Review: We’re Living in George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (Spoilers)

George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World are possibly the two most disturbing dystopian novels someone could read. 1984 is the most obvious in this with its totalitarian regime that forces compliance and takes away privacy. However, Brave New World is less obvious, giving us a world that, to the hedonistic mind, seems delightful. Responsibilities are few, any grief can be cured with a drug called soma, you don’t need to think, and pleasure is at the forefront of everyone’s minds. However, both are dystopian in their own ways and because of their relevance to today, they deserve a post together.

Starting with 1984, this dystopia takes place in the state of Oceania. The world has been divided into two other nations: Eurasia and Eastasia, which are constantly at war and the facts about it are always changing. Oceania is run by a one-party government that’s also called Big Brother. Big Brother is always watching through cameras, television, and other people. One of the most egregious ways Big Brother is watching is through the children. The children must go to government run schools where they are essentially programmed by Big Brother to spy on their parents. If their parents do commit a “thought crime” (thinking outside the approved narrative), the children are to report them to the teachers, who report the parents to the government. Thus, society lives in fear of the kids and other people and have learned not to think, because thinking is dangerous.

Meanwhile, Huxley’s Brave New World takes a different approach to keeping people from thinking. In his world, thought is extinguished for some at birth. Society in Brave New World is divided into five classes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Alphas are on the top and are the higher ups, the government officials and social elites. They are allowed to think and some of them are even allowed to learn beyond the government approved narrative. Betas are just below Alphas and do work that require more thought, such as running the hatcheries and conditioning centers where humans are created by machines instead of parents. They’re smart enough to do more complex tasks, but not to think for themselves. Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons are even less capable of thought, with Epsilons having almost no cognitive ability at all.

Further, the way they are conditioned is through something called hypnopedia. They learn via osmosis while they sleep, listening to repeated messages that they remember as fact. Their ability to think is programmed to what the government wants. Much of it encourages them towards self-destructive behaviors like promiscuity, mindless consumerism, and drug use that keep them happy and never questioning.

We see this going on today to varying degrees at the same time. With the advent of cell phones, computers, T.V.s , anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications, a shaming of mothers, a movement towards destigmatizing promiscuity (even amongst children), IVF, etc. we have created a world similar to the one Huxley foresaw. In fact, while writing Brave New World, Huxley thought it would take 600 years for his story to become reality. When Huxley saw T.V.s taking off in the ’50s, he predicted it would come in the next century. 93 years after his book’s publication, he couldn’t be more correct.

Meanwhile, we see the world moving towards 1984 as well. In China, cameras are everywhere to monitor their citizens so there is nowhere to hide. Combine this with digital IDs and social credit scores, and it’s even more dystopian. Now, the government can track your every move online and if you do something they don’t approve of, you can be punished. In Britain, digital IDs are also being implemented (remember, Britain is the same country where you can be arrested for tweeting something as innocuous as “I love bacon”). Here in America, we’re slowly moving in that direction, especially when Democrats are in office. Just look at the Biden administration, where in 2022, the Disinformation Governance Board was formed to combat “misinformation.” Within months, the government got rid of it because of the backlash. In the realm of education, if the media can’t convince women to abort their babies, they’ll do everything they can to make the children pawns of the Left.

Ironically, the authors of these two dystopian novels were friends. In their letters to each other, Huxley and Orwell tried to predict which dystopia would come first. Orwell thought that 1984 would come first, but after seeing the inefficiency of that type of control, would eventually move towards Brave New World‘s vision. Huxley, however, thought in the other direction. While he didn’t dismiss 1984, he believed his dystopia would be more effective and last longer by making the people love their servitude. If 1984 ever came, it would come long after Brave New World.

Had Orwell and Huxley lived today, they would’ve realized how relevant both their books are. We have fallen down the path that Huxley predicted and as it intensifies with more technological advancements and a further dumbing down of the population, 1984 will be ushered in before we even have time to react. We will have been so blinded by Brave New World that we’ll eat up the words of Big Brother and follow whatever he says.

Until next time,

M.J.