Totalitarianism becomes inevitable when people believe there is nothing intrinsically special about being human and when they believe there is no God. Well, ironically, in Brave New World, grandson Aldous Huxley is protesting against the world that the other Huxleys made possible. In addition, Aldous was, as well, the nephew of Julian Huxley, who took Darwinism to its logical extreme, calling for a one-world government and even eugenics. Huxley who defended Darwin against his critics, including those who warned of the moral and cultural collapse that Darwinism would eventually create. Huxley, the nineteenth-century biologist who was nicknamed 'Darwin's Bulldog.' No man apart from Darwin himself is more responsible for the spread of philosophical materialism-the belief that everything around us can explained by purely material processes. The first irony was that someone named Huxley could even write this book. Another speculated only on the politically incorrect characterizations.īut what was lost on the whole group were the ironies of it all. The book is, of course, a powerful warning against the spread of totalitarianism.īut in the Rhem discussion, one panelist seemed to take some of the satire seriously, saying that people in the story, after all, were well off. Everyone is encouraged, however, to have free sex and to take 'happy pills.' They are controlled by being kept in a state of perpetual bliss. You may remember the plot of the book: Brave New World describes a future society where children are conceived in test tubes in laboratories and then are assigned to a strict caste system. And if you happened to tune in, you found out a lot about how our opinion elites think-or maybe don't think. A few days ago Rhem and a panel of distinguished guests discussed the book, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Brave New Worldview One of the best barometers for critiquing attitudes in today's culture is to tune into The Diane Rhem Show on National Public Radio.

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