Aldous Huxley
Huxley's NIGHTMARE
by: Talal Nayer
In the novel Brave New World, the Savage, John, was not able to find what he is looking for in the dystopian World State, where there is no disease or death. He found London society to be quite challenging, as it often encouraged the use of drugs and promiscuous sexual activity, and discouraged the reading of books and listening to traditional music. This led him to feel that there was no alternative to escape from this technological trap except suicide. It could be argued that the "savage" in question is what Aldous Huxley had in mind when he made observations about intellectual pursuits being more fulfilling than mere physical pleasures.
Young Aldous was ridiculed by his peers for his poor eyesight, but this was not the only thing that made him the center of attention; he was the scion of the great Huxley family. His father, Leonard, was a distinguished writer and academic, while his grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley, was one of the most important English biologists and a fervent supporter of Darwinian theory. His grandfather’s contributions were so significant that they were described as key to the acceptance of Charles Darwin's ideas. This fertile scientific and literary environment influenced his upbringing, as Aldous's brothers, Andrew and Julian, were two of the most important biologists in England. His uncle, the English poet and historian Matthew Arnold, also contributed to the circle of famous and distinguished relatives from academically prestigious families who surrounded Aldous's life. However, this did not make him arrogant or lazy; he was a humble man, an encyclopedic intellectual, and a humorous socialite who enjoyed telling jokes.
His mother, Julia Arnold, died when he was fourteen, leaving him emotionally attached to her as she had brought him up at home after he contracted keratitis, which left him almost blind and fortunately unfit to fight in the First World War. Young Aldous's suffering was compounded when his brother, Noel, three years his senior, committed suicide in 1914 as a result of severe depression.
Aldous Huxley's experience of near-blindness had a profound impact on his life and outlook. The experience made him think differently about the world and discover it with his mind rather than his eyes. Julian, his brother, noted that this period led Aldous to renounce medicine as a profession, focusing instead on writing. His originality was so great that it overshadowed his cosmopolitanism. Aldous's visual impairment was a recurring theme in many of his poems, novels, and essays. His novel Eyeless in Gaza takes its title from a poem by John Milton. The character Samson in the poem burned his eyes and was imprisoned in Gaza, forced to work in the grain mill with the slaves. When Delilah betrayed him and the Philistines surrounded him in the temple, Samson carried out a suicide operation and destroyed the pillars, killing himself and his enemies.
Huxley wrote several essays on the experience of blindness, including The Art of Seeing, but his most famous exploration of altered perception was in The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell, where he recounted his experiences with mescaline. These works did not specifically involve meditation but did explore mystical experiences. Huxley's pacifist approach is evident in Ends and Means, where he expresses his deep skepticism of religion, nationalism, and racial intolerance. Aldous was also influenced by the ideas of Thomas Merton presented in The Seven Storey Mountain, and this influence extended to his writings on pacifism, including An Encyclopedia of Pacifism. He was an active activist in the Peace Pledge Union, which was frowned upon by the US government during World War II for its criticism of the bombing of civilian targets in Germany. During the McCarthy era, members of the organization were targeted for arrest and surveillance on suspicion of being communist sympathizers, much to the chagrin of Huxley, known for his critical views on both communism and capitalism.
Huxley's stance against both Stalinist communism and Fordist capitalism was clear: he rejected dogmatism. "Most people approach the battle of life with preconceived opinions about everything and have a ready-made philosophy to which they try to subordinate all the world's affairs. This is an inverted situation. It is right to practice one's life first and then try to formulate a philosophy and opinions that are consistent with life as one has known it!" Aldous Huxley did not limit himself to ideology, principles, or inherited traditions. He was true to himself and his principles. He was a rebel against the norm, putting his freedom of opinion above appeasing the masses. He was a free thinker who presented a different thought to the stage he was living in. He said about writers: "Writers write to influence readers, preachers, and auditors, but deep down they are closer to themselves."
Huxley was undoubtedly influenced by H.G. Wells, one of the fathers of science fiction in England. His works were defined by their meaningful social criticism, setting them apart from other works of this style, which relied on suspenseful storytelling. Huxley followed this path, making his novels more like "discussion corners". They are spaces for the presentation of ideas and opinions, and they do not concern themselves with analyzing characters and dramatic conflict. Huxley was a glorious poet and a master of his craft. Unlike other poets of his time, he did not abandon poetry for prose. His sophisticated language helped him write complex ideas in simple, poetic language. This is evident in the book Limbo.
Aldous Huxley's greatest novel was Brave New World, published in 1932. This was an era between the two world wars, a period of relative peace that saw the rise of Nazism and Fascism and the intensification of the struggle between capitalism and communism. This novel was the biggest incentive for George Orwell to write one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: 1984.
In Brave New World, Huxley sets out all his fears and obsessions about the totalitarian state that not only controls the citizens and their intellectual orientations but also becomes a "god" and creates human beings in huge factories. Huxley was unequivocal in his horror at the rise of science's influence in life to the point where it becomes a god to be worshipped. He was a technophobe, obsessed with technology. Andrew Heller said about technology, it was "like a fish, the longer it sits on the shelf, the less desirable it becomes".
The novel is set in a dystopian city, and Huxley's satire calls it "Utopia". It is, in fact, the City of London in the year 2495 on the Gregorian calendar, or 632 on the Fordist calendar. The "Ford" referred to here is the American car industry pioneer Henry Ford, who became a sacred god in that era. He was an idolized god, a symbol of creativity, and the supreme icon of values and principles. In that utopia, the totalitarian state created human beings and implanted ideas in their brains. These ideas were the best application of the political program of the global state, whose slogan was summarized in three words: "Community, Identity, Stability." There was no racial conflict, class conflict, or cultural clash because everyone was equal. However, this equality was conditional on the citizen being in the class for which he was created. A citizen would only find happiness with those who were created with him in the same class. The training of the embryos implanted a strict program in the brain called "class consciousness". In this utopian society, society was divided into five classes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The criterion for this division is not based on racial backgrounds, economic status, or cultural distinction. It is a "genetic classification". Each class is cloned from a single egg, making them similar in form. The eggs are processed by scientists to ensure the embryo is programmed with the type of education it is supposed to receive.
The global state's slogan, "Community, Identity, Stability," is displayed prominently throughout the utopia to reinforce the idea that society is about people coming together and serving the state, while identity means each individual should be similar to all members of their class and not try to be different. In practice, the citizen of the utopia undergoes training and treatment to ensure they embody the state's ideals of stability and conformity. This automatically leads to stability, which does not try to change the structure of the state. The state knows very well what is best for each citizen. Happiness is the only thing that matters. No consciousness, no will. Why will? Everyone gets everything they want without effort. The state offers its citizens the drug "Soma" that makes them happy. It’s easier to engage in the social system. They're motivated to despise all arts and literature. Reading Shakespeare's texts becomes taboo!
The embryos in the Delta and Epsilon hatcheries are taught to hate flowers because they associate flowers with harsh electric shocks and loud noises. Mr Foster, the director of the hatchery, explains the economic side of the matter: "The love of flowers will lead them to frequent visits to the countryside and unspoiled nature in general. This will undoubtedly lead to the consumption of a lot of fuel and transport. However, when they visit the countryside, they won't consume anything else. Clearly, the love of nature doesn't keep the wheels of production and factories turning!" Stability: The key word in this society is stability. This is clear from a speech by the World Controller, Mustafa Mond, in which he states: "There can be no civilization without social stability, and society cannot be stable if people are anxious. People must be trained to be content with things as they are!" Factories symbolize the social machine that must be run by stable and obedient people, embodying mechanical gears that pull each other.
Society is run by the machine and becomes a machine itself. Huxley says it is the civilization of machines, of human robots, where people believe that they have the freedom to do anything, even when they do not feel they are under any control. They may be the slaves of their habits and desires, and in their minds, they may think they have everything they want. People have no consciousness of their enslavement because the concept of freedom does not exist. One can have everything without the need for free will. There is no place for an artist, a thinker, or even a philosopher in this world. Everyone is happy because "God" (Ford) created them happy and kept them happy with Soma!
Factories epitomise the social machine that stable and obedient people must run. They are mechanical gears that pull each other in a way that does not allow feelings of hatred or even love to stop them. Even these feelings cannot exist in the presence of the perfect drug "Soma". The ideal drug, Soma, exists to remove everything that can affect the wheel of production and the stability of society. Unlike alcohol, morphine, heroin, cocaine or hashish, it has no side effects. This is a drug with no side effects like alcohol, morphine, heroin, cocaine or hashish. It can remove the symptoms of depression and unhappiness. It is the most powerful weapon of the world state. The world state has already won the victory over ageing. It has also won the overwhelming and final victory over death itself!
The novel may seem confusing to some, but it is not a story in the usual sense. Huxley combines contradictions in a few lines, which makes his writing ambiguous. This has led to criticism from some, especially from those who criticise his ideas, which do not provide a clear alternative to what he is destroying through his writings in general. He does not see politics as anything but a disgusting corruption. He even approached spirituality through Hinduism but found only telepathy. Animalism made him nauseated and disgusted. His writings have destroyed the idea of a utopia based on science and technology. So, what does this man want?
Aldous Huxley set the record straight in 1952 with his explanatory novel, Brave New World Revisited. He retracted some of his dark visions and became more optimistic. This novel was a tacit acknowledgement of the error of his previous predictions. The world we live in today is closer to the hypothetical world he imagined. Huxley's genius is clear when we see that his fantasies and intuitions from the 1930s have already been realised eighty years later. This is evident in the case of "cloning", which shows an integration between science fiction and modern scientific discoveries. As a result, science fiction has become an essential auxiliary element in futurology, despite the obvious difference between them in terms of treatment method, approach, and goal.
Huxley did not present himself as a social reformer, nor did he offer a political or philosophical model to emulate. He advocated a return to simplicity and the spirit of the old man who was not distorted by ideology, industrial pollution, and capitalist greed. This was evident in the last novel he wrote before his death (Island), which showed some of his "optimistic" approach and his attachment to Hinduism. In the final chapter of Brave New World Revisited, Huxley presents a clear plan to prevent democracy from becoming the nightmarish totalitarian world he imagined. Aldous was not insane or a dreamer, nor was he paranoid; a paranoid, according to William Bowers, is a person who knows little about what is going on around him) Aldous Huxley carried the Encyclopaedia Britannica with him on his travels, so he knew a great deal about the past. He also foresaw the nightmare of the future, which he saw from a distance like the blue dove that saw a walking tree.
