One of my favorite assignments in high school (2007) was after reading 1984 and Brave New World. The teacher of our Dystopian Literature class prompted us to elaborate on who we thought was right overall, Huxley or Orwell.
It was a sobering exercise realizing that there's a fair amount of Orwellian and Huxleyan prophecies in our modern world, but we tend to focus more on the 'scarier' Orwellian ideas.
Something that beautifully summarises the Orwell/Huxley discussion for me is this quote by Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death:
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 egotism. 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, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.
Brave New World doesn't seem like a dystopia at all to me. You're always having fun and if you want to intellectualize you can also do that among your peers.
It was a sobering exercise realizing that there's a fair amount of Orwellian and Huxleyan prophecies in our modern world, but we tend to focus more on the 'scarier' Orwellian ideas.