Aldous Huxley vs. George Orwell

[monk222]

Good timing! Just as I am wrapping up “Brave New World”, Andrew Sullivan links to a post by Stuart McMillen from 2009 that plays with the question of who was the better prognosticator: George Orwell with his “1984” or Aldous Huxley with, yes, “Brave New World”? McMillen draws a comic strip based on Neil Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death.”

Since it is from 2009, you might have seen in before, and it even looks familiar to me, but I cannot remember clearly, and in any case it’s worth a repeat.

In brief, Huxley is felt to have the better of this constructed debate. Orwell perhaps played too hard on the idea of governments relying on pure brute force, whereas Huxley makes the keen point that successful governments would rule over us more subtly than that, by playing on our weaknesses, by infantilizing us, by amusing ourselves with senseless distractions and currying our dependency. A taste of the drawn contrast:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books.

What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who would want to read one.

I suppose I buy that argument. Though, if I could have only one book, I think I’d stick with “1984.” I am drawn to that darkness, as it tends to match the darkness in my soul. And there is just a sweeter desperation in it.