ADDED: That Aldous Huxley quote, from a video at the link, sent me back to my Kindle copy of "Brave New World," whence I've lifted this for you:
"Work, play — at sixty our powers and tastes are what they were at seventeen. Old men in the bad old days used to renounce, retire, take to religion, spend their time reading, thinking — thinking!...
"Now — such is progress — the old men work, the old men copulate, the old men have no time, no leisure from pleasure, not a moment to sit down and think — or if ever by some unlucky chance such a crevice of time should yawn in the solid substance of their distractions, there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon; returning whence they find themselves on the other side of the crevice, safe on the solid ground of daily labour and distraction, scampering from feely to feely, from girl to pneumatic girl, from Electromagnetic Golf course to …"
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30 comments:
True that.
Like having conversations with your phone.
Didn't Tocqueville say this about 180 years ago?
This is pretty much what Aristotle had in mind when he said that some [men] are natural slaves. Some people don't want to think for themselves, don't want to make real decisions, and will let others do it for them as long as they are relatively comfortable.
This is a view shared by the Russian Tsars and the Bolsheviks.
"The terrifying thing about modern dictatorships is that they are something entirely unprecedented. Their end cannot be foreseen. In the past, every tyranny was sooner or later overthrown, or at least resisted because of "human nature," which as a matter of course desired liberty. But we cannot be at all certain that human nature is constant. It may be just as possible to produce a breed of men who do not wish for liberty as to produce a breed of hornless cows. The Inquisition failed, but then the Inquisition had not the resources of the modern state. The radio, press censorship, standardized education and the secret police have alterted everything. Mass suggestion is a science of the last twenty years, and we do not know how successful it will be." --George Orwell-- "Review of __Russia under Soviet Rule__ by N. de Basily" (__Essays__,George Orwell, Knopf, 2002).
"One has only to to think of the sinister possibilities of the radio, State-controlled education, and so forth, to realize that 'the truth is great and will prevail' is a prayer rather than an axiom." --George
Orwell [Review of __Power; A New Social Analysis__ by Bertrand Russell].
Given that the pursuit of a decent standard living is far more important to most people, myself included, than perfect freedom - a state which in any case is unachievable - what is so terrible about contented servitude? The great achievement of the United States has been just that: a decent life for the overwhelming majority under conditions of less than perfect freedom. Which of course enrages the idealists who will settle for nothing less than perfect freedom (which for them means either anarchy or total control of the stupidly contented).
Huxley didn't get it. If it was done in the past, we have no record of it. He speaks of "bread and circuses", but there were plenty of people who saw the rot in Rome.
He, like Victor Davis Hanson, saw the rise of "comfortable" poverty, replete with XBoxes and Wiis, but, behind even the most "pleasurable" dictatorship is still the iron fist. And all the propaganda in the world can't stifle a thinking mind.
Witness the resistance to the Soviet Union - and its fall.
JorgXMcKie said...
This is pretty much what Aristotle had in mind when he said that some [men] are natural slaves. Some people don't want to think for themselves, don't want to make real decisions, and will let others do it for them as long as they are relatively comfortable.
Short version: some men like their chains.
Problem is, revolutions have never been made by men who like those chains.
"If it was done in the past, we have no record of it."
You mean if it was done to perfection. Even in "Brave New World," there are people who figure out what is going on and rebel.
The reason that Huxley's new world is not already here is because of the Christians who have not been won over to the miserable world of unbelief.
You want to read good book ? try Zemiakin´s We. The original of 1984 and Brave New World
Well, that's interesting because I am a 61 year old man trying to squeeze in a few more years of work.
Unfortunately, in my latest contract job, I'm indentured to the boss from hell. Her management style is threat and tantrum. She hates listening to any other person, and has thus shut down all communication among her team.
I'm going to work every morning dreading being fired and hoping I'll be fired.
I think I need to work a few more years before I retire. But, I'm wondering whether I'm putting off enjoying the day I have in the hope that I can enjoy a future that might not even exist.
Yes, it is enslavement. I with the OWS kids here.
The old man of the mountain did a good work at that: make people contented with their servitude
And was the goverment plan for Rousseasu
What a bummer.
Always thought that Huxley's version of the future was more plausible than Orwell's. Orwell described eastern Europe. Perhaps Huxley's model is today's college campus.
Shouting Thomas, I feel your pain. For society, the way out of your trap is private property and free enterprise. Take them away and we are all just working for the man or woman.
The pneumatic girl phrase always stuck with me.
Jose, "We" is an excellent read.
The led protesters are demanding pleasurable servitude.
This discussion is the reason Goldberg put a smiley face on his book "Liberal Fascism." Birds in gilded cages, and all that.. Or as Churchill put it when he warned of totalitarianism and societal disaster being carried in "on the gleaming wings of science."
Huxley's dystopian dreams were entertaining for a few months, in 70s
"Chase" trying to play hippie, again, neo-con tweeker? Even the A-tards are onto you,retard.
Drug test time, Sac-stoner. Maybe too-night. An yr HD ..Got that phony wicca-queer?
Shouting Thomas said...
I think I need to work a few more years before I retire. But, I'm wondering whether I'm putting off enjoying the day I have in the hope that I can enjoy a future that might not even exist.
You're right. The Blonde and I are doing our damnedest to hold off dipping into our retirement until the market comes back, we get a real President and a real Congress, a real economy...
DADvocate said...
The pneumatic girl phrase always stuck with me.
That's the trick - getting the pneumatic girl to stick with you.
PS Pneumatic girls always make a soft landing
"Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore?"
Denial or destruction of the soul is the sin qua non of the committed statist.
Byro the sockpup, brainfarting away. You have nothing to with Huxley anyway. Yr..Romney. Brave Nauvoo World, yeahh
The individuals who suffer from delusions of grandeur, whether they are corrupt by nature or development, have learned that it is far easier to consolidate wealth and power through authority, when the people are sold a dependent and compliant existence in exchange for promises of instant gratification.
Unfortunately, the combination of authority and involuntary exploitation promotes progressive corruption of individuals and society. As in the past, eventually the people will recognize their individual dignity, and will revolt against their oppressors.
The root cause of the problems underlying our crises, is that there has been a campaign to replace moral knowledge with totalitarian policies. Without the former, and voluntary self-moderation of behavior, we cannot have liberty, and we will effectively become enslaved by authoritarian interests. The effort to denigrate individual dignity and devalue human life has exacerbated and accelerated the corruption of our society.
I trust that the people who designed and run the hadron collider have done so in such a way as that it will not create a black hole that will rip apart the space-time continuum of our universe. There are no protestors outside the hadron colliders. Left, right, and moderate we are all content with and deferential to the operators of the hadron collider....This is not the case with large banks and nuclear power plants. There is only so much crap you can worry about and most of us most of the time prefer to exist in contented servitude until such time as the ruling class demonstrably fucks things up. I'm content with my lot, but I can see how those whose life is in foreclosure or who lived a mile from Fukishama could form a different opinon.... Live and let life. I have no wish to study nuclear physics or sinking debentures. The ruling class is welcome to their long hours, trophy wives, and arcane knowledge. For me, I'm content with the simple joys of sleeping late and watching internet porn. If the protestors want to sleep outside and shit on police cars, that's fine too. Everyone is entitled to their own ring or their own seat at the circus.
"Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything--you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."
-- Robert Heinlein
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
"This is a view shared by the Russian Tsars and the Bolsheviks."
Who amusingly enough ended up murdered, overthrown and/or deposed.
Such views are popular amongst the self-identified elites because it reassures them that the carnival will never end. The buffet will never run out.
The reality is far far different. There is a vast difference between complacency and contentment. Misunderstanding that difference is what leads to destruction.
"But we cannot be at all certain that human nature is constant. It may be just as possible to produce a breed of men who do not wish for liberty as to produce a breed of hornless cows."
Mercifully we now suspect it cannot be done in a single generation, or even in a hundred. See here for the grounds of this suspicion.
Or try Googling the phrase, "reverse dominance hierarchy."
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