Curiosity Keeps Us Away from a ‘Brave New World’

The other day I came across a quote from Aldous Huxley, the author of the book “Brave New World”.

The book, published in 1932, is a dystopian novel about a future society where everyone has their life laid out for them from birth.

There is a rigid caste system where everyone has a predetermined role and they may not deviate. The people in charge keep everyone in line with endless amounts of a drug called Soma, along with excessive pleasures such as promiscuity.

The worst offense in the novel was “Unorthodoxy of Behavior”, meaning thinking for yourself or deviating from the systems in place. Offenders were exiled to some islands reserved for these ‘offenders’.

If you follow history, you can see many instances of what Mr Huxley is talking about. The rise of Nazism in Germany is a good example. People in Germany thought they were building a better society by ‘exiling’ Jews to concentration camps.

Communists around the world in the 20th Century were building a utopian society by killing all those people who might be a threat to their system.

There are many other extreme examples of horrific death throughout history for non-conformists.

Recent events also demonstrate how Mr Huxley quote was prophetic. Think of how people treated each other during Covid. Or how people cancel other people on social media.

If we don’t conform to a societal norm, we must be punished.

The media, politicians and others can use this human trait to destroy other people who don’t conform.

It really is a chance to kill curiosity.

Curiosity is the opposite of conformance. It’s the idea of asking ‘what if?’ Or ‘let’s try a different approach?’

Yet it is the tendency of crowds to stamp out curiosity in the name of ‘moral indignation’.

Given how little we know of the human body and how it works, you would think curiosity in healthcare would be the highest value.

Yet everywhere you look we have conformity.

Doctors losing their licenses for stepping away from the ‘standard of care’. Rigid rules for what insurance covers.

Mandated secrecy for all medical information.

Many agencies for investigating reports of people stepping out of line.

I understand the need for holding people accountable for injuring another person, particularly if they should have known better.

But there are many examples of the government or other organizations shutting down individuals who were curious, tried something new, and successfully improved the health of others.

So the next time you feel like someone should be shut down for stepping out of line, ask yourself if your anger is warranted.

Or is someone manipulating you to be part of the mob to do away with their competition? The media is really good at this.

Question whether the object of the crowd’s anger was just someone being curious and trying something new. That’s the way most of the greatest inventions came about and changed the course of history.

And stay curious yourself. The world needs more people to be curious. We have plenty that are fine just conforming.