While many have pointed out that the Middle-East/Far-East are drifting to a more "Orwellian" world and the West is a more "Huxleyan" environ, the merger of the two dystopias is seemingly growing each day. As The Guardian previously noted, Huxley's dystopia is a totalitarian society, ruled by a supposedly benevolent dictatorship whose subjects have been programmed to enjoy their subjugation through conditioning and the use of a narcotic drug - the rulers of Brave New World have solved the problem of making people love their servitude. On the Orwellian front, we are doing rather well – as the revelations of Edward Snowden have recently underlined. We have constructed an architecture of state surveillance that would make Orwell gasp.
The most striking parallel of course is that both men foresaw the future as totalitarian rather than democratic and free.
Both Big Brother’s world and the Brave New World are ruled by authoritarian elites of a basically socialist/communist nature, whose only real purpose is the maintenance of their own power and privileges.
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I am not sure which book creeps me oit more. In 1984 the idea that you are prpoerty of the state is very much in your face. In Brave new world the idea is so accepted that it is the norm.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea on these two books might be that 1984 is the view point from the masses and Brave new world is told from the view point of the people in charge. With Brave new world being what the people in charge have fooled themselves into beleiveing, hey its not that bad and with 1984 being the stark reality for the oppressed. I could also be bat $hit crazy. Its been years since reading either one.
i would also throw out that A Clockwork Orange is another social piece that points to the militarization of the police by hiring anyone, usually thugs who never got caught and had a "clean" record.