The Huxley Vision: Weapons of Mass Distraction

Humanity has always been fascinated by books which provide us with an apocalyptic view of the future. The destruction of a nation; the fall of our government—or in Huxley’s vision, its rise to power in formidable ways. As Huxley puts it, “the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance…[and humanity] would be reduced to passivity and egoism.” In contemporary America, Huxley’s pessimistic, yet already-fulfilled prophecy illustrates how both the government and ourselves are at fault—as we are deliberately aware of the things which he describes but nonetheless, choose to let his ideas become a reality, rather than a ludicrous view of the future.

The distractions in entertainment are colossal, scandalous, and readily available. Websites such as CNN continuously endorse this vision; as one is frequently able to see headlines such as ‘Syrian Government in Crisis,’ along the likes of ‘Kanye West Settles Lawsuit for Aggravated Assault.’ In corporate America, websites, newspapers, and television programming are no longer interested in providing factual information, because as Dan Gainor explains in America Distracted, “it’s not sexy to talk about missiles aiding Al Qaeda, and so thousands of websites around the country don’t.” (O’Neil) America is aware that issues surrounding our country and foreign policy are pessimistic and somber, therefore, we allow government officials to ‘oversee it,’ because preoccupying ourselves about Miley Cyrus twerking is more applicable to our daily lives. Even ‘accredited’ news sources such as ABC World News rarely deliver what they promote: exhaustive and unbiased political coverage of world affairs. Full of internet clips, and celebrity headlines, the half-hour program dedicates less than 10 minutes to...

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... the US Government,” and due to this, “even informed citizens have little idea what's actually going on.”

Although Orwell argued that our fears would lead to our extinction, Huxley’s belief that our indulgence in petty affairs would destroy us has been demonstrated through our desire to both scorn and support our ideals of democracy, freedom, and patriotism. Americans today vacillate over the quest for national security and government power. We want an effective intelligence community, but we don’t want too much surveillance or data collection. We want to capture the enemy, but the thought of drone strikes makes us uncomfortable. Although many try to find a balance between the two, there is nothing we can ultimately do about it, because true to president Kennedy’s word—the U.S. government hires only “the best and brightest” to control, manipulate, and protect us.