Utopian Society: Aldous Huxley vs. George Orwell

source: http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html

The dream of forming and maintaining a utopian society was immortalized in two novels dealing with the same basic ideas, 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Although the writers take two different approaches, they both feel the same way about the utopian society. I'm inclined to think that this has to do with the fact that Huxley's novel was written pre world war II while Orwell's was post the war. They explore the impracticality of the utopian ideal. Furthermore, they illustrate the two ways in which governments and those in power control and manipulate the general public.

In 1984 the world is in a state of constant war, no one is free, and everyone is ignorant. The concept of the Big brother was introduced in this novel. "Big brother" is any figure of dictatorship that lulls the people into a false sense of security. Those are the ones who ban books and deprive us from information. "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." If you tell people a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. As ironic as it is, it's just the sad truth. That is also called “doublethink” which is the deliberate self-deception with which the citizens are encouraged to accept it.

In Brave New World people have chained themselves in front of their television screens to watch a different version of Big Brother. Huxley fears the future will bring too much information, and therefore the truth will be "drowned in a sea of irrelevance". "Drowned in a sea" gives the impression of there being too much of something that makes it easy to lose sight of its true importance. The more people are being sucked into this useless entertainment, the more they become careless and indifferent about what's really important.

In conclusion, people are controlled by either "inflicting pain" or by "inflicting pleasure". I believe that both of these two ideologies are imposed on our modern societies; however, Huxley's way is much more apparent. That is because mass media generally and television screens specifically buzz endlessly with brainwashing propaganda that gets people to act accordingly.