Logistical Problems of Huxley's New World
By Ripley Beaver
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley writes a social commentary on how peace and happiness can coexist in human society, while maintaining “stability” and the science fiction dystopia that they would cause. In this dystopian world, Huxley makes many assumptions about the state of society before the revolution. What variables he leaves unaccountable paired with social and economic structures that would collapse with limits placed by Huxley. Huxley also creates social “buffers” in the form of drugs and group social conformity to rule out individuality, on the idea that freedom causes social problems, wars, etc. Yet these buffers are usually on the basis of pseudo-science and discredited psychology ideas. The claims that Huxley make are dependent on various pre-requisites being met and qualities of people being unrealistic.The social belief of freedom and the power of the individual, as recognized by the majority of nations, added to the difficulty in creating an isolated, self-sustained society, render Brave New World unfeasible.
Firstly, allow for an examination of the conditions required to start this society. Huxley writes that there was a conflict between the Brave New World society and the rest of the world, before the society consumed the world. This Nine Years’ War, as Huxley describes, involved “ fourteen thousand aeroplanes” dropping “anthrax bombs” on civilian populations. This would involve a large army, access to weapons of mass destruction, and a lack of defensive satellite coverage. The first of these conditions would require a large civilian base as well as agriculture and manufacturing bases to support the soldiers. The second requirement involves a large supply of aerosolized anthrax. I will examine these logistics later on. The third, however, is one of the most important, mainly because it is more serious in light of recent events. Spy satellites were an invention during the Cold War for the purpose of spying on belligerent nations and those that have yet to become hostile towards the U.S., which means the Soviet Union and those nations in its influence. Now, after the Cold War, most developed nations have some sort of “spy satellite” in orbit of Earth. These can photograph troop deployments and use radar to detect aerial movements. Hence, the foreknowledge of a massive aerial attack and the slim chance to prevent the massive assault.
A steady base of both agricultural and manufacturing would be required to wage a “Nine Years” war on any country, especially multiple countries at the same time. This means a large population base totally dedicated toward this common goal. While it is theoretically possible to have a large population working towards these ends, they would need to buy into Huxley’s philosophical ideas. This requires the rejection of personal freedom and rejection of societal norms. This was during a point in history in which some of the largest controversies were centered around the freedom of the individual. As of late, the NSA epitomizes this issue as they have been embroiled about collecting phone and internet logs of U.S. citizens, even though the director of the Office of National Intelligence, James Clapper, claims “the NSA does ‘not wittingly’ collect data on Americans”(Morgenstern). As such, a large portion of the world, quite possibly the majority of the population, are strongly in support of the individual's personal freedom and rights. True, there are such countries where this is not a strongly held belief, but even then, there still exists the recognition of the individuals potential. Therefore, although there are countries with capable manufacturing, agricultural, and civilian populations, the problem lies in the fact that Huxley’s philosophy is dependent upon the general population losing personal initiative and all appearance of individuality; this is not inherent in humanity.
Secondly, in order for Huxley’s dystopia to get a foothold in the world, it would need to be in an isolated area with no outside influences. This would be similar to many cults that wish for a “utopian society”, such as the infamous Jonestown; Jonestown was a small town in South America where nearly one thousand U.S. citizens killed themselves on the word of Jim Jones, the leader. If an entire nation was to declare an isolationist policy, many of the neighboring nations would likely consider this a hostile action. Overall, if a neighboring nation decided to sever all ties, politically, culturally, and economically, one would assume that the reason would be hostile, much like Germany preceding World War Two. If a community of like minded-individuals felt that in these modern times of globalization that isolationism is still a good idea and were willing to follow through with the purchasing of lands and goods, they would be labeled militia men and excommunicated from of their home country. Again, there is anecdotal evidence of this excommunication in the Edward Snowden case, in which Snowden sought asylum from the U.S. after releasing documents online. There have been various attitudes about his actions, the foremost being that he is a traitor to the country. Another prime example would be North Korea, a nation based on the value of group outweighing the whole. For several years the nation, has claimed to be nuclear capable, but satellite imagery evidences that their test missiles are barely capable of being airborne. Ergo, isolationism is not feasible given that these current and past events have been similar to warning signs of hostilities and would provoke hostilities from others.
Additionally, Huxley describes how there are free people that exist in a system that survives because of the lack of free will; the most evident of these people are Alphas who were specifically conditioned to be free. Irony aside, if a system is based on stability has an unstable element in control, then the system is essentially unstable.One could make the argument that they are conditioned not to be free, but then Huxley had stated that they are free. Even though they understand what needs to be done for the survival of Huxley’s society, since they are free they have something that none of the other castes have: choice. They are capable of making the wrong choice, and therefore dangerous to the stable society. Another example of a free group of people are those who are able to break out of the control of the hypnopaedia, like Bernard and Helmholtz. To deal with this problem, the World Controllers send these people to live on islands around the world. These people are placed on Islands throughout the world. Acting as independent satellites of the society, they free of the influence of the controlling hypnopaedia. If these islands are independent of the hypnopaedic control of the society, then that means they may have rid themselves of the social stigma placed on childbearing and are capable of growing independently as a society. The “savage reservation” that Huxley remarks about is capable of acting independently as well, perhaps even more so than the islands because the ability of owning books and arable land.
Ironically, this society’s greatest restraint is its total lack of personal restraint in its citizens. This is evidenced through the “economic ecology” Theory. This essentially states that any system based on continuous gluttony will become unsustainable over a long enough time. This concurs with both the physics of thermodynamics and the economic and social sustainability in Huxley’s Brave New World. He portrays the economy as being if an object breaks, the reasonable thing to do is to throw it out and get a replacement object. This is not sustainable in the long run(Czech, n.d.). The population is also on a growth curve thanks to the Bokanovsky process, in which cloning allows for the growth of ninety-six people off of one zygote. While the population growth could be remedied easily, the social thought of overproduction would persist in the way of old versus new. This, as Mond describes later, will not be allowed to exist for the simple reason of how old it is. Instability in a system based on stability seem to be key qualities of Huxley’s world.
Lastly, Huxley’s world depends on the invention and application of the previously mentioned hypnopaedia. There are two main logistical problems: the ability and ease of application and the fact that hypnopaedia is pseudo-science that has yet to be justified by anyone. One issue worth considering is that today media propagates backlash against anyone who is trying to institute policies perceived as restrictive. As previously mentioned, the strongly cherished notion of personal freedom would be fiercely defended if threatened; if a government tried introducing a conditioning policy on its citizens, the media would not hesitate to call it “mind control” and effectively quell the government’s attempt at changing policy. The only experiment related to this topic was dubbed the “Little Albert” experiment. This was a psychological experiment done by behaviourist John Watson who tried to condition a small child, nicknamed Little Albert,to develop phobias around animals by producing traumatic bursts of noise whenever the child approached an animal. Unfortunately, Little Albert passed away within a year due to a disease that may or may not be related to the experiment (Dodson). This renders any results from the experiment null in their claims about adults. Therefore, further experimentation is required to determine whether or not hypnopaedia is at all possible; however, it is currently impossible to carry out this research due to the current public opinion on psychological testing.
Firstly, allow for an examination of the conditions required to start this society. Huxley writes that there was a conflict between the Brave New World society and the rest of the world, before the society consumed the world. This Nine Years’ War, as Huxley describes, involved “ fourteen thousand aeroplanes” dropping “anthrax bombs” on civilian populations. This would involve a large army, access to weapons of mass destruction, and a lack of defensive satellite coverage. The first of these conditions would require a large civilian base as well as agriculture and manufacturing bases to support the soldiers. The second requirement involves a large supply of aerosolized anthrax. I will examine these logistics later on. The third, however, is one of the most important, mainly because it is more serious in light of recent events. Spy satellites were an invention during the Cold War for the purpose of spying on belligerent nations and those that have yet to become hostile towards the U.S., which means the Soviet Union and those nations in its influence. Now, after the Cold War, most developed nations have some sort of “spy satellite” in orbit of Earth. These can photograph troop deployments and use radar to detect aerial movements. Hence, the foreknowledge of a massive aerial attack and the slim chance to prevent the massive assault.
A steady base of both agricultural and manufacturing would be required to wage a “Nine Years” war on any country, especially multiple countries at the same time. This means a large population base totally dedicated toward this common goal. While it is theoretically possible to have a large population working towards these ends, they would need to buy into Huxley’s philosophical ideas. This requires the rejection of personal freedom and rejection of societal norms. This was during a point in history in which some of the largest controversies were centered around the freedom of the individual. As of late, the NSA epitomizes this issue as they have been embroiled about collecting phone and internet logs of U.S. citizens, even though the director of the Office of National Intelligence, James Clapper, claims “the NSA does ‘not wittingly’ collect data on Americans”(Morgenstern). As such, a large portion of the world, quite possibly the majority of the population, are strongly in support of the individual's personal freedom and rights. True, there are such countries where this is not a strongly held belief, but even then, there still exists the recognition of the individuals potential. Therefore, although there are countries with capable manufacturing, agricultural, and civilian populations, the problem lies in the fact that Huxley’s philosophy is dependent upon the general population losing personal initiative and all appearance of individuality; this is not inherent in humanity.
Secondly, in order for Huxley’s dystopia to get a foothold in the world, it would need to be in an isolated area with no outside influences. This would be similar to many cults that wish for a “utopian society”, such as the infamous Jonestown; Jonestown was a small town in South America where nearly one thousand U.S. citizens killed themselves on the word of Jim Jones, the leader. If an entire nation was to declare an isolationist policy, many of the neighboring nations would likely consider this a hostile action. Overall, if a neighboring nation decided to sever all ties, politically, culturally, and economically, one would assume that the reason would be hostile, much like Germany preceding World War Two. If a community of like minded-individuals felt that in these modern times of globalization that isolationism is still a good idea and were willing to follow through with the purchasing of lands and goods, they would be labeled militia men and excommunicated from of their home country. Again, there is anecdotal evidence of this excommunication in the Edward Snowden case, in which Snowden sought asylum from the U.S. after releasing documents online. There have been various attitudes about his actions, the foremost being that he is a traitor to the country. Another prime example would be North Korea, a nation based on the value of group outweighing the whole. For several years the nation, has claimed to be nuclear capable, but satellite imagery evidences that their test missiles are barely capable of being airborne. Ergo, isolationism is not feasible given that these current and past events have been similar to warning signs of hostilities and would provoke hostilities from others.
Additionally, Huxley describes how there are free people that exist in a system that survives because of the lack of free will; the most evident of these people are Alphas who were specifically conditioned to be free. Irony aside, if a system is based on stability has an unstable element in control, then the system is essentially unstable.One could make the argument that they are conditioned not to be free, but then Huxley had stated that they are free. Even though they understand what needs to be done for the survival of Huxley’s society, since they are free they have something that none of the other castes have: choice. They are capable of making the wrong choice, and therefore dangerous to the stable society. Another example of a free group of people are those who are able to break out of the control of the hypnopaedia, like Bernard and Helmholtz. To deal with this problem, the World Controllers send these people to live on islands around the world. These people are placed on Islands throughout the world. Acting as independent satellites of the society, they free of the influence of the controlling hypnopaedia. If these islands are independent of the hypnopaedic control of the society, then that means they may have rid themselves of the social stigma placed on childbearing and are capable of growing independently as a society. The “savage reservation” that Huxley remarks about is capable of acting independently as well, perhaps even more so than the islands because the ability of owning books and arable land.
Ironically, this society’s greatest restraint is its total lack of personal restraint in its citizens. This is evidenced through the “economic ecology” Theory. This essentially states that any system based on continuous gluttony will become unsustainable over a long enough time. This concurs with both the physics of thermodynamics and the economic and social sustainability in Huxley’s Brave New World. He portrays the economy as being if an object breaks, the reasonable thing to do is to throw it out and get a replacement object. This is not sustainable in the long run(Czech, n.d.). The population is also on a growth curve thanks to the Bokanovsky process, in which cloning allows for the growth of ninety-six people off of one zygote. While the population growth could be remedied easily, the social thought of overproduction would persist in the way of old versus new. This, as Mond describes later, will not be allowed to exist for the simple reason of how old it is. Instability in a system based on stability seem to be key qualities of Huxley’s world.
Lastly, Huxley’s world depends on the invention and application of the previously mentioned hypnopaedia. There are two main logistical problems: the ability and ease of application and the fact that hypnopaedia is pseudo-science that has yet to be justified by anyone. One issue worth considering is that today media propagates backlash against anyone who is trying to institute policies perceived as restrictive. As previously mentioned, the strongly cherished notion of personal freedom would be fiercely defended if threatened; if a government tried introducing a conditioning policy on its citizens, the media would not hesitate to call it “mind control” and effectively quell the government’s attempt at changing policy. The only experiment related to this topic was dubbed the “Little Albert” experiment. This was a psychological experiment done by behaviourist John Watson who tried to condition a small child, nicknamed Little Albert,to develop phobias around animals by producing traumatic bursts of noise whenever the child approached an animal. Unfortunately, Little Albert passed away within a year due to a disease that may or may not be related to the experiment (Dodson). This renders any results from the experiment null in their claims about adults. Therefore, further experimentation is required to determine whether or not hypnopaedia is at all possible; however, it is currently impossible to carry out this research due to the current public opinion on psychological testing.
Czech, B. (n.d.). Ecological Economics. Retrieved from Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy website: http://steadystate.org/wp-content/uploads/Czech_Ecological_Economics.pdf
Dodson, K. E. (n.d.). Ways of Knowing: Selected Readings. U.S.: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
Morgenstern, M. (2013, June 6). Flashback: Intel Chief Told Senate in March the NSA Does Not ‘Wittingly’ Collect Any Data on Americans | Video | TheBlaze.com. Retrieved April 31, 2014, from http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/06/flashback-intel-chief-told-senate-in-march-the-nsa-does-not-wittingly- collect-any-data-on-americans/
Dodson, K. E. (n.d.). Ways of Knowing: Selected Readings. U.S.: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
Morgenstern, M. (2013, June 6). Flashback: Intel Chief Told Senate in March the NSA Does Not ‘Wittingly’ Collect Any Data on Americans | Video | TheBlaze.com. Retrieved April 31, 2014, from http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/06/flashback-intel-chief-told-senate-in-march-the-nsa-does-not-wittingly- collect-any-data-on-americans/