{"id":81,"date":"2003-09-14T19:33:15","date_gmt":"2003-09-14T19:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=81"},"modified":"2017-09-06T22:45:59","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T16:45:59","slug":"aldous-huxley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2003\/09\/aldous-huxley\/","title":{"rendered":"Aldous Huxley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

<\/p>

The life of Aldous Huxley is a parable of the modern age. Descended from Darwin\u2019s bulldog Thomas Henry Huxley and Matthew Arnold, Huxley was part of an elite intellectual class of distinctly Victorian orientation. He was greatly offended by the \u201cmass culture\u201d that he saw developing around him, and wrote of it with prescience: advertising is <\/p>\n

the organized effort to extend and intensify craving \u2014 to extend and intensify, that is to say, the workings of that force, which (as all the saints and teachers of all the higher religions have always taught) is the principal cause of suffering and wrong doing and the greatest obstacle between the human soul and the divine ground. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet, later in life, he turned East, dabbling in Zen Buddhism<\/a>, and dropping acid with Timothy Leary. His 1954 book Doors of Perception <\/em> argued that hallucinogens can \u201copen the door\u201d to the mystical side of life. These doors are necessary, and require the creation of new drugs that will release people from \u201cintolerable selfhood and repulsive surroundings.\u201d Jim Morrison named his band after Huxley\u2019s book, and he was featured on the album cover to the Beatles\u2019 Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band <\/em> . <\/p>\n

In short, Huxley\u2019s life is the story of the twentieth century, a story that moves from fairly sensible Victorian restraint to mysticism, promiscuous sex (Huxley and his wife Maria had a sexually \u201copen\u201d marriage), drugs and rock-n-roll. What happened? Surely there are many other factors, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Huxley is a case study in the hollowness of Victorian efforts to restore civilization on the ground of high culture (Arnold\u2019s \u201cthe best that is known and thought\u201d). Such a religion of culture is essentially idolatrous, and produces the same frustration of any idolatry. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The life of Aldous Huxley is a parable of the modern age. Descended from Darwin\u2019s bulldog Thomas Henry Huxley and Matthew Arnold, Huxley was part of an elite intellectual class of distinctly Victorian orientation. He was greatly offended by the \u201cmass culture\u201d that he saw developing around him, and wrote of it with prescience: advertising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"yoast_head":"\nAldous Huxley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The life of Aldous Huxley is a parable of the modern age. 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