Orwell vs. Huxley

Two dystopian worlds: "Brave New World" is a lullaby, "1984" is a scream

Orwell and Huxley

So which is it?

Do we foresee the future as a brutal, desolate world where everything is grotesquely backward, where war is peace, freedom is slavery and 2+2=5, or will we be lulled into a nightmarish hellscape where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order?

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984 are futuristic dystopian novels that predict totalitarian control … but they paint bleak fates for mankind in strikingly different colors.

We shudder at the mere possibility of either coming true.

But there are ominous signs that though extreme, our democratic society is headed down a slippery slope: the gradual erosion of freedoms and a centralization of power … suppression of dissent, when criticism of the government or culture is met with censorship or public condemnation (i.e. cancel culture) … independent media outlets are squeezed out or co-opted by a single-voice version of “truth” (propaganda) … the undermining of foundations like the courts, elections, or entrusted institutions where checks on power get dismantled or turned into tools of the ruling group … and increased surveillance—people’s lives get tracked and privacy shrinks, justified as "security."

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” — Benjamin Franklin

Big Brother is watching you

Both novels imagine societies where individual freedom is crushed. Yet they differ in their methods of oppression, tone, and visions of human existence.

In 1984, Orwell defined oppressive abuses of technology and the exploitation of truth through surveillance and propaganda. The primary danger lies in powerful tools: Telescreens are omnipresent, the Ministry of Truth fractures language and history, Newspeak agitprop controls the mind, and Big Brother's sinister presence is a God-like overseer. 

"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." — 1984

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In Brave New World, Huxley focuses on the most seductive uses of technology: convenience, pleasure, and amusement. The threat comes from within—technologies so gratifying that we willingly give up our capacity to lead valuable lives.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. Huxley feared there would be no reason to ban a book, for no one wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive humanity of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and narcissism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.

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Technocracy

“People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” — Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

In Brave New World, The World State uses advanced technology, genetic manipulation, and a drug called Soma to keep people docile and happy. Conformity is achieved not by force but by conditioning—humans are bred in hatcheries, sorted into rigid castes, and taught to love their servitude from infancy.

Sex is casual, emotions are shallow, and intellectual curiosity is stifled, all to maintain a stable, frictionless order. The horror lies in how willingly people surrender autonomy for comfort. By contrast, Orwell’s 1984 is a world of unrelenting brutality. The Party, led by Big Brother, maintains power through fear. Whereas Huxley’s rulers are sedate, Orwell’s oppress. 

In Oceania, history is rewritten, language is weaponized (via Newspeak), and truth is whatever the Party says it is. Protagonist Winston Smith’s rebellion—his attempt to think, love, and remember—is crushed by torture and brainwashing. The system doesn’t just control bodies; it annihilates minds.

Brave New World

Huxley’s dystopia is a soft tyranny, a velvet glove over a society that’s forgotten how to resist. Orwell’s is an iron fist, where resistance exists but is futile against overwhelming force. Huxley feared we’d be undone by what we love—pleasure and apathy—while Orwell warned of what we hate: pain and coercion. You can see this in their symbols: Soma versus the telescreen, the Feelies versus Room 101.

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Human Nature

Human nature gets a different treatment too. In Brave New World, people are malleable, reduced to biological machines shaped by environment and conditioning. Bernard and Lenina barely glimpse beyond their programming. In 1984, humanity’s capacity for defiance wavers in Winston, even if it’s ultimately snuffed out. Huxley’s characters don’t fight because they don’t want to; Orwell’s fight (and lose) because they have no choice.

Tonally, Brave New World has a satirical edge, mocking a world obsessed with shallow happiness—it’s eerie but almost absurd. 1984 is bleak, suffocating, and deadly serious, leaving you with a chill that lingers. Huxley’s future feels like a warped utopia gone wrong; Orwell’s is a nightmare that never pretends to be anything else.

Both nail aspects of our world—Huxley’s prediction of distraction and consumerism feels prescient in an age of endless scrolling, while Orwell’s surveillance and propaganda echo in authoritarian regimes and data scandals. Which hits harder depends on what you fear most: a society that numbs you into submission or one that breaks you outright.

They’re two sides of the same coin — control — but one’s a lullaby, the other a scream.

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Which world do you fear most, 1984 or Brave New World?

What signs do you see today that warn you of one of these dystopian worlds?

Jim Geschke was inducted into the prestigious Marquis “Who’s Who” registry in 2021.