Are we being imbued with the new zeitgeist? (Part One)

Are we being imbued with the new zeitgeist? (Part One)

Why is it urgent and important to rediscover Huxley and Skinner in Today's world?

By Hicham Ras

2020 is another date that our History adds to 1914 and 1939. I’m not saying that it’s a Third World War, but it might seem so. The only difference is that this time the war is soft and smart and is not between nations, but between generations: the digital born and the digital migrants, or more precisely between the democrats and the technocrats. I’ve heard the word « Dinosaur » in many conferences and meetings. Dinosaur as we all know refers to a species that disappeared a long time ago, but the word was regained to refer this time to those of us who are not willing to embrace the new zeitgeist. Their destiny will unfortunately be endangered if they don’t adopt the new ways of seeing the world and adapt to the new technological life styles. What we are living those days is only a sneak peek of what the Silicon Valley is preparing for us. Have you ever heard of the “Singularity” project or Ray Kurzweil? Please take some time and read about them.

What I am writing is an attempt to understand the aspects of our new life with all the unannounced changes we are all undergoing and which could be summed up in this phrase: “From Freedoms to permissions”. It is true that rare are the ones who are truly concerned by the destiny of our common History, but I believe in what Mahatma Gandhi said “even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth”. So, why is Huxley’s Brave New World a top story these days? Simply, because it was a prophecy of our future, almost similar to Orwell’s 1984, but with a dystopian spirit.

Huxley thought that “The perfect dictatorship would have the appearance of a democracy, but would basically be a prison without walls in which the prisoners would not even dream of escaping. It would essentially be a system of slavery where, through consumption and entertainment, the slaves would love their servitudes.” He then introduced “Soma” a drug that is handed out for free to all the citizens of the World State to present a futuristic, satiric world where the laymen feel deep inside of them that they are tied, but can’t do anything about it. And this is exactly where Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning will demonstrate its “accuracy”: when you do good you receive food (reward) and when you disobey you receive pain (punishment). And in order to escape from this reality, people/ citizens consume Soma.

Another aspect of our current lives is conditioning. Huxley said “one believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them” he adds “There will be in the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it”. Those words are hard-hitting, but so true that the prudent observer sees obvious. Have you ever wondered why technology, especially internet/ social media are continually providing us with all sorts of pleasure we could ask for?! (To be continued …)