VS. 
Dear Mr. Orwell,
It was very kind of you to tell your publishers to send me a copy of your book. It arrived as I was in the midst of a piece of work that required much reading and consulting of references; and since poor sight makes it necessary for me to ration my reading, I had to wait a long time before being able to embark on Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Agreeing with all that the critics have written of it, I need not tell you, yet once more, how fine and how profoundly important the book is. May I speak instead of the thing with which the book deals — the ultimate revolution? The first hints of a philosophy of the ultimate revolution — the revolution which lies beyond politics and economics, and which aims at total subversion of the individual's psychology and physiology — are to be found in the Marquis de Sade, who regarded himself as the continuator, the consummator, of Robespierre and Babeuf. The philosophy of the ruling minority in Nineteen Eighty-Four is a sadism which has been carried to its logical conclusion by going beyond sex and denying it. Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful. My own belief is that the ruling oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World. I have had occasion recently to look into the history of animal magnetism and hypnotism, and have been greatly struck by the way in which, for a hundred and fifty years, the world has refused to take serious cognizance of the discoveries of Mesner, Braid, Esdaile, and the rest.
Partly because of the prevailing materialism and partly because of prevailing respectability, nineteenth-century philosophers and men of science were not willing to investigate the odder facts of psychology for practical men, such as politicians, soldiers and policemen, to apply in the field of government. Thanks to the voluntary ignorance of our fathers, the advent of the ultimate revolution was delayed for five or six generations. Another lucky accident was Freud's inability to hypnotize successfully and his consequent disparagement of hypnotism. This delayed the general application of hypnotism to psychiatry for at least forty years. But now psycho-analysis is being combined with hypnosis; and hypnosis has been made easy and indefinitely extensible through the use of barbiturates, which induce a hypnoid and suggestible state in even the most recalcitrant subjects.
Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large scale biological and atomic war — in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely imaginable kinds.
Thank you once again for the book.
Yours sincerely,
Aldous Huxley
Ref. http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/1984-v-brave-new-world.html
VS. These blokes are advancing every more rapidly on all fronts in all respects and ways.
http://twoday.net/static/omega/files/quotes_from_people_who_consider_us_subjects.htm
I agree with some . . . ignorantly forbidden . . . commentators . . .
Iran will be struck
WW3 will ensue in short order . . .
whether in weeks or months . . . sooner than any want.
Not only is evil advanced by failure for the good to speak up . . .
Evil is also advanced by those who hide, forbid, the truth . . . pretend that the truth is not true . . . pretend that the truth is merely kooky theory etc.
Some good, mostly loveable conservatives are going to have lots of blood on their hands before the dust settles because they censored the uncomfortable truth.
http://orwell.ru/library/articles/totalitarianism/english/e_lat
“Whoever feels the value of literature, whoever sees the central part it plays in the development of human history, must also see the life and death necessity of resisting totalitarianism, whether it is imposed on us from without or from within.”
This is an excellent letter. It is full of interesting observations about both Huxley's and Orwell's books. I have recently reread 1984. The plot is seems much more simplistic than I noticed before but the insights were remarkably astute. It helps to understand the Democrat Party in the Age of Obama.
Also interesting are Huxley's observation that the power hungry totalitarians were more flexible and innovative than Orwell thought.
Orwell based his observations on his relationships with members of the British Communist Party and British socialists who sponsored his writing career and arranged for his passage to Spain to participate in the Spanish Civil War. Huxley for saw a larger conspiracy.
Orwell saw they wanted to control the country and deprive citizens of their possessions, their freedom and their very souls. Huxley also saw they wanted to destroy men's souls but that their tactics would evolve.
They were both extremely insightful and prescient. Their work accurately predicted politics in America today.
Huxley was at the inception something of an LSD prophet....even tripping into death on some high octane Sandoz
I listened well I confess....we were so into all that...he....Watts and others
Did it help?
You can be frank..lol
Thanks for the post. This has turned out to be an extremely interesting thread.
Bfl