Science and Humanity

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 38, 1 April 1932, Unnumbered Page

Science and Humanity

Broadcast Talk by Aldous Huxley hk. ALDOUS HUXLEY, in the second of a series of B.B.C. broadcast talks on "Science and Civilisation," stated that we were passing through

a time of crisis, the reason, in the last resort, being that science had been applied to human affairs neither adequately nor efficiently. Nature used to be the enemy of man; now that enemy had ‘been largely conquered and our present troubles were entirely artificial, due partly to wrong policy and partly to mal-application of science.

We were told we must return to naiure and abandon science and live like primitives. "The trouble is that such advice cannot be followed except by sacrificing eight or nine hundred lives." Science had enabled the world's population to double itself in three generations. Tolstoi and Gandhi were reputed to be humanitarians, but they, in effect, advocated a slaughter beside

which that of Genghis Bhan would be negligible, "The only cure-is more science, and not less.’ Human activities must be regulated scientifically. Science was a means to an end-but to what end? By what hands was this potent. instrument to be wielded? The Humanist View. {CONOMISTS demanded for their world the maximum of stability and uniformity. he most profitable wethod of production was mass production. It was perhaps a hopeful feature that the interests of the economists were opposed to the philosophy. of the Nationalists, whose policy had been so disastrous. International good-will paid handsomely, and, therefore, economic pressure might force the peoples out of their mutual hostilities. Mass producers needed world markets, which implied peace and Free Trade. * Stability and uniformity which the economists demanded were means to‘an¢ end. They wanted to keep the world safe for political economy and to create a race of mass producers. and mass consumers. They might suppress science itself because scientific research would be subversive and might make at any time equipment and technique obsolete. We had ourselyes seen the power of miss-suggestion by wireless and poster, though propaganda was still not fully used. Psychological science showed how propaganda could be ‘used effectively. Freud and his school had demonstrated how the entire philosophy of life might be shaped hy the experience of the early years--how conditioned reflexes became unbreakable habits and how unconditioned reflexes ure very few. Some day our rulers might have a scheme for the control of: new-born babies in «reches, and so create in their subjects any pattern of behaviour which they liked. They wonld thus have the State in their own hands, although by retaining the forms of democracy they would leave to the people the illusion that they were exercising a free choice. For the economist ruler, scientiliec propaganda would be a heaven-sent means of creating a race of ideal producers and consumers. NScientifie propaganda, in fact, might enable future rulers to do what mediaeval Popes :t-tempted-but failed in doing-to creute a great world-wide community, united by « common faith and a comnon mentality, a Holy Roman Empire without Christianity. Rival Ideals. (UGENICS was not yet practigal politics, but propaganda could eap-. ily make it so. The humanist woutd see in euzenics a sure’ wiry to the cultivation of the higher qualifies, but would the economist. be anxious to improve the race? On the contrary, he might wish to deteriorate it becuse he wanted a perfect mass’ consumer and producer, and industrialists might find that the majority of jobs could he better performed by stupid people than by intelligent. Economists might wish to lower the average mental stitndard, and = that would mean breeding a small caste of experts. In fact, society would have to be organised on. a caste basis of Brahmins and Untouchables. But the unintended effects of any action were often more considerable than the intended, and for « long time science would be unable to eliminate those une intended effects, :