Brave New Essay Topic

In the following passage, the contemporary social critic Neil Postman contrasts George Orwell’s vision of the future, as expressed in the novel 1984 (written in 1948), with that of Aldous Huxley in the novel Brave New World (1932).  Read the passage, considering Postman’s assertion that Huxley’s vision is more relevant today than is Orwell’s. 

Then, using your own critical understanding of contemporary society and Huxley’s novel as evidence, write a carefully argued essay that answers the following question:

Is Aldous Huxley’s satirical Brave New World relevant today?

            We were keeping our eye on 1984.  When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves.  The roots of liberal democracy had held.  Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

            But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another—slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling:  Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.  Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing.  Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression.  But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history.  As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

            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, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain.  In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.  In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us.  Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

In attacking this essay, I would definetely answer yes, Huxley's novel is relevant today.  I would point out the foresight that Huxley had when it came to an increase in promiscuity and the effect it had on society.  having read 1984, I would also be able to elaborate on the twxt provided.  Armed with knowledge from the two novels and this text, I would be able to find many examples to answer the prompt.