Brave New World: more prophetic than Nostradamus. As full of existential pique and pathos as Camus ever was. Huxley’s insight is staggering, laying so much bare about our shared condition that is more comfortably left hidden; especially in the confrontation/denouement between The Savage and The Controller in Chapters 16-17. One of the few books I never tire of and make a point of getting around to revisiting every year. A few excerpts:
The Savage stood looking on. “O brave new world, O brave new world …” In his mind the singing words seemed to change their tone. They had mocked him through his misery and remorse, mocked him with how hideous a note of cynical derision! Fiendishly laughing, they had insisted on the low squalor, the nauseous ugliness of the nightmare. Now, suddenly, they trumpeted a call to arms. “O brave new world!” Miranda was proclaiming the possibility of loveliness, the possibility of transforming even the nightmare into something fine and noble. “O brave new world!” It was a challenge, a command.
—
“What’s the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you?….Anything for a quiet life. We’ve gone on controlling ever since. It hasn’t been very good for truth, of course. But it’s been very good for happiness. One can’t have something for nothing. Happiness has got to be paid for. You’re paying for it, Mr. Watson–paying because you happen to be too much interested in beauty. I was too much interested in truth; I paid too.”
—
“Violent Passion Surrogate. Regularly once a month. We flood the whole system with adrenalin. It’s the complete physiological equivalent of fear and rage. All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences.”
“But I like the inconveniences.”
“We don’t,” said the Controller. “We prefer to do things comfortably.”
“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
“In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.”
“All right then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.”
—
The Savage shook his head. “It all seems to me quite horrible.”
“Of course it does. Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”
Great post. I wanted to share this with you but didn’t know where…so I figured here would be a good place to drop it.
This is from Nassim Taleb – Fooledbyrandomness.com Thought provoking nonetheless.
132- Life’s Barbells –The Barbell Heuristic
(Barbells are more robust than monomodal strategies.)
Walk most of the time, sprint as fast as you can on the occasion; never jog.
Fast for long periods of famine, then feast; never diet.
Endorse Nick Clegg & David Cameron, in combination, never labor.
For social life, a linear combination of Fat Tony & philosophers outperforms the frequentation of middle brows.
Go for city-states under loose empires, never nation-states.
Be a flåneur, lounging most of the time; then work as intensely as possible for a maximum of one hour; never work at low intensity –the 4-Hour Workweek
Do nothing most of the time, then workout like a nut as intensely & unpredictably as possible.
Invest mostly in close to no-risk, (cash inflation protected, 80-90%), and maximal risk securities (10-20%); never in medium risk.
Read trashy gossip magazines and classics or sophisticated works; never the New York Times (or something even more aberrant, Newsweek).
Talk to graduate students or the highest caliber scholars; never, never, never medium academics.
Lose all your money, never half of it.
Respect those who make a living lying down or standing up, never those who do so sitting down.
Separate the holy and the profane.
Do crazy things (break furniture once in a while), like the Greeks and stay “rational” in larger decisions.
If you dislike someone, leave him alone or eliminate him; don’t attack him verbally.