tjt@kobold.UUCP (T.J.Teixeira) (12/07/83)
Another anti-utopian classic "Brave New World" describes what the world
would be like if it was mostly populated by airheads and valley girls.
Gruesome to think about, but not as depressing as Huxley seemed to
realize that not *everyone* would want to live in California, :-) and
that the government would realize this too.
Of course, another aspect of "Brave New World" was the breeding of
nearly sub-human races to provide the cheap labor to support the upper
classes. One wonders if Huxley had written the book twenty or thirty
years later if he would have still done this, or simply used robots
instead. I believe that the use of conditioning to keep the proles in
their place is really a secondary theme in "Brave New World", although
an important one.
--
Tom Teixeira, Massachusetts Computer Corporation. Westford MA
...!{ihnp4,harpo,decvax,ucbcad,tektronix}!masscomp!tjt (617) 692-6200rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (12/14/83)
> I believe that the use of conditioning to keep the proles in > their place is really a secondary theme in "Brave New World", although > an important one. It would seem to me that the notion of 'conditioning' people to believe that they enjoy their wonderful way of life (not just the proles) was THE primary theme of Brave New World. Gosh, life is wonderful, what with soma and the feelies. It's a shame that all we have in real life is marijuana and MTV, but they seem to do the job, as we all go on with our shopping. Everybody's happy nowadays. -- Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr