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ALDOUS HUXLEY'S BRAVE NEW WORLD-STILL A CHILLING VISION AFTER ALL THESE YEARS Brave New World. By Aldous Huxley. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1932. (Harper Perennial 2005 ed.). Pp. xxi, 340.
Introduction
Human beings, by their very nature, are not static creatures. Lesser creatures, including man's best friend, the dog, seek stability; they are, in a sense, satisfied with the basic elements of existence. Give a dog enough water to drink, enough food to eat, and sufficient shelter to survive the elements-in other words, provide the canine companion a safe and stable environment-and it will be quite content with the status quo.
Man alone among the creatures of the earth abhors stability. Man alone among the creatures of the earth possesses the ability and the inclination to question, to imagine, to build, to take risks for the sake of advancing some perhaps unarticulated goal; in other words, to achieve. Stability, that is, the status quo, is not among mankind's intrinsic goals. Were it otherwise-were mankind hardwired to remain content with the status quo, to be happy with stability-we would still be hunting with flint-tipped spears, dressed in animal skins. Mankind has traveled to the surface of the moon and explored the infinitesimally small components of an atom, not by being content with the status quo, but by tossing aside the stability and comfort of the status quo in favor of the untried and at-best possible rewards of the unknown.
Probably the best example of man's inquisitive nature, and of the need to constantly look for better and better ways of doing things (even though the status quo may be working fine), is Thomas Edison. Edison, certainly the twentieth century's greatest inventor, experimented ceaselessly, even after creating the particular devices he set out to build.1 His constant drive and flurries of imagination left many of his younger contemporaries exhausted, mentally and physically.2 Thomas Edison would not have survived in the dystopian world of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. The world Huxley envisioned was not a world comfortable to inventors of any stripe, or to artists, writers, architects, builders, chemists, doctors, physicists, lawyers, or members of any other profession that places a premium on the advancement of skills and the use of imagination, foresight, and risk...