Huxley by a furlong

I heard another tired, misused allusion to Brave New World in a business setting today. When people use that phrase they seem to be using it in an Ariel from Disney fashion (even though that's a Whole New World, not a Brave New World), not an Aldous Huxley way. I don't think that's intentional though. No one alludes to The Circle of Life or To Infinity and Beyond for inspiration. Brave New World sounds good because it has a ring of the literary to it. The problem is the brave new world Huxley described was not what a business leader is generally envisioning (i.e., a drug-induced societal orgy). I think people should read the book before they allude to it. Either that or they should quote all Disney movies equally - it's more progressive that way.

Anyway...

Made me look up this great summary by Neil Postman comparing the totalitarian futures envisioned in 1984 and Brave New World. I think Huxley's left poor Orwell in the dust as far as where western culture is headed. Here it is:

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 wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.

Please don't title a presentation "Brave New World" ever again unless you are head of marketing for Soma.