Posted on 03/28/2005 12:10:28 PM PST by Pendragon_6
In his landmark novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley conveys the vision of a technological nightmare in which man is forced, through conditioning and eugenics, to happily serve as a cog in an utopian socialist machine. Those things which we see as important - family, close friendships, love, individualism, faith - are removed from the individual through brainwashing techniques, so as to create hollow vessels better suited to a life of consumerism and service to the State. Motherhood is abolished in favor of factory production of children, and the elderly and disabled are “taken care of.”
The euthanasia practices in Brave New World are carried out in public hospices, with children being brought in to play and enjoy themselves as part of their conditioning. Death is made an enjoyable experience for the young so that they would give it little thought or consideration.
In Huxley`s nightmare we see death as the last means of control of the individual. A person is removed from this world when he becomes tiresome, much as an old car is decommissioned and disassembled to make way for the newer model. Huxley understood the utopian socialist mind. Brave New World gave us a peek into the mind of the utopian left, and what those who would build the plastic paradise would eventually do.
The Terri Schiavo case has sparked a national debate over the quality of life vs. the sanctity of life. The QL people (I would argue that they are predominantly liberal, although many libertarians fit this description) argue that life should have a visible purpose and worth, and that if a person`s life is not worth living (in the judgment of others), he should die.
Continued
Socrates incident is distorted in this. His disciples wanted to spring him from jail and he eloquently explained devotion to the rule of law before he drank the poison hemlock. If you don't understand Rush, or the Bushes refusal to defy the court order read Plato, Crito.
The lesson in all this is not to trust your fate to the legal system, medical system, political system -- and certainly not the media, if one wants a rational outcome. It means a need for greater self-sufficiency and self-reliance, which begins of course, by making better discriminations and decisions.
Generally, it is not a good idea to marry the first and only person one ever dates. And then when the marriage goes bad, it's not a waste of the years put into it, to get out of it, at whatever cost, or it could cost you your life. There are no guarantees of a happy outcome -- no matter what the demagogues promise. We all take our best shot and make the best from what we know.
Let her will to live, inspire us to make the most of our own lives.
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