Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley

I’m glad I read Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley! I almost didn’t after Brave New World wasn’t quite up to my expectations, see my review for it here. However, since Revisited is a nonfiction evaluation of the earlier novel rather than a sequel, I found it much more interesting. Unfortunately, it’s also somewhat depressing/scary that many of the trends Huxley recognized in 1958 seem to be getting worse today.

Book Stats

• Title: Brave New World Revisited
• Author: Aldous Huxley
• Genre: Nonfiction, Dystopia, Politics
• Publication Date: November 1958
• Pages: 144
• Est. Reading Time: 5 hours
• My Rating: 4/5 Stars
• Buy Now: Amazon or BAM!

Brave New World Revisited: Plot Summary

When Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931, he set his sci-fi dystopia over 600 years in the future. Fast forward to 1958 and he was shocked by how quickly society was moving towards his predictions. These thoughts resulted in a series of essays highlighting many of society’s problems and potential solutions as he saw them. Covering topics like overpopulation, propaganda, and drugs, this collection of essays became Brave New World Revisited!

“In 1931, when Brave New World was being written, I was convinced that there was still plenty of time…
Ours was a nightmare of too little order; theirs, in the seventh century A.F., of too much. In the passing from one extreme to the other, there would be a long interval, so I imagined, during which the more fortunate third of the human race would make the best of both worlds—the disorderly world of liberalism and the much too orderly Brave New World where perfect efficiency left no room for freedom or personal initiative.
Twenty-seven years later, in this third quarter of the twentieth century A.D., and long before the end of the first century A.F., I feel a good deal less optimistic than I did when I was writing Brave New World.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

In his analysis, Huxley often refers to scenarios presented in Brave New World and also George Orwell’s 1984. So, you may want to read these two books first if you haven’t but I wouldn’t say it’s required. Luckily, Brave New World is often combined with Revisited these days!

My Thoughts

Amazingly, I still found most of Huxley’s concerns profound and very relevant today. At the same time, many of the concerns Huxley sheds light on seem to be getting worse rather than better which can make for a depressing read. Many points even had me considering whether society (at least those in power) even want things to change/improve? Indeed, Huxley himself addresses this and raises concerns about the pushback from advertisers and clergymen in addition to politicians.

“And yet children are nowhere taught, in any systematic way, to distinguish true from false, or meaningful from meaningless, statements. Why is this so? Because their elders, even in the democratic countries, do not want them to be given this kind of education.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Initially, I took some solace from the fact that I found Brave New World’s “dystopia” much more appealing than others I’ve read like 1984. I even questioned whether it should be considered a dystopia or utopia in my review. Huxley soon bursts this bubble though, pointing out the plight of flightless birds like the dodo who became content to stay on the ground when food was plentiful and later went extinct.

“That so many of the well fed young television-watchers in the world’s most powerful democracy should be so completely indifferent to the idea of self-government, so blankly uninterested in freedom of thought and the right to dissent, is distressing, but not too surprising.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Overpopulation

Probably the problem we’ve best addressed from Huxley’s concerns is overpopulation. While his point is valid that raising life expectancy is often easier than reducing births, the invention of the birth control pill in 1960 has made a big impact. Additionally, more drastic measures were taken in some developing nations like China’s one-child policy. If Huxley were still alive, I’d love to hear his thoughts on these efforts since they’ve been met with mixed results. Personally, I think it has to be a fine balancing act between the number of people the Earth can support and a growing population to support economic growth. This is especially apparent to me in light of policies like Social Security that only continue to function with an increasing workforce and/or wages to keep paying in higher and higher amounts as life expectancy improves.

“Death control is something which can be provided for a whole people by a few technicians working in the pay of a benevolent government. Birth control depends on the co-operation of an entire people.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Thus, what’s probably more concerning today is the underlying cause of overpopulation: a lengthening life expectancy. As Huxley points out, this is often considered a good thing but does come with its share of problems. Namely, as technology allows more and more people who would have died in the past to live, overall health may actually decline. I’m not sure if it’s exactly what Huxley meant, but the prevalence of obesity and heart disease today would never have been possible without the many modern conveniences we now enjoy.

“Under the conditions now prevailing, every advance in medicine will tend to be offset by a corresponding advance in the survival rate of individuals cursed by some genetic insufficiency. In spite of new wonder drugs and better treatment (indeed, in a certain sense, precisely because of these things), the physical health of the general population will show no improvement, and may even deteriorate. And along with a decline of average healthiness there may well go a decline in average intelligence.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Although attributed to higher birth rates among lower IQs instead of health, this quote immediately made me think of the movie Idiocracy.

Solution: Space Colonies?

“And even if, at some future date, emigration to Mars should become feasible, even if any considerable number of men and women were desperate enough to choose a new life under conditions comparable to those prevailing on a mountain twice as high as Mount Everest, what difference would that make? In the course of the last four centuries quite a number of people sailed from the Old World to the New. But neither their departure nor the returning flow of food and raw materials could solve the problems of the Old World.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

As we hopefully approach the reality of a Mars colony, this quote jumped out at me. I agree settling in space probably won’t solve all of Earth’s problems but I still believe it’s an important thing to do! Just because it didn’t solve all of the Old World’s problems doesn’t mean it didn’t help. A number of technologies and ideas came from settling the New World to the benefit of the Old same as the space race. Furthermore, if not to save Earth, perhaps the few humans lucky enough to settle on Mars will get it right next time. I have to believe Huxley would at least have some hope on this point considering he holds the United States, a product of the New World, as the greatest democracy.

Mass Media and Propaganda

Most concerning is probably how accurately Huxley’s predictions on mass media and propaganda have turned out. If he was beginning to lose faith in 1958, I would hate for him to see any of our recent elections…

“Democratic institutions can be made to work only if all concerned do their best to impart knowledge and to encourage rationality. But today, in the world’s most powerful democracy, the politicians and their propagandists prefer to make nonsense of democratic procedures by appealing almost exclusively to the ignorance and irrationality of the electors.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Huxley spends a considerable amount of time discussing advertising research and subliminal messaging in these sections to compare the difference between 1984, where the populace is ruled by fear, and Brave New World, where people are controlled by conditioning. I’m not sure how it was in the ’50s, but the methods learned from product advertising have clearly been fully implemented into political campaigns today. It’s a scary thought that with these tactics in place we may not be as free as we think we are.

“The methods now being used to merchandise the political candidate as though he were a deodorant positively guarantee the electorate against ever hearing the truth about anything.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Concentration of Power

“More and more power is thus concentrated in the hands of executives and their bureaucratic managers. But the nature of power is such that even those who have not sought it, but have had it forced upon them, tend to acquire a taste for more.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

While the technologies of radio, TV, and internet have undoubtedly led to some good, they’re also responsible for consolidating more and more power to fewer and fewer politicians and companies. This concentration of power, together with the ever-improving methods of propaganda to obscure the truth, make democracy and “government of the people, by the people, for the people” increasingly difficult. Huxley also calls freedom of the press into question as economies of scale make it harder and harder for small businesses to compete. His example was the lessening quantity of newspapers and small publications but it’s not hard to make the comparison to today’s Facebook and Google.

Science and Medicine

Finally, Huxley warns of how new drugs, approaching the soma of Brave New World, and technology might be used by dictators to institute totalitarian control without resistance. Of course, he also points out the good these technologies might do! Thus, the importance of maintaining free access to true information and educating everyone on how to evaluate this information. Along these lines, I’m curious what Huxley would think of the current efforts to legalize marijuana?

“Like everything else, these discoveries may be used well or badly. They may help the psychiatrist in his battle against mental illness, or they may help the dictator in his battle against freedom. More probably (since science is divinely impartial) they will both enslave and make free, heal and at the same time destroy.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Brave New World Revisited: Final Thoughts

Being nonfiction, Brave New World Revisited isn’t the most entertaining or exciting book but I really loved the thought-provoking aspects and found myself thinking about it and discussing it with people long after I’d finished reading! While I didn’t love Brave New World, it’s well worth the read in order to enjoy Huxley’s follow up essays! I also believe there’s a lot to be gained by more people becoming aware of Huxley’s concerns and thinking critically about the world we live in.

“Almost all of us long for peace and freedom; but very few of us have much enthusiasm for the thoughts, feelings and actions that make for peace and freedom. Conversely almost nobody wants war or tyranny; but a great many people find an intense pleasure in the thoughts, feelings and actions that make for war and tyranny.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Have you read Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley? Did you prefer it or Brave New World? Is there a sequel that you love even though you didn’t like the original?