Reading "A Brave New World"

Has anybody else picked up this book lately? I read it in high school but didn't appreciate it or pay much attention. I decided to have another look and thank Ford I did! What a great read!

"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." There was a long silence.
"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.

I got to thinking about this passage, particularly the sentence I highlighted, since it comes up quite often for Libertarians. Welfare state sympathizers often invoke the "you don't know what's it's like to go hungry!" claim when arguing for State intervention.

I do know. I was broke and hungry once. I remember having to borrow $50 from a friend just to put food in my mouth and gas in my car. I wouldn't have made it through the weekend without him.

I remember getting a job and having only $3 to my name at the time. I had to borrow from another friend just to hold me over until I had a couple of paychecks under my belt.

Life can be difficult. But I was a Libertarian during those times, and I'm still a Libertarian today. When these people tell me that I don't know what it is like to be poor it is quite offensive. I was poor. Broke off my ass. That's what friends and family are for (or the Church, or charity, etc...), not the government.

There is another great scene in this book. The Savage, fed up with the distribution of narcotic drugs as an all-encompassing panacea, starts throwing the drugs out the window:

"Don't you want to be free and men? Don't you even understand what manhood and freedom are?"

...For a moment the khaki mob was silent, petrified, at the spectacle of wanton sacriledge, with amazement and horror.
"He's mad," whispered Bernard, staring with wide open eyes. "They'll kill him. They'll..."

The mobs response is maniacal rage, not at their enslavers, but at the man that tries to set them free.

It's an important lesson to remember. Those whom you attempt to wake up will be mad at you. Insanely mad. They like their "soma," no matter what form it comes in. If you try to throw it out the window be prepared for a backlash.

There are so many other great lessons in this book. What do you remember of it? What effect did it have on you? What parts do you think apply to our struggle to help Ron Paul and other honest men and women?

David in Qatar