Huxley or Orwell - Indulgence faces Extreme Control

One so often hears the fears related to Orwell’s ‘1984’. Especially for Liberals, their one fear is that somewhere, sometime in the future, a strong hand will control the people of this world. That control will be exercised for reasons of efficiency and betterment, but will lead to human society facing extreme subjugation.

Perhaps Orwell had a communistic society, strengthened with technology, in his mind. He definitely painted a very dark picture in that ‘1984’ world, of everything being absolutely monitored and controlled. So freedom was sacrificed for some sort of stability. 

It was a fear which was a constant in the pre-1990 world. All my peers grew up in that sort of culture, where a fear of Soviet Russia and Communist China clamping down on the worlds freedom was constant. The Vietnam war was propelled on that fear and the Mujahideen in Afghanistan became heroes on its back. The liberals never quite left that fear behind, and much of the liberal agenda today continues to be just that. A constant fear of control. They see the present semi-turn towards the far right in the West, as just such a story. Perhaps, society will take that type of regressive backwards step, to what it was a hundred years ago.    

   

As so happens, Aldous Huxley’s lesser known story of The Brave New World, is the opposite side of the coin, and would suit our world today. A picture of society of extremes, converted by human society to a pursuit of the trivial, the unnecessary. There is little bond left in humanity, because individuals are self-indulgent. Now what does all that remind one of? Does not human society run after trivia, while there is much deprivation elsewhere. Expensive indulgences, while others starve. Does not trivia and fake news control reality, restricting the very freedom which liberal society aspires to? 

Huxley saw this world of triviality, where self indulgence will be rife and be the signature of society. Our extreme consumerism, absolute involvement in creating our own image and brand, narcissistic pursuit of fame (on social media) and the mutated search for innovation (rather than for advancement, we innovate for growth of profits and out of boredom) has marginalised society. 

It’s now not about everyone, it is about the self. This has led to extreme indulgence everywhere. The fake part of the world is just a side effect which no one could imagine. Fakery (is there such a word?) has created pursuits which has warped the whole. We are spending our lives faking it.

Back in 1931, Huxley had a vision which maybe coming to fruition in our brave new world.

The Darogha Mindset

In Mughal times the Darogha was a senior position. The Empress Nur Jahan's mother, Asmat Begum was a Darogha in the Mughal courts. Her position of authority and custodianship was the charge of the women quarters of the Mughal King. This was a high honour and a position of some trust and authority. 

When you research the word Darogha, it carries several meanings, including an inspector, a manager, a warden and a custodian. To me personally, it is about security, and hence, I use the word Darogha as oft used, to equate to sentry. So rather than a broad spread, I looked at it as a narrower definition for the purpose of this blog.

Ibn-Kathir, writing some seven hundred years ago, made a startling revelation. His source, was apparently from the earliest Muslim texts. Writing in his End of Days history, he predicted that the Muslim 'zawaal' (decline) will come when sentries will be posted on Muslim rulers as guards for security and safety.  You just need to be on the streets of some of the Muslim countries, when todays rulers are commuting. In one instance, I personally witnessed eighty security cars in the flotilla accompanying one of our rulers. 

What would be the logic of Ibn Kathir's definitive statement about the future? In the time of Umar bin Khattab (ra) a man came with a petition from Egypt, citing the injustice of the then Governor. He found, Umar (ra), the Caliph of Islam, standing alone in the street, wearing simple clothes and with no security. It showed that Hazrat Umar had no need to fear his safety. His faith and his deeds (as Caliph) left no need for security. He was ruling with his conscience and any adversity on this path did not matter. Life had little meaning, without it being on the right path and death was welcome rather than do any wrong. It is no wonder, that three of the first four Caliphs suffered shehadat, but did not compromise on what they thought was right.

Unfortunately, this thinking does not simply stop at security. It pervades into our lives. I can remember, one hardly ever saw a sentry or guard in my younger days. A deteriorating mindset has led to the present situation. But what it really implies is a lack of trust. When you expand that to our 21st century society, then you see it everywhere. On one side people are causing lack of trust by their actions and on the other side we are not ready to trust anyone. It's chicken and egg and I am not sure which has followed what. 

You see it in our daily lives. Guards everywhere. Cross confirmation everywhere. To open a bank account you have to prove your life history. To get a visa or permit, the examination is all encompassing, including finger printing. Documentation in commerce is all invasive; cross checks and audits are absolutes. You may have got used to it, because you have not seen better, but I promise you some few decades ago this was a free world. You could actually travel without a visa and you could open a bank account without proof. Somewhere, we decided we are not capable of this higher level existence and descended to a Darogha mindset. Now we guard and watch everything. And even the watchers have watchers on them. Some societies have on average a monitoring camera for every dozen people. Soon we will require computers to watch our cameras...George Orwell partially saw this slavery a long time ago (1984).

A very stunning example of this Darogha Mindset which I personally witnessed recently. On trying to enter a hotel mosque to say prayers, I was asked to produce an  identity to prove I was connected to the hotel, either as guest or an employee. So the Darogha is now even preventing the worship of Allah. 

Reality or Entertainment ?

                                                       

                                          *The picture is from Wylio a free picture site

I have never been a fan of wrestling. It does not feel like sport. Humongous people, obviously very fit and primed, put up an act. This entertains huge numbers worldwide with nuances of an entertainment industry act.        

When you step into a WWE arena, all the facets of entertainment are visible. There is a theme targeted at an audience. The bulls eye has been well researched and the organisers know what makes their audience (in the arena and at home) tick. Typically there will be a villain (or villains); he will be vocal and obvious. No one can miss this villain and some direct their hate at him. There will be a good guy also. He will be a softer personality. Some people will love him. Interestingly, a fair portion of the audience will identify with the villain.    

It does not stop there. The referee will be a put up job.  Whenever the villain will do something  wrong (which is quite frequently) the referee will not be able to catch him at it. So the establishment and regulator will fail at their job. All this will create the story of the downtrodden good guy; nothing is going for him, in fact everyone and everything seem to be against them. They have created an 'alternative reality' scenario. You just have to look around in the arena or at home at the television audience. The intensity on their faces, the anger and the vocal nature of their reactions tell a different story. This is real for them!  Their reactions might be frustrations from real life or maybe a getaway cocoon, but it is 'real' for them.  

If you go onto forums which discuss Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Men or the Avengers, there is the same intense anger and arguments. The facts of the movie and what has happened are different for audiences and they are fighting over them. You want to say 'Hey, this is fiction, it's not the real world'. But you dare not, because in that environment you will be trolled out of the forum.   

Now does that not look like the 'alternative facts', 'the fake news' loaded elections of the USA or the Brexit referendum in UK and in recent days the French elections? Fillon is now facing alternative facts and his popularity is dropping in France (Marie le Pen is waiting in the wings).   

In 1931, Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World and spoke about just such a scenario in democracies. Huxley wrote that freedom will become so extreme, that trivia will prevail over reality, truth will be drowned out in a scream of trivial facts, too much information will make people passive to information, narcissism shall prevail, people will stop reading books due to a lack of depth and actors will act out life in a caricature. 

I recently read this article on Huxley in the Guardian, comparing it to George Orwell's 1984. The apocalyptic forecast of Huxley fitted our present scenario better than Orwell.  

That started me thinking on how the population ripened into this mindset in the first place? I think we have been conditioned over half a century of more and more extreme fiction enacted by our entertainment industry. Somewhere the shades of reality and fiction have overlapped and we get this present day scenario. Play acting fitting into the realty of life and so, alternative facts for different people. Once you get to believe what you want, despite facts proving another scenario, then it is all real. You can belong to your own world, construct it and let the like-minded live in it. Then, there are no limitations to this world and all I can say is 'Allah help us humans'.