Has the future arrived?

Aldus Huxley wrote Brave New World Revisited in 1958 just a few years before his death.

It’s a long essay where he examines society and takes a look at the future. This is his conclusion….

“We may expect to see in the democratic countries a reversal of the process which transformed England into a democracy, while retaining all the outward forms of a monarchy. By means of ever more effective methods of mind-manipulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms - elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest - will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial. Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.”

Discuss.

 

But could they have got Mowatt to sign a new contract with us?
Some things are beyond the ruling oligarchy.

 

Turns out we've invented jetpacks. BBC casually put out a story the other day about the marines using them to board ships. That in turn linked to a story from last year where they were being tested for mountain rescue. I would have thought that there would be more fanfare. Doesn't really answer the original question but I thought it was much more interesting so I think this thread should now be about jetpacks.

 

Reyt game for the spectrum 48k

 

That Aldius Huxley was a lefty propagandist who talked ******. I know that’s true because it was in the daily mail.

 

Looks like the technology has come a long way in eight years. I was stunned by how casually the rescue service were talking about actual real life jetpacks and how useful they would be in an emergency situation. It's as if Wombwell police station had access to time travel to prevent crime from happening and were like "yeah I suppose it is pretty useful I guess".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-54341378

 

Your post exactly proves the point Huxley was making about how his vision would come about.

In an age of mass media, people would become so distracted by entertainment that they could no longer turn their minds to things like politics and society. Lost in the ‘irrelevant’ world of entertainment, truth and lies would no longer matter. That would leave the mind-manipulators, and ‘entertainer politicians’ free to control the public with slogans and sound bites.

So yes. Jet packs. The future is here.

 

A very dystopian future.

 

I like how he held the camera still for a good couple of seconds before running over.

 

Again from Huxley...

"The survival of democracy depends on the ability of large numbers of people to make realistic choices in the light of adequate information. A dictatorship, on the other hand, maintains itself by censoring or distorting the facts, and by appealing, not to reason, not to enlightened self-interest, but to passion and prejudice."

 

Dynamite Dan. and bizarrely Fred

 

Tbf when was this golden era when everyone was talking about politics and improving society?Tends to come with economic upheaval but most people concentrate on their own personal lives.

 

Spot on you can tactically vote now to get what you want.

 

I’d say the post war era 1945-70. We changed what we are as a nation. My grandad said that so many people came back from war desperate for change and full of ideas for a society that was more equal and looked after people. Unfortunately from the 70d onwards we have dumbed down and moved further and further away from this.

 

ive heard of Huxley pig

 

Is he in the Bullingdon Club?

 

Partly because, we are constantly told that the 70s was a ‘black era’ in that the Trade Union Movement ran the country, held it to ransom, stifled entrepreneurism. Yet the rich still got richer, whilst the working person, who’s lot was slightly better, but the wages didn’t significantly increase.

 

I studied his original Brave New World book in detail as part of my A Level English and I’ve always thought it was an incredible piece of writing. His visions of the future were spot on, examples being test tube babies, mind altering drugs, super speed inter-continental travel.

The recently shown TV version was too glossy and badly acted for my liking but the book is essential reading, along with Orwell’s 1984