If you have no idea who Aldous Huxley is, you shouldn't click on the link below.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGaYXahbcL4

 

However, if you do, it's fascinating. It's 3 parts and will consume 30 minutes of your time and was recorded in the mid to late 50s. The Ayn Rand interview is also a must watch, but you have to be committed to get that far.

I admittedly don't have the time right now to watch all of the videos (busy reading a handful of other texts), but Aldous Huxley really was something. "Brave New World Revisited" is probably just as eye opening and good as the initial text. I can't say I agree with his pacifism or incredulous drug use, but his intellect is unmatched in post-modern thinking.

Listening to the interview, several of the key issues he identified, drugs and sub Conscience influence were a concern to him, but he couldn't envision the internet.

 

He correctly identified propaganda would be used to appeal to base instincts and not reason. Feelings would triumph over reason. He predicted a black man would be elected because he's black and would assuage the guilt of white liberals.

Digz,

 

Terrific find. I just printed that graphic and hung it on the wall over my desk.

 

Sadly, it looks like they were both right to some degree.

 

K

very interesting.

That is a pretty interesting graphic, I've re-read it a couple times now. The argument of "Brave New World" and "1984" is that they would function in the same universe... in essence working in a symbiotic relationship. As pointed out, it is troubling that a dystopic vision of the future has indeed manifested itself.

I just sat through lunch and watched the interview.

 

I find futurists fascinating. They have a particular way of thinking that drives them to observe short term changes and project the ramifications and consequences to society out to a long term vision. Funny how the techno-futurists (Jetsons flying cars and automated everything) never saw past the technology into the societal changes that the technology can cause. It takes a particular kind of mind to observe a technology and project how it can be used to control and manipulate the masses well into the future. I think futurists need to deeply believe that people are inherently hungry for power, and that power comes with the control of emerging technologies.

 

It's a shame that nobody took those guys seriously. We might not be as close to the edge as we are now.

That image is absolutely brilliant in how it sums up what those two minds believed in, and how close we are to something that represents what those men feared.

To argue with both of these sides.. I dont think it's as easy as it looks... but I guess pinning a mass group of people against a smaller group has been done many times in the past.

 

Brain control I feel can't be done to that extreme. Sure you can make someone look "evil" to the point where most people hate them, but I mean to the point where you can get a mass group to do whatever you want. I think it's alot harder than it looks, the human brain is a complicated one.