Socratic Seminar Entry Ticket: In order to participate in the Socratic seminar, you must type a 100+ word response to each question. Responses should demonstrate consideration of the text(s), with well-thought out and clearly explained opinions. Submit your responses to Turnitin.com and bring a hard copy to the seminar. Please avoid going over 150 words… at that point, just jot your thoughts in bullet points.

Brave New World

  1. Read the article by Steve Connor. To what extent should we allow genetic engineering on humans? To prevent disease? To select gender? Hair and eye color? Not at all? Where do you stand in this debate? Be sure to connect your opinions to both the article and Brave New World.
  2. To what extent are we conditioned by our society? How are we a result of our surroundings? Find an example of a common behavior that we are conditioned to have. Do you see this example as positive, negative, or both?
  3. Mustapha Mond says, “One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.” Watch 60 Minutes’ “The Baby Lab.” How does the research support or refute the ideas on beliefs and conditioning in Brave New World?

1984

  1. How do the findings of “The Baby Lab” support or refute the ideas of O’Brien and the Party in regards to morality? Would the Yale researchers say Winston is behaving morally or immorally for going against the Party? What do you think?
  2. Read Jessica Contrera’s article about students identifying fake news. What do you see in our world that threatens the truth, and what do you see that aims to protect it? If 1984 depicts a world where the truth becomes irrelevant, what must we do to protect the truth in our world? Refer to specifics from the article in your response.
  3. Since Donald Trump’s inauguration and Kellyanne Conway’s subsequent claim that the White House was using “alternative facts” when referencing the size of the inauguration crowd, sales of 1984 have surged. Critics of Trump often accuse him of manipulating truth, inciting fears and hatred, using doublethink and propaganda, and leading with an authoritarian style. To what extent is Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency reminiscent of 1984? Consider at least three sources with varying perspectives before coming to your conclusions. Below are recommended sources to get you started:
  4. “Let’s stop insisting it’s 1984” by Jim Geraghty, The National Review
  5. “Media Scholar on Trump TV: ‘This is Orwellian’” by Sean Illing, Vox.com
  6. “Trump’s Lies: the Definitive List” by David Leonhardt and Stuart A. Thompson The New York Times
  7. “No, Trump is not like Orwell’s 1984” by Michael Weiss, The Daily Beast
  8. “How 1984 can decode Trump’s first 100 days” by Alexander J. Urbelis, CNN.com

Both

  1. If Huxley and Orwell could see American society today, what do you think they would value most? Why? You could answer one thing for both or list separate values.
  2. In the foreword to his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman claims that for various reasons, Brave New World is more relevant to modern America than 1984. Defend, challenge, or qualify his position and refer to specifics ideas from his piece and the novels to support your answer.

We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another—slightlyolder, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.

― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business