Are the enemies of Freedom here in the United States? Well I don't think you can say who in the United States. I don't think there are any sinister persons deliberately trying to rob people
of their freedom, but I do think.
First of all, the better number was impersonal forces, which are
pushing in the direction of less and less freedom.
And I also think there are a number of technological devices, which
anybody who wishes to use.
Can you use to accelerate this process of going away from freedom of
imposing control.
What are these forces in these devices?
I should say that the other two main impersonal forces that. The first
often is not exceedingly, important in the United States at the
present time, the very important in other countries.
This is the force which
in general terms
can the called overpopulation. The the mounting pressure of population
pressing upon existing resources.
This of course, is an extraordinary thing.
Something is happening which is never happened in the world history
before.
I mean, let's just take a simple fact that between the time of the
birth of Christ in the landing of the Mayflower, the population of the
Earth doubled.
It Rose from 250 million to probably 500 million.
Today is the population of the earth is rising at such a rate that
will double in half a century. Why should overpopulation work to diminish our
freedoms.
Well in a number of ways.
I mean, the the experts in the field like Harrison Brown's examples pointed out in
the underdeveloped countries, that actually the standard of living is
at present. falling.
The people have less food to eat and less Goods per capita than they
had 50 years ago.
And as the position of these countries economic position becomes more
and more precarious.
Obviously the central government has to take over more and more
responsibility for keeping the ship of State on even keel and then
of course you're likely to get social unrest under such conditions, with
again, the intervention of a central government.
So I think one see here, a pattern which seems to be pushing very strongly towards a totalitarian regime.
Unfortunately is in all these underdeveloped countries, the only highly organized political party
is the Communist Party.
It looks rather as though they, will be The Heirs to this
unfortunate process.
They will step into the position of power.
It is an extraordinary situation actually. One has to look at it
of course
from the biological point of view.
The whole essence of biological life on earth is a question of balance.
And what we have done is to practice death control in the most
intensive manner, without to balancing this with the birth control at the other end. Consequently
birth rates.
Remain as high as they were and death rates have fallen substantially. In hierarchy systems controlled by bureaucracy is either the bureaucracy is a big
business, or the bureaucracy a Big Government. Now the devices that you are talking about, are there specific devices
or methods of communication which diminish our freedoms, in addition to
overpopulation, and over organization? There's certainly devices that can be used this way. Let us take a thought piece of a very recent and painful history.
Propaganda used by Hitler
which was incredibly effective on the one, kind, brute force on one hand,
but he also used a very efficient form of the propaganda, which he was
using every modern device at that time.
He didn't have TV, but he had the, the radio, would you use to the
furthest extent and was able to impose his will on an immense mass of
people? I mean, the Germans were highly educated.
People. We are aware of all of this,
but how do we equate Hitler's use the propaganda for the way that propaganda if you will,
is used.
Here in the United States.
Are you suggesting that their is a parallel? It's not being used in this way now.
But the point is, it seems to me, there are methods, at present, available.
Methods superior in some respect to Hitler's methods.
which could be used in a bad situation. What I feel very strongly is, we mustn't
be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology. This has happened again and again
in history. Technology is advanced and this changes social conditions,
and suddenly people have found themselves in a situation which they
didn't foresee and doing all sorts of things.
they didn't really want to do.
What do you mean?
Do you mean, we, we develop our television but we don't know how
to use it correctly?
Is that the point that your making?
Well at present the television, I think it's being used quite harmlessly. It's being used I think. I would feel it's being used too
much to distract everybody all the time.
But I mean, imagine with, which must be the situation in our communist
countries by the television where it exists... Is always saying the same
thing
the whole time. It's always driving along, it's not creating a wide
range of distraction.
It's creating a 1 pointed drumming in of a single idea all the time.
It's obviously an immensely
powerful instrument.
Aldous Huxley finds himself these days in a peculiar and disturbing
position.
A quarter of a century after prophesying an authoritarian state in,
which people were reduced to Cyborgs, he can point at Soviet Russia and
say I told you so.
So, the crucial question, he see it now is whether the so-called free world is
shortly going to give Mr.
Huxley, the further dubious satisfaction of saying the same thing about us.