Home » Let’s listen to Aldous Huxley…

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Let’s listen to Aldous Huxley… — 11 Comments

  1. ” . . . try to bypass the rational side of man and to appeal to these unconscious choices below the surface.”

    He is absolutely right about that. But, I don’t think it is anything new. Politicians, and even non-elected leaders have used emotions to shore up support, even if the emotion used is fear.

    I only see one “cure” to fight this. Education. It is up to the voters to look beyond the rhetoric, beyond their “feelings,” and try to understand exactly what a candidate might do when in office.

    Given how much effort is really needed to do that I don’t have much faith in the average voter – anywhere, not just the US – to make smart choices when voting.

  2. Mike Wallace did a good number of fascinating interviews way back when.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mike_Wallace_Interview

    The one with Ayn Rand is well worth watching.

    How did we get to a point where the now meaningless concept of “racism” dominates the “analysis” and thought processes of so many people?

    Racism, it’s got electrolytes.

    What was thought to have been dangerous ideas of psychological manipulation in the hands of the Madison Avenue capitalists has turned out to be the expertise of the left and their dreary, tedious, shallow cultural hegemony.

  3. How profoundly prophetic. How ironic that the very people Mike Wallace spent his life supporting have and are employing the techniques and methodologies of which Huxley warned.

    At the least, Huxley came very close to foreseeing that the media itself would become employed as a propaganda organ in support of academia/schools in destroying representative democracy’s key need; a populace that, in the majority, employs reason and common sense in reaching decisions.

    IMO, most liberals sincerely desire to make the world a better place. Universally, they fail to see that trying to make the world better, invariably results instead in a far worse world.

    This is because only by personally behaving ethically do we make the world a bit better. For good or ill, we can only be responsible for our own contribution.

    “You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence. You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.” Abraham Lincoln

  4. The quest for power. More and more our Republic is subject to those engaged in that pursuit. The tipping of the balance seems to be a public that desires to hand over the reigns of power with regard to so much of what constitutes our daily lives. As GB states, the liberals truly believe that placing these matters in the domain of the federal government is the answer. Short on the knowledge of history, I would say.

  5. Thankfully, subliminal advertising is bunk based on a hoax. Unfortunately, Huxley was gullible about such things.

  6. “Let’s listen to . . .”: or, in the alternative, read Max Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation” [pdf]

  7. Geoffrey Brittain wrote,

    IMO, most liberals sincerely desire to make the world a better place. Universally, they fail to see that trying to make the world better, invariably results instead in a far worse world.

    I believe that they DON’T sincerely have that desire. Instead, their desire is to achieve one or both of the following: power or assuagement of guilt.

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