Brave New World Revisited - Aldous Huxley

Picked up this essay reflecting on Brave New World after listening to the ever-wondrous In Our Time on the original novel. Between the novel and the essay came Nazism/WW2 and the publication of 1984, both of which throw new light on Huxley's original vision.

Some of the predicitions are wildly off target, largely due to Malthisian gloom over population increases, and on occasion the attitude threatens to become both luddite and misanthropic. Occasional glimpses of brilliance make the read worthwhile. Check out this prediciton about election campaigns, bearing in mind it was published when Eisenhower was president.

In one way or another...the candidate must be glamorous. He must also be an entertainer who never bores his audience. Inured to television and radio, that audience is accustomed to being distracted and does not like to be asked to concentrate or make a prolonged intellectual effort. All speeches by the entertainer-candidate must therefore be short and snappy. the great issues of the day must be dealth with in five minutes at the most - and preferably...in sixty seconds flat. The nature of oratory is such that there has always been a tendency among politicians and clergymen to over-simplify complex issues. From a pulpit or a platform even the most conscientious of speakers finds it very difficult to tell the whole truth. 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.