Many of you know that sitting within my family tree is author and philosopher Aldous Huxley.
One of my sons pointed me towards an interview that he did for American television in 1958. Am ashamed to say this had passed me by until now and I hadn't watched it. I therefore put this right.
Any of you that are aware of him will know his fame is founded upon writing novels, many of which deal with dystopian futures; Brave New World being the most famous. By the end of his life however he was regarded as one of the greatest thinkers and intellectuals of his time, in great part to the many essays and non-fiction works he wrote.
This was the theme of this particular interview, which was at the time that he had published a collection of essays called Enemies of Freedom. Having now watched it I felt I should share it with you.
Why? At a moment in our history where we are seemingly sleepwalking into many political disasters, where our global connectivity has brought about huge social and cultural changes and where television, streaming and on-demand media continues to proliferate to our very core (a particular area of his interview that I found fascinating), the words he spoke over 60 years ago rang so true to me.
Take a look, change the names that he refers to and think about where we are today and I think you'll agree, we haven't really moved forward one iota. I took a lot away from the interview and it's made me think about some of these topics in today and tomorrow's context. Do you agree?
Mark Huxley
January 2019