A Treatise on the World #1

Contemporary society today is a hodgepodge: rampant technology, egotistical politicians, bountiful nature. There is even a furthering divide between freedom and security, two ideas inevitably linked by the simple fact that they are like objects on a balance. This idea of freedom and security is visited by Huxley in his Brave New World, where his anti-utopia has absolute security and no freedom. Huxley feared that this imbalance would come to pass someday. And unfortunately, there is truth in his words. I believe Huxley’s vision in Brave New World is more relevant against Orwell’s views expressed in 1984 because while Orwell preached that we must fear living in subjugation, Huxley advocated that there is a worse outcome: subjugation in living.

         Currently, society is at a point where miracles are few, far, and in-between. Humanity has gotten complacent with its sciences and has taken for granted what sciences have done for them. Society is so used to constantly breaking barriers that is has not had time to take a step back and look at the direction it’s going in. These sciences gave course to radical ideas, which when implemented, destroyed societies. Science leads to a singular mindset: can it be done or not? There are no miracles, because miracles have become the science we’re so accustomed to seeing. Miracles lead to envy, envy spawns jealousy, jealousy engenders hate, and before you know it, there is another war, another dictator, another feeling of despondency. We, as a society, have been taught to fear authoritarianism and communism. Free thought is chaos, and chaos is a society that fears hate. At this point, we return to the balance. How much freedom are you willing to give up in exchange for security? Do you prefer anarchy or subjugation? Free will or censorship? This is where society is currently losing focus. It is so focused on warding off things we hate, that it has not given thought to the things we love. A society experiences many trials during its existence, and if one wants it to flourish, simply overcome it with personal grit and will. But society isn’t doing that. It is so scared of the things it hates, it is so willing to do anything, to give up anything, to keep trials from ruining it. 

         Evidently, the feeling of hatred rules society. But it’s more the fear of being ruined that drives humanity. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear subjugates. Fear does not discriminate. Fear makes a man who he is. How he responds to it. And apparently society prefers to deflect fear rather than face it head on. This is where Huxley’s view comes to pass. The things we love will ruin us. Society is so focused on maintaining autonomy and swallowing up illusions of fear and hatred that it doesn’t realize it’s losing control over the things it loves. Complacency spurs action. Humanity loves freedom and fears living in subjugation. But freedom is subjective. Just ask the millions of poor, discriminated folk who don’t get a say in the society they live in. Those people aren’t living in subjugation. They know that there is subjugation in living. They know that the enemy of freedom is democracy itself because there will always be those who hate, who kill, who discriminate, who slander, who vandalize, who think they are doing what is right because science and freedom tell them so. When what humanity loves had indeed ruined us, we will beg for security, beg to be satiated with pleasure, we will beg to be subjugated. What Huxley fears is human nature. We are animals. We are a pack. And packs have alphas. Humans are conditioned to follow, to serve, but science and the idea of freedom have moved society away from that notion. But Huxley knows that society will, if the things it loves ruin it, fall back upon it. We will want to be ruled. We will want to be happy. We will love our oppression. There will be no escape. And I believe that with the way our society is trending, this scenario might happen sooner rather than later, and that is a scary thought.

         While Huxley’s vision is close to becoming a reality, there is hope. If society can understand the divide between freedom and security, Huxley’s vision can be rendered irrelevant. For now at least, the roots of liberal democracy do still hold, though we must keep sight of the things we love, juxtaposed against the things we hate, for they will ruin us; they are the mind-killer that leads to the outcome most feared: subjugation in living.