I never did read Brave New World. But when Tree Fitzpatrick, an American unknown to me, agreed yesterday on Facebook with my view of Hillary Clinton, I looked her up to find this on her timeline.
As the west sleepwalks into potential nuclear confrontation over Syria with a Russia our leaders have pushed into a corner – using all their corporate might to paint black white, up down and evil common sense – Huxley’s 1931 words could as easily have been coined this morning.
Also apposite are Herman Goering’s words at his Nuremberg trial:
“Why of course the people don’t want war. That is understood … But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”