“In 1931, when Brave New world was being written, I was convinced that there was still plenty of time,” wrote Aldous Huxley in 1958.
He’d thought that “the completely organized society, the scientific caste system, the abolition of free will by methodological conditioning, the servitude made acceptable by regular doses of chemically induced happiness“ were all far off, but now he had come to feel “a good deal less optimistic.” It seemed his prophecies were “coming true much sooner than I thought they would.”
Huxley also said: That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history,
is the most important of all the lessons of history.”
This tempers the lesson at the end of 'the machine stops' : --“Oh, tomorrow—some fool will start the Machine again, tomorrow.”
“Never,” said Kuno, “never. Humanity has learnt its lesson.”--
Still the fact that more [and more?] people are realising the need for change keeps my hopes up. Thanks Paul for sharing your thoughts
That was a disturbing book. And Eggers seems to have written it in a deliberately ugly style, maybe to match the subject matter.
“In 1931, when Brave New world was being written, I was convinced that there was still plenty of time,” wrote Aldous Huxley in 1958.
He’d thought that “the completely organized society, the scientific caste system, the abolition of free will by methodological conditioning, the servitude made acceptable by regular doses of chemically induced happiness“ were all far off, but now he had come to feel “a good deal less optimistic.” It seemed his prophecies were “coming true much sooner than I thought they would.”
Huxley also said: That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history,
is the most important of all the lessons of history.”
This tempers the lesson at the end of 'the machine stops' : --“Oh, tomorrow—some fool will start the Machine again, tomorrow.”
“Never,” said Kuno, “never. Humanity has learnt its lesson.”--
Still the fact that more [and more?] people are realising the need for change keeps my hopes up. Thanks Paul for sharing your thoughts
Huxley and many others...we can't say we weren't properly warned.