Something for all to consider

Huxley didn't promote many ideas that weren't already well in play centuries earlier. Ancient Rome used their games to keep the population sated so as not to stage uprisings.

This is a warning of what's possible. I don't find it as shadowy and conspiratorial as being plied with different opiates for the masses. We are a lazy species. And we fill time. If it's not spent surviving, it'll be spent another way. It may seem worse in America because, as the bastion of unchecked capitalism, we actively seek things to consume and fill empty holes. Just this morning the flyer for a city-wide Pride event highlighted the gathering with mentioning how many, many vendors there will be. Unfettered consumption.

But it's not because the government is raining down empty riches on us; it's because it's there.

I read this fifty odd years ago. It serves more as a warning than a prediction - as yet, we are a long way from having entire societies blissed-out on officially-sanctioned drug rations! That being said, however, I could pick up elements of what Huxley was talking about already in Seventies Britain - the throwaway society was already upon us, with postwar austerity unknown to young people and a fading memory for others. His prediction of sexual freedom was also coming to pass, although in a limited way when you compare it to what happened in the book. In comparison with Orwell's nineteen-eighty-four, which I read at around the same time, I thought it (Huxley's work) was more relevant. I think I was wrong on that one. What Orwell predicted - or warned about - hadn't happened in 1970-whenever. Because the technology hadn't got there. It has now.

I am an American. I watched it to the end. I had no problem with it. I also have a degree in Anthropology so this was up my street 😁 I also read A Brave New World many years ago.

Not entirely sure why you think this mainly pertains to Americans? I think it's as a systemic problem from many pockets of the world.

I'm not really worried.
People are so not willing to passively give up what they perceive as their freedoms that they throw a fit over having to wear masks lol.
Not quite the complacent society of Brave New World.

I think this video makes some interesting points but the comparisons to American society are a bit forced. Like comparing the distraction of Soma to prescription medication or the opioid crisis? Come on. Ain't no one giving up their liberties because they take anxiety meds and "crisis" is right in the description of our attitude toward opioids lol.

I didn't have to watch it all the first 5 minutes describes the US perfectly.

I'm still waiting for all of that pleasure...

I'm not offended. This is very interesting. Thanks for sharing.