Brave New World Revisited

Huxley quotes Thomas Jefferson on the American political ideal, rooted in justice, democracy, and the natural rights of man. But “blind impersonal forces” (31) in the modern world are now undermining this ideal. Specifically, this chapter deals with the insidious power of propaganda.

There are two kinds of propaganda, rational and non-rational. The first appeals to reasonable self-interest while the latter appeals only to emotion. It is the latter that is dangerous, because it distorts the truth and relies on simplistic catchwords to manipulate people. Unfortunately, receptiveness to blind emotional appeals is deeply rooted in human nature. It finds a natural home in politics, which lacks the solid factual basis of the sciences.

Considered in itself, mass communication is a neutral force that can be used for good or ill. It can either inform and enlighten, or become a weapon of dictators. In the past, information provided by a free press might either be true or false; today, the mass media—both in the Soviet world and in the democratic West—seeks to distract people with the “unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant” (35). These irrelevant distractions blind people to the reality of the social and political situation and facilitates the destruction of their freedom.