If you’ve ever watched right wing propaganda, which, as a Conservative, I do every now and then because I don’t have a life, you’ll often come up with videos comparing the supposed ideal leftist future to that of the world presented in 1984. The problem with this is that the terms left and right are very vague, at least in the modern context. What is considered right wing now wasn’t considered right wing before. And what can be considered as left in America is, by the world’s standards, usually right wing, cause, you know, Murica *insert an eagle flying and scantily dressed girls eating burgers whilst guns rain from behind*
But the political spectrum is a lot more complicated than what the elite, who seem hell bent on making politics a binary between the left and the right, would have us believe. The right should be renamed the “kicked out of the left club”, united only in a strong distaste for the progressive left; so much so that we’ve welcomed classic liberals into our fold. A Catholic Conservative like me has barely anything in common with a right wing Libertarian, some things in common with an American MAGA Conservative, and vehemently disagrees with the fundamental premise of an ethno state espoused by those farther right on the spectrum. The same goes for the left; there are so many different ideologies on the left that to lump all together without distinction is almost an intellectual travesty at best and a sin at worst.
The point I’m getting into here is that the world painted by Orwell in 1984 is not so much an example of the left gone amok, but of totalitarianism. And as much as the propaganda on both sides would like to claim that totalitarianism is exclusive only to the other side, it isn’t. This is the sort of future that both sides can lead to, at their extreme.
But if history has shown us anything, it’s that totalitarian regimes get toppled over eventually. As Mr. Huxley points out in “A Brave New World Revisited”, the world in 1984 is one driven primarily by fear. But people, pushed to the edge, rebel. Fear can work to a certain point, but beyond that, people snap. 1984 shows this through it’s main character, Winston; he sees something is wrong. And with the introduction of Julia, it leads the reader to wonder who else in that wretched society, birthed from Orwell’s imagination, has come to the same enlightenment.
While 1984 ends on a rather bleak note, there is an inkling in the back of the reader’s mind that there are others who feel the same way as our protagonists and perhaps one day, a successful revolt might be achieved because deep down, there are those who know that something is wrong. But the same cannot be said for the world created by Huxley in his novel.
A Brave New World is perhaps one of the most disturbing dystopian novels I’ve encountered largely because it gives an argument for the dystopia; but the people are happy aren’t they? Yes, they have removed certain human experiences, but does it matter if the people are happy?
“A Brave New World is perhaps one of the most disturbing dystopian novels I’ve encountered largely because it gives an argument for the dystopia; but the people are happy aren’t they? Yes, they have removed certain human experiences, but does it matter if the people are happy?"
Literary critics argue that the issue in A Brave New World is the clash between freedom and happiness- because, ultimately, freedom does mean that there will be sorrow- but I disagree. To me, the issue in this novel, which is perhaps one of the fundamental questions in philosophy, is what does it truly mean to be happy.
Happiness in the book is in the form of SOMAs. For those who have not yet read the book (which I suggest you should), SOMA’s are drugs that give the user pleasure, albeit temporarily. And it works as a way to dull pain. While there is nothing wrong with dulling pain, SOMAs have become an addiction to the residents of this Brave New World, so much so that they are no longer a way to ease life’s burden but a distraction from the emptiness of life. The SOMA’s work as a pretty coffin to cover up what lies within, but inside there is nothing but death. In this fictional world, there are orgies, one knows one’s place as the citizens are from birth groomed to a certain profession, thus eliminating the confusion and anxiety most of us went through or are still going through when finding a path. But are they happy? Is one truly happy if one has to rely on an addiction to a drug or to sex, or to external distractions to reality?
This is what is makes the novel, I believe, truly frightening, because we see SOMA’s in our world today. They do not always come in the form of drugs. They come in many different incarnations- over use of the internet, addiction to the thrill of being in a relationship and not of being actually in love which entails sacrifice, the need to always have the latest material apparatus, love of status and power- in essence, they are distractions that society tells us are alright as long as “you aren’t hurting anyone”, failing to realize that by over-distracting ourselves, we fail to reflect, and this failure to reflect leads to the problem remaining unanswered. In retreating to a fantasy, we destroy our reality.
Politics nowadays has become it’s own SOMA. Instead of focusing on actual problems, both sides build a strawman of the other and attack said strawman. The feminist decries the MAGA wearing white boy as a “Nazi” or a “white supremacist” whilst the conservative lashes at anyone slightly to the left of Pinochet as a “commie” or “snowflake”. It is a SOMA fueled, oddly enough, by hatred, the sort of hatred that gives one purpose, whether or not one admits it. As religion is often mocked by atheists as a fantasy to fill in the emptiness of human existence, so to has politics become it’s own religion; but unlike religion, politics by itself is bereft of the spirituality, humility, love and kindness that makes religion, particularly Christianity, humane.
The reason for this is simple. Politics is extremely complicated, precisely because politics is downstream from culture. And culture is affected by a variety of things. It is much more difficult to create propaganda when faced with the reality that maybe, just maybe, both sides agree on more things than they would like to admit and that many who call themselves either left or right are not particularly well versed in the actual philosophy or theories behind the political ideology they supposedly espouse. Brexit, which is often touted as a right wing issue, actually has some very “woke” (dare I say it) arguments for it’s favor. Many issues which really shouldn’t be political have suddenly become political, used as propaganda to further this “us against you” mentality when these are issues both sides should be fighting for. As someone who has many liberal friends, I have discovered that, with proper dialogue, it is actually possible to get many liberals to agree with me, a Conservative, especially on issues they never dreamed of supporting. But this is only possible once I started listening to them and trying to understand where they were coming from, instead of treating them like a possible “liberals wreckd video”.
But to understand them, one needs to have some knowledge not only of their philosophy, but a grasp of Conservative morals and values. This is something we see severely lacking in the Conservative movement, choosing to be simply reactionary rather than going back to see what was beautiful in our traditions and principles. Instead, we focus on the low hanging fruit; conservative commentators will pick some obscure feminist blog and then will critique it as if this is truly representative of feminist philosophy, as feminists or marxists will pick some random obscure alt right blog and smear all Conservatives as alt right.
By building these narratives, we have created SOMAs which distract us from the issues we should be talking about, issues that are more complicated and pressing than “transgender bathrooms” or “white supremacy”. It is a comforting distraction to live in a fantasy world of “us versus them” instead of acknowledging that perhaps the other side may have something in common with us, and to espouse ideas that have no nuance when the world of politics and of culture is filled with nuance.
To go back to our literary topics, whilst the world of 1984 is indeed scary, at least the inhabitants were human; they felt fear, they knew something was wrong for the most part. In a Brave New World, the constant distraction with SOMAs not only alienates them from reality, but dulls their humanity as they are consumed with the high they get from these SOMAs until they are unable to feel anything but shallow pleasures.
And sadly, this is a perfect example of the the world of politics today.