Brave New World

We will have a place in utopian society.

"For of course some sort of general idea they must have, if they were to do their work intelligently -- though as little of one, if they were to be good and happy members of society, as possible. For particulars, as everyone knows, make for virtue and happiness; generalities are intellectually necessary evils. Not philosophers, but fret-sawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone of society."

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Interesting find. I never noticed that when we studied the book in school. Was Aldous Huxley a stamp collector perhaps?

I don't know if he was a collector, but he references stamp collecting also in his first less-well-known novel, Crome Yellow, albeit not in a flattering light:

"I do not know how it is", Mr. Wimbush continued, "but the spectacle of numbers of my fellow-creatures in a state of agitation moves in me a certain weariness, rather than any gaiety or excitement. The fact is, they don't very much interest me. They aren't in my line. You follow me? I could never take much interest, for example, in a collection of postage stamps. Primitives or seventeenth-century books -- yes. They are my line. But postage stamps, no. I don't know anything about them; they're not my line. They don't interest me; they give me no emotion. It's rather the same with people, I'm afraid. I'm more at home with these pipes." He jerked his head sideways toward the hollowed logs.

What makes you think the reference in Brave New World is flattering?

Hi,
I can't/won't argue philosophy, but this posting brings a question to mind that may be of interest. The question is, why are some people attracted to "collections", and others are not? I'm almost 71, and all my life I have been a collector/enthusiast - stamps, coins, model trains, tools, firearms, books, recordings, etc. Yet I know others that have never collected (or seriously interested) in anything.

A late brother in law of mine built up a world class collection of antique cameras. When we were together, it was an instant bond and we would search for cameras and Lionel trains together. Yet, I knew little of the cameras, and he knew less of toy trains.

Go figure............. Oh, it was not my intent to hijack this thread - but I had to write this while it was on my mind.

I think that's Huxley's point, though we'd need more of the context to decide. He thinks collecting is small-minded, particular. I interpret him to be saying that attention to particulars is for the little guys, the peons. Yes, they may view generalizing is a necessary intellectual evil and he repeats that criticism but does he mean it? Or does he mean that generalizing, while an evil from the point of view of the peons, is good when the right people do it, namely when he and his technocrat Rulers do it??

I don't know but somehow I don't trust Huxley to be genuinely praising "fret-sawyers and stamp collectors." I think he's mocking them even while granting that anal-retentive, small-minded collecting mentality is a good way to keep the peons down on the farm and keep them from rising up in revolt against the Masters.

Just my little generalizations, nothing more.

Didn't mean to imply that I thought the reference in Brave New World was flattering - quite the opposite. Stamp collectors and fret-sawyers (creators of ornamental works and decoration according to one definition) are a representation of the compliant masses being controlled by the managers & tending to the details in their little tedious duties and pastimes, not through coercion but because they have been raised and trained to love the life of servitude, as Huxley notes in his 1946 introduction to Brave New World. Thinking large is for the controllers since too much of that by the little people may lead to curiosity and then questioning of the order of society.

Just thought it was interesting that Huxley references stamp collecting in a number of his works, even if, as a collector myself, I am more enamored of this particular pastime that he appeared to be.

Hieronymus - I disagree. he is saying that society has, and needs the detail people and the big picture people - as annoying as they may be. Yes, we big picture dudes are frustrated by plodders and bean counters, by people with narrow and short visions, and people who rant about incidentals while the world is crashing down around them.....but we can enjoy philately as an intellectual pursuit - and the game of seeking completion.....and we do recognize that there is a need for the plodders and detail people to carry out our visions - while we move on other things. In point of fact, far too often it is the elected "leaders" who are the detail plodders and the professional staff who are the visionaries. This is not often recognized - and if recognized by the politicians - never admitted.

What you describe may be true generally in our world up to now, but not in the Brave New World. Technocratic totalitarianism has no real use for stamp collectors and fret-sawyers except as useful idiots. But no matter, no use arguing. It won't be long now before Brave New World becomes The World We Live In. We're almost there now.

It won't be pretty.

The quote needs to be read in context. It is part of the book's early narrative, and Huxley is speaking as if he is a well-adjusted member of the society he's describing. He's in character, if you like.

The point being made, as I read it, is that the powers that be in that society, think that people are best served, and society functions best, if their attentions are taken up on some task, and their imaginations are limited to that. I don't think he singled out stamp collecting as an example for any special reason, and I don't take it as a comment on the real world (although I do think it applies to some extent).

In 1984 there were "fact crunchers" whose only job was to re-write history. Totalitarian (and any other sort of) regimes need detail people. Like in the pending USA election - there are hundreds - and maybe thousands - of researchers digging though myriad mounds of fact and fiction to expose - dirt.

The backbone of society is of the poets and dreamers, who pay attention to detail and fret o'er the slights of dues and don'ts.

To come of a society duch as allows stamp collecting, and which does not collect some sort of artifact, is to be aware of and enjoy the mysteries of life, not to hang about shoorting paper airplanes off thither and yon but to make and fly a dream.