The Iron Curtain

             Imagine what the world would be like if we were all "under the iron curtain." In his foreword to the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley envisioned this statement when he wrote: "To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda...." Thus, through hypnopaedic teaching (brainwashing), and mandatory attendance to community gatherings, and allusions to prominent political dictators, and soma rations to make everyone easily controlled, Huxley bitterly satirized totalitarian propaganda and political technique to point out the problems of a dystopian society, which on the outside appears to be a utopian society.
             The way the fascist and totalitarian regimes used mass propaganda techniques to brainwash their people was nearly identical to the way Huxley described the hypnopaedic teachings in his novel. He also thought, however, that the present-day totalitarian states' methods were still "crude and unscientific." For example, in the novel the different classes had been brainwashed since birth to believe that they all contributed equally to society. Therefore, the people wouldn't go against the World Controllers because they had never been trained to think anything differently. In addition, they didn't have any knowledge of a society in which they could compare themselves. This was evident in the saying "History is bunk." Similarly, the totalitarian dictators attempted to control but failed because they weren't able to persuade the entire world to think like them. In addition, communism attempted to rewrite history, but the society in Brave New World took the next step and forgot about history altogether. The only people who had access to any knowledge of the past were the ones who had the power: the World Controllers. Thus, they were able to create a stable society.
             Since the hypnopaedic ideas in the soc
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The Iron Curtain. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 15:18, April 19, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/53988.html