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Between Huxley ("Brave New World") and Orwell ("1984"), I think Huxley saw the future more accurately, although Orwell has amazing insights.

I actually thought that "Wall-E" was a good, and particularly accessible, commentary on utopia. Without the need to strive, we might all just turn into human potatoes. I'm not far from that now, which is pretty frightening.



I just want to mention here for those who haven't heard of it: Huxley's "Island" explores the complement to the ideas presented in "Brave New World", i.e. it is an imagining of utopia. I highly recommend it.


Orwell was writing about an authoritarian socialist society devolving into fascism.

Huxley is less clear, but on the whole it looks much closer to a capitalist society.

So one could argue that they represent different future paths - mutually exclusive, but which one is more likely than the other depends on where the wind blows at any given moment. Orwell had the advantage of seeing what Stalinist ideology is like first hand, as a member of POUM in Spain, so that's where his focus was. We live in a world that's dominated by capitalist countries, so Huxley's vision seems more likely to us. But it can all change.




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