I recently read two interesting books: George Orwell`s 1984 and Aldous Huxley`s Brave new world. They are both very famous novels about future societies, and they are often compared. Both predict that humanity will lose most of its freedom. But in very, very different ways.
1984 is terrifying. I have never read a scarier book. I had heard of course, of Big Brother and the thoughtpolice, – these terms have become common references in popular culture – but I didnt really know the full story. In 1984, the world is divided between three huge police states, which wage constant war with each other for the sole purpose of maintaining their iron grip on their citizens. Oceania – what was once Britain, USA, New Zealand and Australia - is a ruthless dictatorship where every thought and action is controlled by the four goverment ministries – the Ministry of Truth (which spreads propaganda), the Ministry of Peace (which makes war), the Ministry of Plenty (which enforces harsh rations) and, most terrifyingly, the Ministry of Love, which tortures the regimes`s opponents. The scenes set in the cellars of the Ministry of Love must be some of the most chilling I have ever read. They made my skin crawl. A brilliant, deeply disturbing book.
And yet for all the emotional punch of 1984, I thought Brave new world was more insightful. It predicts a future world of infinite pleasure where citizens are numbed and exhausted with constant, sanctioned casual sex, drugs and consumerism. They become willing, unthinking cogs in the system. Children are brainwashed from an early age to accept their roles in society and to want more sex, more clothes, more drugs – eliminating any emotion, or any meaningful human relationships, or any critical thinking. For a book written in the 1920s I was truly by stunned how many of its prediction had come true. And even more so in this society. I would read the book on public transport, and then look up from that descriptions of anaesthetized pleasure-seeking drones, to see Japanese society teeming all around me – and really, how different were they?
As on review one wikipedia said: “1984 fears that hate will destry us. But in Brave New World it is the things we love which bring about our end”. I`d say Japan is, scarily, well on its way…
