In the context of its time, Brave New World can be seen as an expression of the beliefs and concerns shared by the people of the 1930's.

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In the context of its time, Brave New World can be seen as an expression of the beliefs and concerns shared by the people of the 1930’s.  The decades of the twenties and the thirties were ones of crisis and disillusionment unravelling in the political crisis that unfolded in the wake of the New York crash of ’29.

The socio-economic problems of the late 1920’s and early 30’s drove Huxley to reflect deeply upon the particularly negative and destructive elements of the times.  Brave New World would appear to be a diffusion of new ideas and attitudes of the time whilst reflecting Huxley’s scepticism regarding history, progress and human rationality, (Encyclopaedia Britannica Millennium Edition PC Rom).

Huxley focused on the growth of modern technology and totalitarian ideology emerging at the time.  This unrest and bewilderment speak avidly in Brave New World as Huxley exploits the anxiety of his bourgeois audience of Soviet communism and ‘Fordist’ American capitalism.

Huxley himself noted; “under Hitler/Stalin rule, personal ends were subordinated to organisational means by a mixture of violence, propaganda and systematic manipulation of minds”, (Aldous Huxley 1994 ‘Brave New World Revisited’ Flamingo Press, pgs 37-8).

The emergence of fascism demonstrated how political liberalism was in full retreat in the latter part of the 1920’s.  In Spain, many attempts at fascism were made while Benito Mussolini ensured a totalitarian regime in Italy.  In early 1930-1 Japan’s liberal regime gave way to a nationalist one while in the Soviet Union, Stalin and later Lenin supported a fascist regime with use of force and coercion to the populace.

In Germany, the Nazi’s were working towards a single, undivided people’s community (Volksgeminschage) with a firm belief in solidarity, conformity and uniformity.  The nazi’s were obedient to their order-giving elite paralleling immensely the brave new worlder’s, “Sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment” (Aldous Huxley 1994 ‘Brave New World’ Flamingo press, pg 37).

Under Hitler/Stalin’s rule as under the rule of the controller in Brave New World, the belief that people need controlling in order to avoid civil unrest, conflict and revolution is all too apparent; “Stability…no civilisation without social stability, no social stability without individual stability, (Aldous Huxley 1994 ‘Brave New World’ Flamingo Press, pg 37).

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However, as fascism is based on the idea that a nation would only succeed through discipline and ruthless conformity this would appear more akin to George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ than the benevolent power structure in Brave New World; “The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want…they’re safe; they’re never ill”, (Aldous Huxley 1994 ‘Brave New World’ Flamingo Press, pg 200).

Huxley though, had an immense fear and distrust of large scale democracy and threats of revolution, thus there is dictatorship in Brave New World and no civil unrest leading to a more organised and ...

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