Brave New World Revisited

During World War II, Hitler and the Nazis made widespread use of propaganda to influence the minds of the people. This propaganda was rooted in a view of human beings as basically gullible and driven by instinct and emotion. By assembling masses of people in public spaces, the Nazis created an environment in which individual identity was submerged in a collective and independent thought was destroyed. Hitler used over-the-top, demagogic oratory to bring out “hidden forces” in people and exploit their fears and hopes—especially those of the middle class which had been hurt by World War I and the Depression. Nazi propaganda reduced issues to a few bare essentials with endless repetition. Moral complexity ceased to exist and a dominant voice shouted down all opposing voices.

Since World War II, the means of producing propaganda have increased, with television, video and audiotape added to radio, loudspeakers, and movies. With accelerating overpopulation, over-organization, and mass media, human individuality is becoming ever more difficult to assert. 

In this chapter, Huxley examines the role that commercial propaganda (advertising) plays in modern society. Following the trends of consumerism in the West, and especially in America, advertising executives dominate the media. These executives are "expert salesmen” who are well-versed in the art of persuasion; they exploit deep-seated desires in order to sell their products. Commercial propaganda differs from political propaganda in that it is mild in character and does not appeal to violent impulses; commercial propaganda is, however, irrational in that it makes false and misleading associations between a product and some desirable quality or attribute.

Aesthetics, or beautiful images and sounds, are often used to attract people, in both politics and religion. Aesthetics also serve to separate the truth from the message being imparted. Children are particularly susceptible to commercial propaganda because their critical and rational faculties are undeveloped.

Adults too are susceptible to irrational appeals but can be steered in the right direction by strong democratic institutions. Disturbingly, however, democratic leaders—particularly the U.S.— display a tendency to appeal to the ignorance and irrationality of the public. Thus, candidates for political office are “sold” like products at a supermarket, presenting only an emphasis on their superficial qualities. This approach to campaigning is cynical because it appeals to human weaknesses. 

Huxley considers mind-manipulation in the context of individuals. The physiologist Ivan Pavlov’s experiments on dogs and the experiences of soldiers in the two World Wars have shown how people placed under extreme stress reach their limits of endurance and “break down.” In fact, every person has a “breaking point.”

In their quest for domination, Hitler and the Nazis revived cruel torture techniques used in centuries past. By contrast, present-day communists use more modern, Pavlovian techniques—a combination of the systematic use of violence and “skillful psychological manipulation” (67). Captors apply a particular technique to their interaction with their victims: they apply the right amount of stress for the right length of time in order to induce a gradual neurosis or hysteria that will cause the victim to break down. Having been led to the point of collapse, the victim is now extremely vulnerable and can, through the powers of suggestion, be easily reeducated into new belief and behavior patterns.

In the Soviet Union, communist police weaken victims by food and sleep deprivation and create suspense and fear before questioning, a process that is repeated over weeks or months. These techniques are used not only against enemies but also to recruit new members to the communist cause. Suggestibility is intensified by fatigue and stressful situations; thus, future dictators will likely take advantage of hospitals as ideal environments in which brainwashing can take place. As Huxley declares, “[u]nder favorable conditions, practically anybody can be converted to practically anything” (64). 

This chapter discusses recreational drugs and how dictators could use them as tools of manipulation. In Brave New World, the citizens take a substance called Soma to make them feel better whenever they are depressed. The use of drugs as a stimulant and to achieve a higher consciousness goes back to ancient religious rites in India and elsewhere. In the present day, scientists are studying the chemistry of the brain and experimenting with consciousness-altering drugs—drugs which change the brain’s chemistry but do not damage the human organism as a whole. Some of these drugs have been known for centuries, such as peyote and cannabis; some new ones are now being created in laboratories. These synthetic drugs have proven effective in alleviating symptoms of mental illness.

It is likely that dictators of the future will use such drugs for political purposes—to pacify subjects and make them “content with their servile condition” (75), to stimulate and arouse them to action, and/or to heighten suggestibility and lower psychological resistance. Pharmacists could become tools of the state, pushing various drugs according to the political needs of the moment. As the science of pharmacology develops, it is up to us whether we use pharmacology to heal or to enslave. 

Huxley now considers the manipulation of the subconscious mind. Already, scientists are making experiments in the field of subconscious perception. These studies are, in turn, applied to experiments in “subliminal projection”—the process of influencing people’s subconscious minds with subliminal messages through advertising and the media (another form of commercial propaganda). In the technique of “persuasion-by-association” (83), unlike things may be juxtaposed in order to make the viewer see connections that don’t exist or to create a particular emotional reaction.

Such propaganda lends itself to influencing people to vote for certain candidates or to buy certain products. Huxley imagines a future in which political rallies will be enhanced by machines projecting subliminal messages to the public to influence them to think a certain way. Huxley regrets not exploring this field of possibility in Brave New World. 

Now Huxley examines hypnopedia, or the process of messaging subjects who are asleep. Hypnopedia consists in “the conditioning of behavior through verbal suggestion at a time of lowered psychological resistance” (90). In a prison in California, miniature loudspeakers are placed under the pillows of prisoners to deliver moral talks to them during the night. Experiments are also being made in sleep-teaching to children, actors, and others. Huxley predicts that government agencies could use hypnopedia as a powerful propaganda tool to change patterns of thought or behavior; the government will start with children, who are the most vulnerable subjects. Hypnopedia could be used in such varied settings as schools, hospitals, the military, trains, ships, airplanes, and waiting rooms.