“In 1958, Aldous Huxley foresaw a congestion of power able to shape and defy popular will. “Under the relentless thrust of accelerating over-population and increasing over-organization, and by means of ever more effective methods of mind-manipulation, the democracies will change their nature,” he predicted. “The quaint old forms—elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest—will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism.”
The changes, according to the author of Brave New World, would be almost imperceptible. “All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial,” he continued. “Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.””
How’s that for hitting the bulls-eye from more than half a century in the past.
So prophetic. We’re like the Roman Empire under Augustus (or one of the less capable emperors)—the forms of the Republic are still there, but they’re just for show.
Maybe the whole thing is inevitable. Maybe we’ve moved too far toward the hive existence to turn things around. But for someone who thought he was living in a free society it’s a pretty bitter pill to discover bureaucrats are your masters.