The Third Revolution

The study of humanity can be viewed from a great many standpoints, one of them being in terms of the human evolution of society. Many people have divided societal evolution into two “Revolutions”, or major changes in the underlying themes of human society. The author of "The Two Futures: A.F. 632 and 1984” addresses the third and final revolution of society, the abolishment of the desire to develop, a freeze in human evolution. For reasons of stability, it is predicted that this final revolution will occur, and is analyzed quite effectively through the use of Brave New World and 1984.

According to Will Focht of Oklahoma State University, human history has already been marked by two revolutions. The first of these came at the dawn of civilization, when humanity was attempting to rationalize its own existence. This first revolution established the existence of religious devotion as an explanation for humanity itself. The second revolution was the age of enlightenment, during which the sciences came to become the dominant driving force in society. However, even then the sciences were unable to stop the human quest to determine the nature of their own existence, something that no amount of empirical evidence seems to be able to quell. Many individual have predicated that a final revolution must come, one that abolishes the need to follow this quest, in order for true order to reign over the world. In this third revolution, the sense of individuality will be destroyed and will cause people to seek knowledge of their existence, thus causing much more stability and safety as individual desires become deadened, a major theme of Brave New World and 1984, as is noted in "The Two Futures: A.F. 632 and 1984”:

Huxley’s and Orwell’s future states are alike in abominating nothing more than the individual, and the plots of both noels are fundamentally accounts of how individuals or potential individuals are destroyed, exiled, or made to conform. (126)

This excerpt notes how both theses novels contain the fundamental goal of the third revolution, and are thus prime examples of its outcome.

The books Brave New World and 1984 both address the potential outcomes of this third revolution, each predicting a totally different futuristic world. In Brave New World, marriage, love, and devotion, the most basic of human ideologies, have all been done away with. In Huxley’s World State, all the citizens of the world are conditioned to love their positions in life, thus ensuring that they will be content with whatever job they are given and will not desire anything greater. Likewise, these individuals are given total sexual freedom, which thus allows people to indulge solely in the moment. They have no concerns with regards to the nature of their existence or of the existence of a higher being, and thus become slaves solely to the state, without any other possible ambitions. To cite "The Two Futures: A.F. 632 and 1984”, it was state that “…Huxley makes the point that terror is a less efficient administrative tool than pleasure; the stick less a guarantee of stability than the carrot” (120). What this essentially states is that the use of pleasure is powerful enough to deprive human beings of all their other innate desires.

The future created by Orwell is quite different from that of Huxley, but the end result of his false utopia is exactly the same. In 1984, the citizens of Oceana are subjected to brutal repression in which one is conditioned to fear everything and never speak a word of blasphemy against the party. The party represses all independent thought and sexual desire, and alters the pas constantly to meet its own needs. In the end, this society once again forces a person to give up their personal ambitions, thus causing utter stability as the individual itself is slain. It is stated in "The Two Futures: A.F. 632 and 1984” that “O’Brien’s aim, in other words, is to produce ‘neurologically’ and by means of intense conditioning a ‘new man,’ a man almost as new as the genetically engineered and scientifically conditioned new man of Huxley’s novel” (125). This excerpt shows how the aim of Oceana is simply to recreate humanity via a third revolution and kill every sense of individuality.

The third and final revolution of society is said by some to be only a matter of time. As society continues to advance, it moves only towards the destruction of its inhabitants. Whether this should be done through pleasure, pain, or some other detestable method is the only thing left to be seen.

Source:

http://environ.okstate.edu/staff/wfocht/Porch_11.pdf