"The demagogic propagandist must therefore be consistently dogmatic. All his statements are made without qualification. There are no grays in his picture of the world; everything is either diabolically black or celestially white. In Hitler's words, the propagandist should adopt 'a systematically one-sided attitude towards every problem that has to be dealt with.' He must never admit that he might be wrong or that people with a different point of view might even be partially right. Opponents should not be argued with; they should be attacked, shouted down, or, if they become too much of a nuisance, liquidated. The morally squeamish intellectual may be shocked by this kind of thing. But the masses are always convinced that 'right is on the side of the active aggressor.'"

"In the long run, anger and hatred are self-defeating emotions. But in the short run they pay high dividends in the form of psychological and even (since they release large quantities of adrenaline and noradrenaline) physiological satisfaction. People may start out with an initial prejudice against tyrants; but when tyrants or would-be tyrants treat them to adrenaline-releasing propaganda about the wickedness of their enemies- particularly of enemies weak enough to be persecuted- they are ready to follow him with enthusiasm."

"Under the new dispensation, political principles and plans for specific action have come to lose most of their importance. The personality of the candidate and the way he is projected by the advertising experts are the things that really matter."

"If these views were correct, if human beings were in fact the members of a truly social species, and if their individual differences were trifling and could be completely ironed out by appropriate conditioning, then, obviously, there would be no need for liberty and the State would be justified in persecuting the heretics who demanded it ... But human beings are not completely social; they are only moderately gregarious. Their societies are not organisms, like the hive or the anthill; they are organizations, in other words ad hoc machines for collective living."

"Our disease has a multiplicity of co-operating causes and is not to be cured except by a multiplicity of co-operating remedies. In coping with any complex human situation, we must take account of all the relevant factors, not merely of a single factor. Nothing short of everything is ever really enough. Freedom is menaced, and education for freedom is urgently needed. But so are many other things- for example, social organization for freedom, birth control for freedom, legislation for freedom."

"But it is now a historical fact that the means of production are fast becoming the monopolistic property of Big Business and Big Government. Therefore, if you believe in democracy, make arrangements to distribute property as widely as possible."

Huxley should have just stuck to writing essays because this right here is straight fire.

I read this out of curiosity, and of wondering in what ways Huxley saw his Brave New World was becoming reality in 1958. The short story? As clichéd as it is, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Much of the core argument that Huxley makes remains viable today. It's the details that have changed, as science and technology continue to press forward. For example, we are no longer waiting for "the pill" to be invented to save us from overpopulation - instead the new issues are ones of availability and attainability. Similarly, we seem less aware of propaganda and media manipulation, even as corporations continue to absorb one another, making it increasingly difficult to suss out where their allegiances lie.

Not a bad read, but it makes me wish Aldous Huxley was still alive to write Brave New World Revisited, Again. I miss his calm approach to dissecting the world's woes.

1.5 Harta me encuentro de este ensayo. Un poco más largo y me muero. Es interesante, pero la forma en la cual está escrito es demasiado densa.

The ending was...wow.
But this book really made me think though.
3/5.

Muy interesante. Manipulación de la mente, drogas, problemas por el exceso de superpoblación/falta de recursos…