Slouching To Despotism

by Robert Bruce (May 2013)

Part 2

The hard edges to this choice were dramatized by the philosopher Robert Nozick when he invited his readers to choose between an unending stream of pleasurable sensations guaranteed by the Pleasure Machine and the hard grind of an authentic existence. For Nozick the question had only to be posed to be answered – most of us would choose our better selves, and avoid the sedated euphoria of an empty life, but it would not have been a dilemma if it did not hold some human attraction. Making the right choice has always required what Orwell termed ‘moral effort’, and the dilemma explored in Nozick’s thought experiment has been a staple of reflective thoughts since the Sophists at the very least. An escape into sensory oblivion is a perennial temptation for the world weary, and advances in nanotechnology and neuroscience are coming ever closer to conjuring up the dream filled half-lifes depicted in the cult sci-fi film the Matrix where individuals can opt to roam cyber space for eternity.

The catch with this Faustian bargain has always been clear – even the basest elemental appetite does not arise ex-nihilo – slaves for example eventually lose the desire to be free, all of which highlights Lenin’s cardinal Who-Whom question. Just who creates the ersatz synthetic pleasures bestowed on whom, and what is the effect?

A class conspiracy? Perhaps. In the 21^st century prolefeed is big bucks but it is not made by proles and Orwell would no doubt have pondered the irony of Big Brother – the hideous brainchild of Bazalgette an exemplar of the kind of mental slumming so de rigeour amongst the New Elites. A descendant of the architect of London’s sewage system he has used his Eton education to undo his ancestors great service to society and pump shit back into people’s houses (for the uninitiated Big brother is a reality TV show marketed in the main at people who will have little grasp of the Orwellian sleight of hand, where suitably half witted contestants and sadistic viewers. The vote off is the chard – but needless to say there are no Aristides in the house).

[1] One of the most interesting observations from Charles Murray’s Coming Apart is the revelation of how little TV the upper classes actually watch especially when compared with their social inferiors. Huxley’s goggle box is the opium of the poor.

 

 

The author is a low ranking and over-credentialled functionary of the British welfare state.

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