Brave New World – the Book

Brave New World by Aldus Huxley was part of my high school curriculum so I was forced to read it in my youth.   It is more than 30 years since I read Brave New World and such was the impression upon me that I remember it surprisingly well till this day.  I also remember it being one of the hardest books to get into as I struggled with the first chapter or so trying to follow multiple conversations of the different characters being introduced into the story.

Once into the book I was fascinated by the dystopia Huxley described where on surface all the world problems had been solved and finally everyone was happy.  The scariest thing about this dystopia was that it seemed to work and there was no opposition to it nor could one develop.

A world where everyone belonged to everyone and nobody belonged to anybody. This was achieved by removing the function procreation from individuals and assigning it to the state.  Babies are no longer born but genetically engineered and decanted from test tubes. 

The practice of eugenics and cloning is used to create a caste system with members naturally predisposed to their role in society and re-enforced further by conditioning including constant subliminal instructions from birth to be happy with their role.

Sexual promiscuity is promoted and even taught to young children.  Forming long term relationships is frowned upon and considered unhealthy.  Emotions are kept under control with voluntary doses of Soma drug to modulate feelings.    There is even a new religion with Henry Ford as the figurehead admired as the father of modern mass production.

Brave New World – the Movie

I recently became aware that a 1998 movie had been made and was very curious to see it.  I finally got a copy and just finished watching it.  I found it generally disappointing as it failed to present the same believable model of the dystopia I had read in the book.

Visually the movie was disappointing and unconvincing.   The movie is meant to be set far in the future after the death of Ford and devastating World Wars that resulted in the setting up of a world government, but the technology shown was at best contemporary and in many cases already dated.

The clothing was also very dated with a mix of contemporary and retro 60s.   In one scene the World Controller had on a bright orange suit with huge chunky orange beads and would have looked in place on a set for Austin Powers.

The movie only superficially covered the caste system and neglected the cloning aspect among the lower castes.   At one point in the movie a Delta Tea lady is asked if she is happy to be a Delta and she confirms she is using a programmed response from her conditioning.   To my mind she looked far too normal and unconvincing compared to glazed eyed moronic Delta I expected to see.

There were changes to the characters and story line also that I think detracted from the believability.

In the book Bernard is socially inapt but desperately wants fit in.  He is physically shorter than other Alpha plus caste members and there are rumours that alcohol was accidently administered to his test tube this being a method employed to stunt the growth of Epsilons. 

The rivalry between Bernard and his boss culminating in a plot to kill Bernard using a reconditioned Delta are additions not found in the book.  While this made the characters far more human by our standards they are inconsistent with the socially conditioned members of Brave New World where such personal rivalry and aggression would be alien concepts.  

In my opinion there is too much missing from the movie and it fails to deliver the believable vision of a dystopia that Huxley wanted to warn us about.   I suggest skipping the movie which is very forgettable and reading the book.

I recently used a quote by Nietzsche and got me thinking about how often he is quoted by people that have never read any of his works.  Most using quotes by him probably do not even know much about his life.

In my youth I did read two of his works; Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The AntiChrist and both made a deep impression on my thinking.  He was an amazing thinker greatly misunderstood and maligned.  

His book The Anti-Christ was written over 100 years ago and completely debunked practiced Christianity. 

I did a quick search and found a copy of the work online
http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/tkannist/E-texts/Nietzsche/AntiChrist.htm

There is one passage in that book that defines Christianity as

a revolt of all creatures that creep on the ground against everything that is lofty: the gospel of the “lowly” lowers . . .

This is a slightly different translation to what I read but the basic meaning is the same and greatly influenced my view of Christianity for many years after.

I viewed Christians as a mass of sheep resentful of anyone that dared to think for themselves and not meekly follow a doctrine designed subordinate and control the masses.  I understood exactly what Karl Marx mean when he said that Religion is the Opium of the people.

Christianity proclaims that the meek shall inherit the earth.  I could not accept that mediocrity should be rewarded above endeavour and achievement.  It did seem like a concept thought up by those resentful of those who were aloft.

I also disliked the images of Christianity with Jesus being crucified on the cross.  In contrast are the images of the beautiful and powerful Greek gods and I wondered why we were asking to worship such a pitiful image.  Of course we are told that Jesus died for our sins, the concept of original sin is an idea I disdain.  The focus on the glorification of suffering, and suggestion that we are put here on earth to suffer and through suffering we will be closer to God is another idea I still totally reject.

In his Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche announced to the world that the concept of God is dead and is written in parables to mimic the bible.  I read the book twenty years ago and don’t remember the details but Nietzsche suggests man as at a dangerous crossing with an abyss below and on the other side is the overman.  What we can evolve to when we overcome ourselves.

This concept of the overman was hijacked by Nazi Germany who adopted and perverted the works of Nietzsche making it the state Philosophy and promoting the idea of the overman as the Aryan.   

In the last decade of his life Nietzsche suffered mental illness and was in the care of his sister who just returned after her husband Forster, an extreme right wing racist, committed suicide in Paraguay where he was trying to establish an Aryan colony.   The sister influenced by extreme right wing ideology edited and distorted the last writings of her brother under the title A Will To Power.

So how do I feel today about Christianity?   I think for me it was a case of throwing out the baby with the bath water.  There are some very negative things in Christianity but there is much more “good”.

There is also the YOU SEE WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR factor.   If you have an idea or belief you continually look for “proof” to support your idea and if it happens to be a belief in negative aspects of Christianity then that is what you will see in abundance.   If you look for good in Christianity you will find it in even greater abundance.  It’s all to do with what we focus on and I no longer focus on what is negative.  Subsequently my view of Christianity today is far more positive these days.

Despite the positive idea of the overman which was more along the lines of reaching a state of enlightenment much of Nietzsche’s works and ideas focus on negativity.  I doubt I will read anymore Nietzsche but as an original thinker he is to be admired.