Just listened to 'Brave New World' (CBS radio)
 

http://www.archive.org/details/CBSRadioWorkshop
Broadcasted during the days when TV was still expensive and uncommon. Good voice acting and sounds great through my tube radio [thumbup].

I wonder what terrible things they did to John the savage before he ran away near the end... losing his mother (considered an offensive word in the dystopian future) - his only family, being stuck in a world he was so unfamilar with, not able to ruturn to where he came from... http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/cry1.gif

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Huxley mentioned at the beginning of the broadcast that if he had written 'Brave New World' in the 1950s, he would have set his novel two hundred years into the future rather than six hundred. Today, we see some of Huxley's predictions coming to past.

Drugs that treat and cure depression (reminds me of 'soma'). Consumerist society today (it's better to make than to mend?). Can I also say religion as we know it being swept aside and people (Ford) being worshipped as gods instead?

How far is our world away from that dystopia? Is it worth it to sacrifice freedom for prosperity?

edit: sorry if I couldn't get my message across clearly

For some aspects, we are already there. For others, decades at most. At this point, our descent into a dystopia seems almost inevitable to me.
That's a really good question. I would say no, but I think I'd be the minority, since I also don't believe in sacrificing freedom for security.

I am actually reading this book at the moment and should finish it today.

How far is our world away from that dystopia? It's not far in some regards (consumerism/placation of the masses), but far in others (individual freedoms).

Is it worth it to sacrifice freedom for prosperity? I wouldn't say it's about sacrificing freedom for prosperity, although that's part of it. I'd say it's primarily about sacrificing freedom for security and illusory hapiness, and some countries are already well on their way down that slippery slope.

I don't think we are sacrificing freedom for prosperity... Its more like sacrificing freedom for greed...
People sometimes need to close their eyes, tilt their heads back, and stare at the sky.... Look back down at earth and realize.. Wow I don't need half this **** I'm trying to buy/attain/obtain/desire.