Monday, August 8, 2011

Brave New World

When I was in college, we had to read Aldous Huxley's book, Brave New World. It was a prophetic vision of future utopia published in 1932. Huxley described the world that would be - the world we live in. He foresaw a world where we would face an internal threat rather than an external one. It would be a world that would be dominated by technology, which would be used to enhance our comfort, convenience and amusement. It would be a world where books were in abundance but fewer people would read. It would be a world dominated by the desire for freedom and yet one in which there would be greater enslavement and addiction. The world would simplify ethics and only two principles would matter: Kindness and tolerance. Truth would be sacrificed.

We live in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. But we can make a decision to place our priority on timeless values like truth, sacrifice and integrity.

1 comment:

  1. Certain programs talk about various types of honesty, cash register honesty is the one that comes to mind. I can't recall the others right now. However, this quote was on a mailing I receive daily. It speaks to this issue.

    The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth. -Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1742-1799)

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