A Brave New World and Infinitely Scrolling Through Instagram
One of the benefits of being in a different classroom almost every weekday is being exposed to different teaching strategies, classroom atmospheres...and classic books that I don't own!
In an English classroom 4 weeks ago I pressed "play" on Audible.com's And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie in a class full of freshmen in high school. It was soon clear that, while none of the students appeared especially interested, one substitute teacher was raptured into the intriguing storyline so much that he had to finish the book himself over the course of the next 3 days. I don't usually read crime novels, but this book (boldly endorsed as "the world's most beloved mystery novel" on the back cover) was so compelling that I devoured it as fast as possible, bringing it to an eerie conclusion throughout Halloween week.
Fast forward 2 weeks later and once again I found myself flipping through another English teacher's copy of Brave New World. Like most of you, I've heard the title in apocalyptic fiction folklore but, I'm ashamed to say, have never read it. Similar to my Agatha Christie experience, I was quite taken in by the plot and found a pdf version online to finish on my phone.
Unlike Christie's book, though, which was merely engaging, fun, and slightly creepy, Brave New World felt like something much more: it felt prophetic. It contained a message for our time. It took me a few days and a few reflective thought-pieces online to be able to articulate exactly what that message might be.
Reference.com's summary of Brave New World, for the uninitiated:
"Brave New World takes place in a futuristic society in which people are grown as nearly identical embryos in bottles and conditioned to remove strong desires, the need for human relationships and strong emotions. Members of society take a drug called soma to help keep them docile."
Written in 1932, Aldous Huxley's dystopia envisioned a time where people were not controlled by external shows of violence and power, like the similar novel 1984, or like Hitler's Third Reich, but where excessive pleasure and entertainment were sufficient to subdue a whole population (along with a healthy dose of childhood brainwashing and genetic engineering before birth).
Much has been written about the genius of both 1984 and Brave New World and their separate visions of the future. Interestingly, though, ever since the election of President Trump, I've heard scores of podcasts and news articles reference 1984's frightening storyline and its soon possible communist-type fulfillments even here in America, but scant nods to Huxley's world, which is already being fulfilled.
Genetic engineering for humans? We now have the technology, and only a thin veneer of ethics holds us back from diving head-first into it.
Prevalence of drugs that subdue and satiate? Anxiety and depression drugs are handed out in higher quantities than ever before.
Widespread acceptance of any and all forms of sexual behavior with no boundaries or corresponding responsibility? It's been steadily growing ever since the sexual revolution of the 1960s. There's no drug quite like porn to stimulate and numb the masses, and it seems that each decade we expand the limits of what is sexually accepted in private and in public.
Obsession with the trivialities of pop culture and superficial forms of entertainment? Stream, stream, and more streaming! Not to mention endless YouTubing and 24-hour access to media. I heard an NPR commentator say the other day we are entering another "golden age of entertainment."
The science news site, Futurism, recently stated that the average American “spends most of their waking life watching TV, infinitely scrolling through their Instagram feeds, or mindlessly staring at their work computer.” Orwell's 1984 may be coming, but Huxley's Brave New World is here.
This is what Neil Postman argued in Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985). I'll end with a quote that should be shocking and disturbing to us all:
In an English classroom 4 weeks ago I pressed "play" on Audible.com's And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie in a class full of freshmen in high school. It was soon clear that, while none of the students appeared especially interested, one substitute teacher was raptured into the intriguing storyline so much that he had to finish the book himself over the course of the next 3 days. I don't usually read crime novels, but this book (boldly endorsed as "the world's most beloved mystery novel" on the back cover) was so compelling that I devoured it as fast as possible, bringing it to an eerie conclusion throughout Halloween week.
Fast forward 2 weeks later and once again I found myself flipping through another English teacher's copy of Brave New World. Like most of you, I've heard the title in apocalyptic fiction folklore but, I'm ashamed to say, have never read it. Similar to my Agatha Christie experience, I was quite taken in by the plot and found a pdf version online to finish on my phone.
Unlike Christie's book, though, which was merely engaging, fun, and slightly creepy, Brave New World felt like something much more: it felt prophetic. It contained a message for our time. It took me a few days and a few reflective thought-pieces online to be able to articulate exactly what that message might be.
Reference.com's summary of Brave New World, for the uninitiated:
"Brave New World takes place in a futuristic society in which people are grown as nearly identical embryos in bottles and conditioned to remove strong desires, the need for human relationships and strong emotions. Members of society take a drug called soma to help keep them docile."
Written in 1932, Aldous Huxley's dystopia envisioned a time where people were not controlled by external shows of violence and power, like the similar novel 1984, or like Hitler's Third Reich, but where excessive pleasure and entertainment were sufficient to subdue a whole population (along with a healthy dose of childhood brainwashing and genetic engineering before birth).
Much has been written about the genius of both 1984 and Brave New World and their separate visions of the future. Interestingly, though, ever since the election of President Trump, I've heard scores of podcasts and news articles reference 1984's frightening storyline and its soon possible communist-type fulfillments even here in America, but scant nods to Huxley's world, which is already being fulfilled.
Genetic engineering for humans? We now have the technology, and only a thin veneer of ethics holds us back from diving head-first into it.
Prevalence of drugs that subdue and satiate? Anxiety and depression drugs are handed out in higher quantities than ever before.
Widespread acceptance of any and all forms of sexual behavior with no boundaries or corresponding responsibility? It's been steadily growing ever since the sexual revolution of the 1960s. There's no drug quite like porn to stimulate and numb the masses, and it seems that each decade we expand the limits of what is sexually accepted in private and in public.
Obsession with the trivialities of pop culture and superficial forms of entertainment? Stream, stream, and more streaming! Not to mention endless YouTubing and 24-hour access to media. I heard an NPR commentator say the other day we are entering another "golden age of entertainment."
The science news site, Futurism, recently stated that the average American “spends most of their waking life watching TV, infinitely scrolling through their Instagram feeds, or mindlessly staring at their work computer.” Orwell's 1984 may be coming, but Huxley's Brave New World is here.
This is what Neil Postman argued in Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985). I'll end with a quote that should be shocking and disturbing to us all:
"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books.
What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information.
Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.
Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.
Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
Orwell feared we would become a captive culture.
Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.
In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us.
Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
...Huxley, not Orwell, was right."
Many times as I read Brave New World in a high school classroom, I glanced up to see almost every single high schooler in my class glancing at their smartphone--either stealthily or without any reservation. Which is, of course, exactly what I was doing at that moment. It was pretty easy to agree with Neil Postman in that moment.
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