Throughout the video you mention the human condition and how the society within the book moves people away from their own humanity. I think that's an interesting topic. There are nuggets of emotions or thoughts that people strive to get away from. This could be stresses from a job or feelings of isolation. In the book, this avoidance can manifest in the limiting of freedom, using drugs as an escape, keeping oneself in the company of others, and seeking stability. Through these actions, they were able to maximize their happiness. It kind of reminds me of the hedonistic treadmill. Lately I've been reading up Eastern philosophical lines of thought and their perspective on negative emotions or thoughts. For example, in Buddhism there is a perspective of acceptance rather than avoidance. I wonder if anyone has written a Dystopian/Utopian book with this perspective as their foundation. How would it turn out? Maybe it would just be boring if everyone accepts their inner turmoil haha. Anyways, nice video! Good questions :D
You're making me smile. Western society as a whole has become less able to deal with any kid of stress. Or nuance. They want an easily identifiable James Bond villain & a comic book plot. They don't want to see the good side of the bad thing. There are always written (conscious) & unwritten (subconscious or SC) aspects to every culture. PC language and cultured has given saying one thing while doing another a sense of official legitimacy.Nazis on the stand at Nuremberg actually thought that following orders = exemption from responsibility. Now, if you 'phrase things correctly' according to a set of rules, truth becomes secondary. The connection here is that as with real life, people in Western society seek to be in Brave New World: they _want_ someone to spoon-feed them everything all the time. But they also want it to be simple and completely Black & White, which is why everyone seems incapable of dealing with anything at all anymore. Jon Stewart recently did a video on how despite having clearly outlined what the problems are, the White authorities only ever reset to saying "we need to start a dialogue" regarding race issues. That is an aspect of all of this. To acknowledge the problem requires acknowledging that their own society may be Less Than Perfect, which Can Not Be (according to their SC paradigms). So _they (thew White authorities) keep_ resetting to rhetoric mode because they can't progress past it to a point that requires acknowledging the fault. *All* paradigms are blinding, not just the most common ones. When people fail to recognize when they themselves are viewing anything through their SC lenses, their defenses go up. The SC doesn't distinguish between belief & fact the way our conscious minds do. This is why people get disproportionately upset whenever their chosen political party, candidate or philosophy is only verbally questioned. So, even if the rest of this seems like incomprehensible ranting (it's based on social psychology studies) great catch on noticing that the government in this novel isn't necessarily 100% evil. Huxley wouldn't have gone to the trouble of writing so much dialogue questioning things if this was a simple tale of Good vs. Evil. 😉
In Brave New World, the citizens are conditioned not the fear death. In the real world, DNA evolution has conditioned us over millions of years *to fear death* Either way, we have been conditioned. Which is better? Also, I find the second half of John the Savage’s speech utter horrifying and literally couldn’t disagree any more. The World Controller genuinely seemed in the right in that scene to me. If pain is what it means to be human, then I don’t want to be human.
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Throughout the video you mention the human condition and how the society within the book moves people away from their own humanity. I think that's an interesting topic.
There are nuggets of emotions or thoughts that people strive to get away from. This could be stresses from a job or feelings of isolation. In the book, this avoidance can manifest in the limiting of freedom, using drugs as an escape, keeping oneself in the company of others, and seeking stability. Through these actions, they were able to maximize their happiness. It kind of reminds me of the hedonistic treadmill.
Lately I've been reading up Eastern philosophical lines of thought and their perspective on negative emotions or thoughts. For example, in Buddhism there is a perspective of acceptance rather than avoidance. I wonder if anyone has written a Dystopian/Utopian book with this perspective as their foundation. How would it turn out? Maybe it would just be boring if everyone accepts their inner turmoil haha.
Anyways, nice video! Good questions :D
The purpose of acceptance in Buddhism is explicit. It is to *minimise* suffering. Increasing equanimity is done to escape from suffering.
You're making me smile. Western society as a whole has become less able to deal with any kid of stress. Or nuance. They want an easily identifiable James Bond villain & a comic book plot. They don't want to see the good side of the bad thing.
There are always written (conscious) & unwritten (subconscious or SC) aspects to every culture. PC language and cultured has given saying one thing while doing another a sense of official legitimacy.Nazis on the stand at Nuremberg actually thought that following orders = exemption from responsibility. Now, if you 'phrase things correctly' according to a set of rules, truth becomes secondary.
The connection here is that as with real life, people in Western society seek to be in Brave New World: they _want_ someone to spoon-feed them everything all the time. But they also want it to be simple and completely Black & White, which is why everyone seems incapable of dealing with anything at all anymore.
Jon Stewart recently did a video on how despite having clearly outlined what the problems are, the White authorities only ever reset to saying "we need to start a dialogue" regarding race issues. That is an aspect of all of this. To acknowledge the problem requires acknowledging that their own society may be Less Than Perfect, which Can Not Be (according to their SC paradigms).
So _they (thew White authorities) keep_ resetting to rhetoric mode because they can't progress past it to a point that requires acknowledging the fault.
*All* paradigms are blinding, not just the most common ones. When people fail to recognize when they themselves are viewing anything through their SC lenses, their defenses go up. The SC doesn't distinguish between belief & fact the way our conscious minds do. This is why people get disproportionately upset whenever their chosen political party, candidate or philosophy is only verbally questioned.
So, even if the rest of this seems like incomprehensible ranting (it's based on social psychology studies) great catch on noticing that the government in this novel isn't necessarily 100% evil. Huxley wouldn't have gone to the trouble of writing so much dialogue questioning things if this was a simple tale of Good vs. Evil. 😉
Lovely analysis, thanks for your wonderful thoughts ♥️
I've found your video exactly because I posed myself the same questions and wanted to see if someone had a point of view on the matter.
Great video
In Brave New World, the citizens are conditioned not the fear death.
In the real world, DNA evolution has conditioned us over millions of years *to fear death*
Either way, we have been conditioned. Which is better?
Also, I find the second half of John the Savage’s speech utter horrifying and literally couldn’t disagree any more. The World Controller genuinely seemed in the right in that scene to me.
If pain is what it means to be human, then I don’t want to be human.
Nice video, Great Job.