Continued from Part 4
(Rev. Dec. 30, 2013)

Brave New World is a story about systematically modifying or damaging human beings—physically, mentally and morally– in order to make them compliant and passive slaves. In the Foreword, Huxley refers to a “revolutionary” desire for complete control over our minds and bodies. He can’t help bring up the subject of sadism but insists on whitewashing the rulers of Brave New World. In the story, the rulers are portrayed as benevolent and reasonable even though all the people under their rule are deliberately disabled or dysfunctional to one degree or another–except for the “alpha” caste.

Huxley writes about propaganda, saying that an efficient totalitarian state:

“would be one in which the all-powerful executive . . . control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned . . . to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and school-teachers. . . . (p. 7, 8 of Foreword).”

Media and institutions hide (or occult) information:

” . . . By simply not mentioning certain subjects, . . . totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively . . . (p. 8 of Foreword)”

As an aside, I wanted to mention several sources on the subject of propaganda by Western governments and elites, and not just in fiction or in admittedly totalitarian societies:

Propaganda by Edward Bernays (nephew of Freud) was used to promote public relations and marketing. Bernays preferred the old term “propaganda”. An example of a technique was the use of celebrities to sell products. He helped create the “consumer society”. His book is fascinating, because he makes blatant admissions such as:

“Democracy is administered by an intelligent minority who know how to regiment and guide the masses”.

In other words, this elite uses propaganda and fraud of one kind or another to change society, even to create wars. One example is the involvement of Bernays in the promotion of fluoridation. He is interviewed in The Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson.

Jacques Ellul was a very interesting Christian anarchist philosopher who wrote about the modern technological society. In one of his books Propaganda, Ellul explains that propaganda is intended to provoke action without thought. It is by its nature totalitarian. It is part of the mechanization of society. He observes that education and literacy ironically prepare the mind for propaganda. It is used to condition us to adapt to technology, major societal changes, taxes, and brutal high-tech warfare. Part of the process is to weaken old groups such as the family, to create individual isolation within the mass, to create new groups, and to close our minds. The example of China is discussed.

Jacques Ellul:

As in all propaganda, the point is to make man endure, with the help of psychological narcotics, what he could not endure naturally . . . (p. 225, Propaganda).

Another book related to propaganda is: The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stonor Saunders. The OSS and CIA funded “American” culture in Europe to compete with Soviet cultural efforts and to influence the direction of Europe (towards unity eventually). From World War II, many famous writers are involved with British and American intelligence. Magazines were funded, and also authors and musicians. “Experimental” music and art (sponsored by the Rockefeller family) were funded. Additionally, the CIA influence on Hollywood is described. Many of the intellectual celebrities that were famous during the post-war years received funding to promote the “American” system. In my view, this was supposed to be “anti-communist” but was really just another form of big government socialism (Trotskyites vs. Stalinists), a false opposition that made justifications for big government and militarism and controlled any “debate” there was on the subject of freedom and the role of government. The book discusses how government funds were funneled through many CIA-created front foundations to fund these intellectuals.

Continued Part 6 Contents

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