did Elizabethan England create Shakespeare's plays or did Shakespeare create his plays?) Huxley tells us the bad news in bulk before getting to the obvious question What can we do? His answer can be summarized in one word, THINK!!! Think, debate, don't accept the packaged and marketed ideas that are given to you like a McDonalds cheeseburger. In Huxley's words, educated yourself for freedom. And you can start by reading a copy of this book. If your local bookstore doesn't have one, then for God's sake, for all of our sakes, find a copy quick.

Mr. Huxley started warning us in 1932, with his masterpiece, "Brave New World." In this essay-style analysis of his own book, written twenty-six years later, he takes it one big step further. Addressing everything from overpopulation to overorganization, his words ring more true with every passing year. Our society needs to lift its head from the computer screen for a few hours to read this critical work. Few, if any, have said so much in so little space. Mr. Huxley is one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century, and it is a criminal shame that his words are not more widely read. We should put down our endless self-help manuals and learn where our ills really begin. We need to understand how the roots serve the tree before we can improve upon the tree. Mr. Huxley is an expert gardener...

+++++

This non-fiction book of essays, by author Aldous Huxley (1894 to 1963), examines the predictions he made in his fascinating science fiction novel written over a quarter of a century from the time he wrote this book. Huxley explains:

"When [my science fiction novel] `Brave New World' [1932] was being written, I was convinced that there was plenty of time. The completely organized society, the...caste [or class] system, the abolition of free will by methodical conditioning, the servitude made acceptable by regular doses of chemically induced happiness, the orthodoxies drummed in by...sleep-teaching--these [threats to individual freedom] were coming all right, but not in my time...I feel a good deal less optimistic than I did when I was writing [my science fiction novel]. The prophecies made in [my science fiction novel] are coming true much sooner than I thought they would...Impersonal forces over which we have almost no control seem to be pushing us all in the direction of the Brave New Worldian nightmare...impersonal forces which are now making the world so extremely unsafe for democracy [and] individual freedom."

This is what this book does. It looks in depth at the above threats or forces to or "enemies of" individual freedom and others mentioned in Huxley's science fiction novel and applies them to the modern world. The author examines in depth the following six threats or forces:

(1) overpopulation

(2) over-organization (or bureaucracy)

(3) propaganda (in a democratic society and under a dictatorship)

(4) brainwashing

(5) persuasion (chemical and subconscious or subliminal)

(6) hypnopaedia (sleep-teaching)

His analysis made over a quarter century ago (from the year of this review) is amazingly accurate. I'll give one perfect example:

"Our contemporary Western society, in spite of its material, intellectual, and material progress, is increasingly less conducive to mental health, and tends to undermine the inner security, happiness, reason, and the capacity for love in the individual; it tends to turn him into an automaton who pays for his human failure with increasing mental sickness, and with despair hidden under a frantic drive for work and so-called pleasure...Man [and woman are] not made to be an automaton, and if he [or she] becomes one, the basis for mental health is destroyed...People are related to one another, not as total personalities but as embodiments of economic functions or, when they are not at work, as irresponsible seekers of entertainment."

The above example is the kind of insight you'll find throughout this well-written book. There are a few (very few!) times Huxley seems to be wrong, but the majority of time he is spot-on.

In the last chapter of his book, Huxley attempts amongst other things to answer the following question:

"How can we control the vast impersonal forces that now menace our hard-one freedoms?" He does a good job coming to grips with this difficult question.

Do you have to read Huxley's previous science fiction novel to understand this book? NO. When he refers to his science fiction novel in this book he does not make any assumptions that the reader has read his science fiction novel. However, as a person who has read his previous novel, I can say that this book had more impact on me than if I had not read the previous novel.

Finally, the only problem I had with this non-fiction book is that it has no references and footnotes (or notes). Huxley to be sure uses information and statistics from other sources but no credit is given to them. Huxley, in his main narrative, does sometimes give informal credit to his sources but many times, he does not even do this. All information sources should have been properly referenced.

In conclusion, this is an insightful, prophetic, fascinating book that makes the case that our society may be heading in the wrong direction due to forces attempting to take away our individual freedoms!

(first published 1958; forward by author; 12 chapters; main narrative 185 pages)

+++++

An absolutely superb essay on the world and society in general--like 1984 and Brave New World but without all the story and metaphor--and straight to the point. Much more relevant to our current times than either of the aforementioned books, also.

This work by Aldous Huxley is one of the best nonfiction books I have read. I couldn't help but realize this man's genius as I read this book. His understanding of science is evident and only surpassed by his knowledge of the psychological. I recognized some of what I read, and believe that "Brave New World Revisited" must be the original source. Additionally, the book contains much information I had never heard before.

The book is a collection of twelve essays written on how to prevent the world from "Brave New World" from coming into existence. Already in 1958, Huxley paints a bleak picture for our future. One of the main problems Huxley forsees is the lack of desire for freedom. In 1958, a study showed that American youths were indifferent to rule by a few experts instead of a democracy. He sees a need to increase critical thinking in the individuals of a society. He also explains the current methods of involuntary mental manipulation. The "Brave New World Revisited" is an informative collection of essays that has risen my awareness of psychological dangers.

Brave New World Revisited was a very good book. It is terrifying to have Huxley methodically tell of how to virtually inslave mankind. The way Huxley says lines like "a smart dictator will..." it kind of reminds me of "The Prince." And it is kind of like the Prince, only he's not telling the dictator he's telling us. Unfortunately, since there aren't many reviews, not many people are listening on how to save their freedom. He writes the book so well and leaves no idea without thought. This book nicely explains over-population, over-orginazation, propaganda, sleep-teaching, drugs, and more. Throughout the book he uses his own knowledge, as well as nice passages by Freud,Hitler and others. Don't think this book is not relevent to America and only relevent to third world nations. Because the book explains how people in a government and society like the U.S.'s can also become brainwashed and enslaved. A good book that should be read by everyone who wants too think for themselves.

This follow up to Huxley's classic brave new world is an absolute prophetic revelation to our modern times as well as times to come if its message is not headed. Huxley shows his unmistakeable brilliance with this discourse on the evils and possibilities of our modern political and economic state. I would recomend both Brave New World Revisted and Brave New World for anyone interested in political socialization and the current economic state of the world. On a final note, Huxley is one of the best political and social satirist I have ever seen in the literary world and I must say that I enjoyed both works.

Although this book was written over 40 years ago, and is a reflection on a book written over 60 years ago the issues it covers are surprisingly relevant in today's society. Throughout the book Huxley contrasts his work with George Orwell's 1984, and the (then) state of the post WW2 world and current scientific discovery. Covering issues such as overpopulation, propaganda, the art of selling and brainwashing as well as drugs and political control he gives prescient warnings to the reader. My personal favourite chapter, The Art of Selling is an excellent analysis of the (then) new art of marketing. The final chapter though, is a call to activism through education of the people. The book is very accessible, and if you have not read Brave New World, you will not be at a disadvantage. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a historical perspective to today's issues.

In this book, Aldous Huxley examines modern society and shows how elements of his fictional dystopia in "Brave New World" (BNW) became real even faster than he imagined. In a dozen pithy chapters, he examines the "modern" world of 1958, and discusses the rise of huge organizations, the methods of modern propaganda, the role of the mass media, over-conformity, over-specialization, salesmanship & commercial society, brainwashing, and drug-induced happiness - all of which appeared in "Brave New World." Overall, I found this to be a pithy, insightful, and prescient analysis of society. In fact, I thought it was as good or better than "Brave New World" itself.

Here's a sampling of some points he covers:

BNW depicted the non-violent manipulation of people through pleasures rather than violent oppression. In BNW, for example, the "system" creates people who are psychologically conditioned from birth to have the "correct" views on the world; the government sponsored drug use to keep people happy, and social interactions were ritualized and controlled. All this provided social stability.

Huxley also writes that today's world has also become similarly over-organized, and people are manipulated by pleasures. We've created a vast commercial machine for the mass production of goods and entertainment. As cogs in the machine, people can become highly specialized automatons who subsume themselves into their organizations, making it's goals their own, suffocating their independent human spirit. Although highly productive & peaceful, Huxley claims the resulting social harmony is superficial, and doesn't fulfill us as human beings. People interact with each other from a distance, merely as workers or pleasure seekers, never as total personalities.

Huxley's thoughts on propaganda also fill many of the chapters. He shows that the large organizations of the modern world (governments, corporations, the military, political parties, churches, etc.) have all become very savvy in using propaganda to control "their" masses. As Hitler knew, the masses hate reason; so his key is to create simple, repetitive, emotional appeals that spoke to them and appealed to their secret desires. Not coincidently, advertising uses this same formula; find a common desire or widespread unconscious fear or anxiety, then relate it to the product you sell, then build verbal or pictorial bridge from their dream to your product, and repeat the ad over and over.

So, what can we do to improve the world? Huxley offers few solutions, but one key point is that we must be aware of propaganda. To do so, we must learn the proper use of language, and learn how to dissect and critically analyze the messages aimed at us. Also, we should try to reconnect with our neighbors & communities fully as people, without intervening organizations. Finally, we should try to decentralize economic and political power as much as possible, since what is good for the economic or political "machine" isn't necessarily good for us as human beings.

As I mentioned, this book was packed with insights, and a quick, enjoyable read. It's also a superb follow-up to Huxley's famous novel. Recommended.

First, I should say that the three of five stars is really about a three-and-a-half out of five stars, so as to give a bit of granularity to my review. I will admit that I am a great fan of Mr. Huxley's tale "Brave New World" because of its timelessness and also because of its timeliness today. With this in mind, I am both pleased and, in a minor ways, displeased by the later reflections which he made on the possibilities of his dystopia's realization in the contemporary world.

In order to get the negative out, I will very briefly outline what I found to be either incorrect or unseemly in Mr. Huxley's revisiting of his dystopia. Primarily, I am a bit disappointed, perhaps because of my place in the future of his work, in the complete negativity with which he approaches both the problem of population and what he calls "quantity and quality" with regards to breeding. In his own way, it seems that he has slipped into that pessimistic, hedonistic view which he chided greatly in his own text. Now, I do admit that he does raise a good point that these two forces do have the possibility of creating turmoil in those who are predisposed to use them as an excuse for hyper-control over society. However, he never fully exonerates himself from this pessimism and even seems to believe that there is some positive organizational goal which can address these problems without slipping to the world of his dystopia. To his benefit, he does leave the questions of solutions open but also seems to be like those later liberals, who became less liberal and more collectivist, to view the state as too strong an exponent of individual freedom. He leaves unaddressed the question of how goodness plays a role in the preservation of freedom in society. In addition, while I do agree that much technology tends toward over-organization, there is also the promise, which is seen in various ways today, that technology can also allow for the displacement of power throughout the people. (Specifically, I am thinking of the possibility of some day having an affordable way of augmenting the power grid by individuals on their own property and - more realistically conceivable now - the growth of free communications on the internet and the creation of ad hoc download clusters by means of dispersed torrent technologies [which are to me only a sign of the other promises of some loss of over-centralization].)

Now, on the positive, all of the points raised have some level of lasting validity, for every question raised does pose a very real dilemma in the contemporary world. The forces of over-population which today also point to the effects of the exposure of the third world to the global economy could well play into the hands of those powerful ones who would cajole the first world into a much more "safe" state at the cost of liberty. In addition, propaganda does have an insidious character in the contemporary world and is more spread than ever through the powers of centralization that do indeed exist (bearing in mind the aforementioned promises in the opposite direction). The heavy hand of the singly-focused media, coupled with the ongoing din which prevents one from having the introspection necessary to realize his or her place in the world, coupled again with the ability to escape problems of all sorts through medications and illicit drugs, are indeed, as Huxley suspected, making the world far more susceptible to the possibilities of a Brave New World growth. While he focuses more on education than anything else, it seems to me that - reading this through the lens of his text - he intends such education to enable us not only to "know the Truth" but also to be able to reflect on the self, to look at the stars as well as the pains of life and realize they are something to be understood and coped with, not ignored.