We owe Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) the novel Brave New World, a masterpiece which, despite being published some ninety years ago, portrays disturbingly well some of the meaninglessness of today’s consumerist and directed society. Shortly after publishing the novel, Huxley had a promotional interview with the journalist and science populariser J. W. N. Sullivan – it is included in Sullivan’s book Contemporary mind. Sullivan asked Huxley about the idea of progress, about whether human beings had progressed. Huxley thought that yes, there had been progress, but that the question was a delicate one because progress in one sense could conceal progress in another sense. Huxley commented that obvious industrial or mechanical progress could conceal intellectual progress and, in turn, intellectual progress could conceal emotional progress. To clarify his point, Huxley turned to the figure of Isaac Newton, and summed up Isaac Newton’s misfortunes as a human being in one sweeping, perhaps excessive, sentence:
If we would develop a race of Isaac Newtons, this would not be progress. For the price Newton had to pay for being a supreme intellect was that he was incapable of experiencing friendship, love, fatherhood and many other desirable things. As a man he was a failure; as a monster he was superb.
The interview carried on, and left another excellent small pill that I am going to leave for a future post.
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