An Evening with Aldous Huxley

Posted by blainegarrett

July 2, 2008

I had the pleasure of listening to a recording of Aldous Huxley from 1962. Huxley, a visionary speaker and thinker predating the 60s hippy movement was a leader in predicting the social control that is all the rage in counter culture thought even today. It reminds me of some dialog in THE MIST, where the people trapped in the grocery store discuss the potential impending violence among the captives. They argue the good nature of people vs. the psychotic fickle nature of man when all the social safety precautions are removed. The MIST wasn’t a movie about Terrorism, but still commented on the fear imposed when you are exposed to the
unknown terror. Huxley, in this speech, describes the potential to pacify the populous in order to prevent such behavior. Perhaps, this is why we find movies like the Mist so interesting, because what would most of us do in the face of terror when all the safety measures of the military, medical system, etc are unavailable - caused by Terrorists or monsters from another dimension. Perhaps, the mist in the Mist, is a commentary on the veil hiding the inner workings of the controls in place. I think I need to read Brave New World.