It is always interesting to see how dystopian novels written in the past can relate to the modern world. Aldous Huxley and George Orwell in their novels Brave New World and 1984, respectively, depict worlds that may have seemed ludacris at the time, but now appear to be more relevant than ever. Their depictions of technology, as well as their various approaches to oppression, have been used as examples of what could become of our society if we are not careful.
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, discusses how important it is for companies and customers alike to understand all of the possible consequences that result from innovations in technology. If developers don’t “consider the potential ‘unintentional consequences’ of their creations…the ‘dystopian societies’ [could] come to fruition” (Fortune.com). Corrupt individuals could obtain possession of these creations and take advantage of their capabilities. Thus, these corrupt individuals could become more powerful and eventually create a manipulative government. This government could then use the technology to either entertain or please people into submission or police them until they are unable to fight back. Alternatively, consumers must be aware of the consequences of technology, lest they fall into “an endless wave of distractions” and succumb to a life “without meaning or purpose,” (Fortune.com). If people are not cautious, they could fall into either the mindless lives of those living in Huxley’s dystopian, or the fear-ridden lives of Orwell’s.
While our current present is clearly nowhere near the dystopian futures of Huxley or Orwell, some of the aspects of their societies are surfacing. Rebecca MacKinnon describes a particular instance in her article entitled “If Not Orwell, Then Huxley: The Battle For Control of the Internet.” Only 14 years ago, a remake of Apple’s famous 1984 Super Bowl commercial was uploaded to the Internet by a man named Riadh Guerfali. This remake replaced the “Big Brother” on a screen in Apple’s commercial with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (TheAtlantic.com). This particular comparison implies that the Tunisian President is attempting to take control of his people the same way Big Brother had in 1984: with heavy policing and fear. The comparison only grows when the response of the Tunisian government is to oppress its citizens further by heavily censoring and surveillance (TheAtlantic.com). At this point, the state of Tunisia and the oppression of its people looks strikingly akin to the dystopia Orwell had predicted. And suddenly it does not seem so preposterous to think that the world could ever evolve into the societies of Huxley and Orwell. In addition, the New York Times has even compared President Trump’s “insistence that even his most pointless and transparent lies were in fact true” with the “Big Brother’s standard of truth: The facts are what we the leader says they are” (NYTimes.com). Orwell’s futuristic depiction of a warped truth has come into the light in this instance, though not in the context he predicted. Additionally, Huxley’s idea of a mindless society contains “a certain Trump-like suspicion of science and dismissal of history” (NYTimes.com). Our society is slowly evolving into one like the dystopias that Huxley and Orwell wrote about over fifty years ago. Awareness of this fact is key to making sure that the world does not fall into such a dystopia, but instead continues to strive for the perfect balance of the government and its people.
Reading novels about dystopian society such as Brave New World and 1984 often result in people examining the present to see how it compares. The result is that people become more aware of just how similar some of these dystopias can be to the modern world. The article “Huxley to Orwell: My Hellish Vision of the Future is Better Than Yours” describes this effect accurately. After reading Brave New World, one might “look askance at The Bachelor or Facebook,” whereas 1984 would cause one to be wary “at the government throwing around phrases like ‘enhanced interrogation’ and surgical drone strikes” (OpenCulture.com). These novels are so powerful they can cause paranoia in those who read them. They highlight aspects of our lives that may seem ordinary and reveal the consequences of becoming too dependent on them. It is important for people to be more conscious of this if we wish to stray away from creating a dystopian society.
The dystopian futures of Brave New World and 1984 are appearing in surprising and subtle ways throughout the present day. Unless people become aware of this occurrence, one of the two societies depicted in these novels could very well be the future.