Orwell's World

In Huxley’s Brave New World, “social stability” is the foundational tenant for this society dictated by the state. To suppress the individual, and the problems that result from this inherently ego-centric construct, is to make the citizens members of a communal society, enslaved by their vices. Technology, consumerism, and promiscuity satisfy the desires of the flesh and the shallow needs of the mind, but there is no deep satisfaction, no purpose to life other than the cycle of work and pleasure. The vices of these peoples and their fulfillment will, for the most part, suppress the deeper thoughts and desires of man, for if man were to experience a sense that the shallow stimulation is not enough, and that if he were to pursue something much harder to obtain, like truth, faith, or love, then social stability would be compromised.

For “the Party” in Orwell’s 1984, power is the first and final objective. The Party seeks to maintain its dominance and thus the continuity of the current social order—a social stability to protect the outer and inner party, just as Huxley’s social stability protects the society of Alphas and their blissful ignorance. The Party also seeks to maintain power by crushing the individual; however, rather than providing immense luxury and escapism to suppress deep thoughts and sensations, the Party uses the forces of nationalism, hatred, fear, and manipulation to take the independent individual and make him wholly subject to the party will. By creating a state where the individual does not think, act, or even exist on his own accord, the individual is absolutely powerless and dependent on the all-powerful party; in turn, the individual, from his dependence, is driven back to the party, further reducing his individual power.

With the 1950’s, and the Cold War, 1984 seemed much more imminent than the light and carefree Brave New World. With the world always on the brink of destruction and, in the meantime, perceived enemies at home and abroad, the prosperity of the 1950’s could do nothing about the cloud of fear and insecurity hovered over Americans in the 1950’s. If nuclear war did not destroy America first, or if the Soviets didn’t subvert the free world and in its place, prop up autocratic communism, the Americans themselves, in loyalty programs and Senators named McCarthy, would bring 1984 to America. As the decades passed, nuclear Armageddon and subversion would be gradually replaced by real war and turmoil. The threat of autocracy would lessen and seemingly wither away with the Soviets. 1984, and the year 1984, came and went.

And in the years that Orwell’s vision was strong, American society was, ironically enough, sowing the seeds for Huxley’s world. The age of consumerism began in the 1950’s, and it has hardly faltered since then. While Orwell and his world declined, Huxley’s came to the forefront. For a book written in the 1930’s, Huxley is startling in his technological and social predictions. True, the world today is not nearly as grotesque as that in Brave New World, but American society has become more liberalized in its tastes and consumerized in its economics. Is there a downside to this, a blow to our individuality as in Brave New World? Is it not reasonable to see a suppression of deep individual considerations with the comforts and pleasures afforded by modern consumerism and liberality?

Those who would declare a Huxleyian crisis must take into consideration the enormous social and economic progress this country has made. Look at our schools. Look at our colleges. Look at our opportunity and prosperity. This is certainly a better world than at most other points in recent and not-so-recent history. More people know how to read and write. More people go to college, get jobs, own homes, and raise children with prospects better than that of their parents. Those who might enjoy the latest smut in Cosmopolitan or internet porn—phenomenon twenty or thirty years ago—may include those people who, had they lived earlier in the century, could not have read or operated machinery, let alone purchase such articles through discretionary spending. What these newly empowered people might be seeking is simply the modern form of persistent vice. Even Victorian heads of households—men, of course—sought sexual outlets outside of the home—namely, in brothels—in what was a socially accepted practice. These new sexual and sensual developments of the late 20th and early 21st centuries are not necessarily the harbingers of a new gluttonous, gaudy, promiscuous world order—it could simply be affording new avenues of participation in elemental desires to those who could not attain them in such a way before, reflecting the literacy and prosperity achieved. In other words, technology and industry has simply illuminated the dark ways of man, whereas before he satisfied his needs in subtler ways.

But is the prosperity of the past coming to an end? Have hard times come upon us? It is still too premature to make prophecies, but we known that the current economic crisis is one of the worst we have seen in a very long time. This world’s attempts at vibrovacs and scent organs and an infantile lifestyle have met the harsh economic reality, which tells us that such luxury is not yet tenable. Certainly, this blow to consumerism is a blow to a Huxleyian vision of the world, and the impact of the economic collapse on the everyday lives of the people is profound. Such an impact may cause political repercussions.

Hard times bring misery. And in the past, hard times have brought demands for relief, for answers, for solutions—and the demands of the people have been met by men imported straight from Oceania. Rallying hatred and nationalism, stamping the boot into the face of humanity, the Hitlers and Stalins of the world make 1984 as real as it will ever become. While, for now, this nation and the world have yet to reach the depths of Depression desperation, we must still be ever vigilant against tyranny. And as an exposition of the autocracy and its methods, we find 1984 to be relevant in these times.