In the cold war era of the 60’s, Huxley still maintains that the only way to facilitate such growth is by strict rulership. He explains, “ quick death by malaria has been abolished life made miserable by undernourishment and over-crowding is now the rule” (21). This, combined with exponential population growth, contributes to a more caste-like pyramid system of power as seen in Brave New World. What follows, claims Huxley, is the issue of maintaining the death rate. Keen to begin illuminating the similarities between our world and his Brave New World, Huxley first points out how the upper class is reproducing at a rate disproportionately less than that of the lower classes. He begins with simple logistics, covering such subjects as over-population, the subsequent moral issues of quantity versus quality, and the fear of over-organization. His book spends fifteen chapters detailing humanity’s societal tendencies, and fifteen times he clearly illustrates that we are entering a cowering, simpering New World. He begins by writing, “in 1931, when Brave New World was being written, I was convinced that there was still plenty of time… Thirty-seven years later… I feel a good deal less optimistic than I did” (4). Brave New World Revisited is a trenchant plea that humankind should educate itself for freedom before it is too late.In his Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley writes to tell us how his nightmarish Brave New World has quite nearly become reality. He scrutinizes threats to humanity, such as overpopulation, propaganda, and chemical persuasion, and explains why we have found it virtually impossible to avoid them.
In this twelve-part work of nonfiction, one of the most important and fascinating books of his career, Huxley uses his tremendous knowledge of human relations to compare the modern-day world with his prophetic fantasy. Written more than twenty-five years later, Brave New World Revisited is a re-evaluation of his predictions based on the changes he witnessed over that time.
When Aldous Huxley wrote his famous novel Brave New World, he did so with the belief that the dystopian world he created was a true possibility given the direction of the social, political and economic world order. It is a frightening experience, indeed, to discover how much of his satirical prediction of a distant future became reality in so short a time." - New York Times Book Review "Huxley uses his erudite knowledge of human relations to compare our actual world with his prophetic fantasy of 1931.
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