Kind of interesting to read stuff you haven’t read for 50 to 60 years. Brave New World was far ahead of its time in terms of the capability to modify human biochemistry, although few of the ills it foretold have occurred. The book is relatively short, but in my opinion is not well-written and is actually a bit of a snoozer. The world it describes is a society that after a long war decides to take control of creation of additional humans and condition them to behave in certain ways that create “happiness” but no individuality or diversity of thought or action. There are no mothers or fathers or families; individuals are started, grown in a lab and “born” in an assembly line process that, given when the book was written, is clearly modeled on Henry Ford’s revolutionary auto manufacturing work.
What the book does exemplify is yet another facet of the authoritarian mindset. Everything has to be controlled and we will tell you what to think, what to believe, what to say and how to act. And we do this all for your own good, for your own happiness and welfare. You have no say in any of this or really anything about your life. Instead of surveillance and punishment as in 1984, chemical and behavioral conditioning is primarily used to achieve this end, although you can always be sent to an unpleasant location if you misbehave. Meanwhile the few people who are running this society are free to read and think and do what they wish. As I said, the prototypical authoritarian mindset. A quick read.
