Society and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

[ChrisC]

You know, the fact that there is more of an amount of people taking drugs/medication especially psych meds. Reminds me that society is bordering on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

I mean why do people take anti-depressants and anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers? I'll tell you why to conform to society and be able to work and be a good little citizen. We can' have to many people thinking outside the box can we.

Just my conspiracy theory moaning for today.

[admin]

The appeal of conspiracy theories is that they reassure us that somebody -- anybody -- is in charge. Actually, what keeps the world running as well as it does is millions of individuals doing their jobs well. Among those individuals who do their jobs well are some (fifty percent?) of psychiatrists, who dispense meds only to those who really need them, to get their brain chemicals back in balance. (Anyone who dispenses anti-depressants for sadness is not among the competent fifty percent.)

[slaven41]

Actually, what keeps the world running as well as it does is millions of individuals doing their jobs well.

The problem here is that it only takes hundreds of individuals doing their job poorly (if they work on Wall Street) or one (if he works in the White House) to totally screw things up. This, incidentally, is also why golf is such a horrible game. On any given hole you need about three good shots to have a good hole, but only one bad shot to have a bad hole.

I read Brave New World many years ago, and I've always had kind of a problem with it. I know that I'm supposed to be repelled by all the mental conditioning and the rigidity of the society, and I guess I am. But how do you argue with a society in which over 99% of the people are genuinely happy with their lives? I mean if almost everyone is happy, then isn't the system succeeding?

--Dave

[ChrisC]

I agree actually. I have been blasted by my friends for saying this. But, Brave New World is a place that I wouldn't mind living in. If it means I'm content.

[admin]

"Orgy, porgy, ford and fun. Kiss the girls and make them one."

I think Huxley came around to a fondness for a Brave New World by the time he wrote Islandia.

But, ask yourself this question. Suppose there was a happiness machine. If you could plug yourself into a machine that would keep you passive but happy until you reached the age 100, at which point you would be terminated, would you take that opportunity?

[ChrisC]

Yes I would. Strange eh???

[Brightonian]

Happiness is not a natural condition. If Stone Age Man had just sat around getting blissed out on psychotropic herbs all day, none of us would be here today.

[admin]

The trick is not minding whether any of us are here.

Actually (you don't want to hear this) happiness is the natural state of many people, and I'm lucky enough to be one of them. I'm happy unless something happens to make me unhappy -- it's my fallback position.

[ChrisC]

Lucky you. Seriously I admire you for that. I need drugs to make me happy. Sad really.

[admin]

My son and my ex are in the same condition you are, so I'm thankful that there are drugs that (sometimes) work.