Brave New World

In the 20th century there were two popular dystopian novels written 1984 and Brave New World. Neil Postman in the foreword to his book Amusing Ourselves to Death said the following about them: What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture….In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. Postman goes on to note that perhaps American culture has become much more like Brave New World then 1984, and perhaps he is right. There is a narrative in our society right now of what human flourishing looks like and increasingly it resembles the dysfunction described in Brave New World. In contrast the Scriptures paint a narrative of what human flourishing looks like and it rubs directly against our societies. In this series we will take a fresh looks at our societies narrative of human flourishing and critique it against what Jesus and the scriptures say.