2`qqqqqqqqqqqq

I feel like Huxley wanted more than anything for the people reading these essays to “Get A Clue!” I don’t think what was written has to be applicable to our lives, but I do think it should make us wake up a little in the day to day. He said in reference to the books “The mind was primarily concerned, not with measures and location but with being and meaning.” I find that so pivotal in a mindset, seeing as many of us are not concerned with being or meaning whatsoever. I was walking behind a girl today and she was telling her friend that she was on the way to a yoga class. The friend said, “Oh, that’s cool. How did you get involved in that?” and the girl replied “It’s for ten extra credit points. I don’t really want to go.” I know I am no aficionado of Yoga, but I do know it has/had significance. On the Wiki yoga page it states, “Yoga is an Indian spiritual path aimed at achieving the union with the Supreme Consciousness.” Now when supreme consciousness can be traded for ten extra credit points, I think a problem is starting to form. We have had so many distractions and variables placed in our lives we could care less about the meaning and being of most anything we do.


Huxley goes on to talk about how cigarettes are bad for us and that they are linked to lung cancer. (Where was he when Big Tobacco sprung up!?!) Anyway, he points out how “practically everybody regards tobacco smoking as being hardly less normal and natural than eating. From the point of view of the rationalist utilitarian this may seem odd. For the historian, it is exactly what you would expect.” More implicit than “hindsight is 20/20”, we as a species seem to be aware of our downfalls but we write them off to happenstance. Everyone thinks, “It’s not going to be me,” and continues on in blind oblivion, never minding the descent until they hit the ground. Perception is so important to our consciousness and once we are aware of something, it shouldn’t be dismissed. Likewise, perception is such an explorative creature, and there is so much to be garnered from a new point of view.


As far as Heaven and Hell, I loved where Huxley said “for primeval Nature bears a strange resemblance to that inner world where no account is taken of our personal wishes or even of the enduring concerns of man in general.” I think this idea of “go, go, go” to survive is an illusion and actually an allusion as well. We are not animals and are not in “danger” so to speak. These value systems are placed upon us by ourselves, and through our society. They have no inherent meaning other than to keep us contained and controlled.