Aspects of American History

Man in 1984 ORWELL Delivered November 6, 1965

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: History

Lesson: 6-6

Genre: Lecture

Track: 10

Dictation Name: RR253A2

Location/Venue: __

Man in 1984. In 1948 George Orwell wrote his book, 1984. Orwell was a man who believed in the potentialities of Science, and was to the very last a socialist. But as he saw the world that science and socialism was creating all around him, Orwell felt that a monstrous world was in process of formation, and that that world was present in embryo in 1948. And so he took the numbers of his year, 48, and reversed them, and simply pointed out what the implications of his time were and called the book 1984.

1984 became very quickly a symbol of a monstrous world. It was a world that Orwell himself dreaded, and because he had no other faith, he soon died, himself the first victim of his vision. And yet 1984 is used today as a symbol of a glorious future, a time when there shall be no death, no disease, when we shall have a wonderful scientific world. Recently and English scientific periodical, the New Scientist published a series of articles, then published in two volumes, as the world in 1984. And the world in 1984 as virtually all these scientist among the worlds most distinguished present it, will be a world in which ultimate bliss will overwhelm us.

This is a startling fact. Why should 1984 which to Orwell and to most people is a symbol of ultimate horror be taken and made by these scientists a symbol of ultimate bliss? Orwell, a socialist to his death was, it was felt, not a scientific socialist but a utopian. And because he had a Christian hangover, he feared what he believed in, even though he saw no hope of escape, even though in the world of 1984 he depicted nothing but a-moral power, and the futile protest of a-moral freedom.

The scientists as they view 1984 do not see it with the pessimism of Orwell, because their evolutionary faith leads them to discard any moralistic perspective; and so because they deny the moralistic perspective of Orwell, they cannot share in his moral horror. Thus Lundberg, George A. Lundberg in his book: Can Science Save Us, and he is very sure it can, assures us that when this world of the future comes, ethical norms will change in the future as he says they have in the past. And men will rely not on ancient and arbitrary authority for counsel, but upon the sciences. And so in terms of his perspective, anything that implies our Christian moral framework is obsolete. And the perspective of the sciences will prevail so that we can be confident that science being in control we will have a world in which we can be happy.

The evolutionary framework of these scientists which leads them to find 1984, the period of total control, a glorious future, is based on 5 premises, evolutionary premises. First, because God is not a necessary hypothesis to evolutionary thinking, there is no need for the God hypotheses and all that it involves, and the God hypotheses is simply a sing of our inability now to control our life and the world. And the god hypothesis we are told will disappear when control is established. Thus Bertram S. Kraus in his recent study The Basis of Human Evolution states that when man has established direct control over all aspects of life, then this psychological necessity for some concept of divine supremacy will disappear, because man will have established in every area his own power, authority, and control. Thus the God concept is not needed, it will recede progressively as evolutionary science extends its scope of knowledge in every sphere.

2nd, basic to the premise of these men who visualize the world of 1984 is this: No God means no law. No absolute concept of right and wrong, and no law means that nothing is a crime, and hence all acts are equally valid in any moral sense, although perhaps not equally workable or practical.

Honesty is the best policy if it works, and dishonesty can at times also be the best policy; but there is no absolute law requiring that you follow the one or the other.

Third, by dropping God and good and evil as ultimate moral concepts, good and truth are now pragmatic concepts; man is not under law but over law. Man cannot be judged as good or evil, but all things are good or evil, that is useful or non-useful, because good and evil are now pragmatic terms, all things are either useful or non-useful as they relate to him and his needs. Man is thus beyond good and evil.

Therefore the scientific world planners cannot do evil, because evil is not a moral reality. There can only be successful or non-successful experiments in human engineering.

4th, because of this experimental approach to all things, man becomes in any evolutionary perspective, especially as we come to social sciences, the prime laboratory test animal. And the experimentation is already in process; our modern education is, education today is experimentation with the child. The biological revolution was described recently in 4 issues of Life magazine. And the writers spoke of offering heredity and transplanting organs. The control of the mind through electronics and chemistry is seriously discussed, and experiments are underway in this area. Man’s health is to be treated socially. A first step has been taken of course in chlorination, and a second has now been proposed in a scientific medial journal and reported in the press; contraceptivating the water. So that those who then would want to conceive would apply and receive permission through a neutralizing agent.

Again as a result of this concept of man as the prime guinea pig, the prime test animal, plans are afoot to make man immortal by deep freezing people before the point of death and then drawing them out of deep freeze when they have solved the particular ailment that is their problem, and ultimately they will become immortal as all these ailments are overcome. Indeed one reporter in speaking of this matter, Frederick Pole, spoke of the possibility that by 1984 death would be overcome. A physicist, Robert C.W. Ettinger, The Prospect of Immortality¸ has written about this freezer pan for immortality, and he is so deeply concerned about the future of this program which he feels is so important to mankind, that he has resigned his professorship and is now promoting this plan of establishing freezers across the country to promote immortality.

One of the most interesting chapters in his book is titled The Freezer Centered Society. Man is now the prime Guinea Pig.

Fifth, every experiment to be valid requires total control of all factors. A scientific society therefore must be totalitarian to the full measure or it is not scientific. Man will gain total control of all things through science we are told, and the result will be a glorious future for man. And according to one anthropologist, (Titieve?) all phenomena that are presently unknown to humans will someday be brought into the sphere of the known, and that when this happens more and more things will be made subject to the law of controlled causation. And he goes on to declare that the law of controlled causation will progressively abolish the concept of the supernatural and of God, and the more man brings everything under his control by his understanding and application of the law of controlled causation, the less and less possibility there will be for man to consider the God hypothesis.

Now, in terms of this perspective which is basic to the thinking of these men and which they believe not to be something evil, but something good, necessary for anyone who is scientifically minded; in terms of this perspective, science is not as much knowledge as it is the control of things. And the government and providence of God are replaced by the government and providence of man.

And God’s predestination is replaced by the predestination of the scientific planners. Predestination is a very live term, in much of scientific thinking today. They do not doubt predestination; they simply supplant the predestination of God with the predestination of man, of the scientific planners. And whereas the sovereignty of God is the ground of our liberty, the control of the scientific planners is slavery.

The world of 1984 is this kind of world; a world predestined by the scientific planners and totally controlled by them. This they have termed: Scientific Humanism. A.R. Todd, Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge has said: “What are human goals? Basically man seeks freedom from hunger and want, adequate warmth and protection, and freedom from disease.” This we are told is all that man wants, and science can easily provide these things, they assure us, by 1984, and I.I. Rabbi, professor at M.I.T assures us that somehow the scientific education diminishes the ambition for power and worldly influence; in other words, when you are a scientist you don’t have your quota of original sin, you are immune to this by your scientific education. “Indeed,” he goes on to tell us, “That scientists have a certain sense of rightness and equity, sometimes naïve, but rarely on the wrong track.” Thus they approach indeed, infallibility.

Joshua Letterburg of Stanford says that after eons of random chemistry, man can now guide his own evolution by means of the scientist. And he predicts the five areas of control which will be realized by 1984 in terms of his interest, which is of course in medicine. “First,” he says, “We will have the successful transplantation of vital organs, heart, liver, limbs and the like. Second, artificial prosthetic organs. Third, there will be a great increase, a very marked and sudden increase in the expectation or prolongivity of life. Fourth, there will be the modification of the developing human brain through treatment of the fetus or infant, so that before a child is born he can upon specification, be made into a particular type of genius. Fifth, there will be reproduction in the laboratory.” This is Letterburgs forecast for 1984, but these predictions are commonplace.

For example, just recently within the past month the biologist Doctor James Bonner of the California Institute of Technology, at a meeting to the pacific division of the association for the advancement of science, made some very interesting statements. And he declared and I quote: “New discoveries on controlling living cells are leading to staggering possibilities, you soon can grow a new heart, or four hands, or a bigger brain. A synthetic man is a distinct possibility.” Bonner was summing up his latest research with living cells. Research that made him further predict in an interview: “One, organs, heart, lungs, arms, legs, not transplants but new tissue grown by each individual as the need arises after disease or accident. Two, bigger brains with better learning capacity.” Vital, he believes, if men are not to be made obsolete by computers. Bonner says the growth of new organs will be possible in less than a generation. “My son will be able to have four hands and he might need them to keep up with the pace of our changing world.” Bonner says. He adds wistfully “But it probably won’t come in my time.” Bonner is 54, his son James is 15. Growth of bigger brains he believes is somewhat further away. “We don’t know as much about the brain as we do the body, but it is coming. We are not far from the time when we can take a cell, any cell, and tell it to become an embryo, or heart tissue, or bone, or something else. We are learning how to turn on the genes in the nucleus which tell a cell to become one thing, and to turn off the genes which tell it to become something else.”

This is the kind of bold prediction these scientists are making. Moreover we are told that in the world of 1984, nature itself will be totally controlled, and according to Doctor Rivelle, of the SCRIPS institute, the director in fact, by 1984 we will have controlled the climate of California, and will be able to order climate to suit our tastes. There will indeed be artificial islands be built off the coast of California, we will add onto the coastline to triple the shoreline, and we will of course do a great many other things which will be equally marvelous.

C.H. Waddington, Buchanan professor of genetics at the University of Edinburgh, and president of the international union of biological sciences, tells us that we won’t attain completely factory made food in 1984, but we will somewhat later. And we shall, he says, produce our food in factories without animals or plants, exploiting the most far reaching biological discovery of the last few years, the synthesis of proteins in cell free systems. Eventually we should be able to manufacture satisfactory food stuffs in great chemical plants.

We are also told by other writers that by 1984 the snow will be melted before it hits the ground, there will be air-conditioning sheds over our cities, that in areas where the landscape as in the Midwest in monotonous, mountains will be built on order to provide some beauty in the landscape, and so on. And we are very definitely assured that by 1984, scientist will be the peace makers and will re-educate man, and will establish a world authority, a world government.

We are also told that by 1984 Scientists will have taken care of crime, and the two great sources of crime we are told, are first our competitive society, and second and most important, Christianity. So that if we deal with these things we shall see a great deal of morality in the world of 1984 with competitive activity and Christianity rendered obsolete. What kind of high-order of morality shall we see? Just a hint of what is prophesied for us by 1984: By 1984 and I quote: “The practice of adult homosexuality will surely have ceased to be criminal, and only the deeply religious will be shocked by premarital un-chastity. Concern for a child’s welfare will have finally swamped considerations of its parents marital state, and so on.”

In other words, this high moral order will simply be the new morality or old sin.

Moreover, we are assured that the old fashioned economy of scarcity will be replaced by an economy of abundance. We are told by some thinkers in this area, scientists that the colonization of the universe will be undertaken after a few generations. Some shock and sadness has been expressed by many scientists that Venus and Mars apparently cannot sustain life. Others tell us that bionics will increasingly be dominant, that is machines will teak over, will repair themselves, will build new machines, and will take care of all work. We are also assured by scientists at UCLA that there will be a transplanting of memory from one brain to another by injections. This was a statement made at UCLA at Friday august the 6th, 1965.

Again, on September 14 1965, the president of the American Chemical Society, Doctor Charles C. Price proposed making the artificial creation of life a national goal, one which he said: “Could be achieved in 20 years.” In time, in other words, for 1984. But this is not all. Perhaps the most audacious statement comes from a very distinguished British Astronomer, Kenneth Coor. Who speculates on what will happen a few million or billion years hence when the universe begins to run down, the sun and other stars begin to die. He declares and I quote: “If modern theories of creation are correct, the main body of stars was formed at the same time, and when the sun is dying the entire universe will be filled with dead or dying stars. It is believed however that the process of star formation is still in process, progress, so that there may be some live stars with planets to colonize when this cosmic catastrophe takes place. Still, another possibility would be to construct our own sun, a source of heat and light which might be suspended in the sky and hold the hovering demons of cold and darkness at bay. This artificial sun would operate by sub atomic energy. In the remaining years of grace,” (And I think that that is a choice phrase for him to include) “Man might learn how to run the carbon cycle. Hydrogen, the fuel is abundant, and other like atoms such as Lithium are also plentiful sources of energy, with several billions of years of time at his disposal for research, man should be able to develop cheap, abundant, and manageable sub-atomic power.”

This is the boundless scientific optimism that prevails on all sides. They can do anything, of this they are confident. But a few scientific voices are raised in protest, and interestingly enough, in the world in 1984, one Belgian scientist, (Zennenbach?), professor of Physiopathology and Radiobiology, raised the question: “What is going to happen when the natural equilibrium between man and viruses is disturbed?” and he felt that some very dangerous things were being done now with chemistry, and he warned that the temporary sterilization of men is planned. And he said and I quote; “Sterilizing substances are already present in chickens and beef offered for human consumption. Misfortunes of two kinds may be predicted; semantic troubles effecting only the individual, and genetic troubles effecting the species.”

Moreover, he went on to say that with insecticides, spongecides, fungicides, pesticides, and aritifical fertilizers and various other devices, we are rapidly contaminating the earth, the air, the waters, and the seas. And so, he saw a very very bleak future, and felt that by 1984, and I quote: “The great luxuries will be pure water from a spring, plants and animals carefully raised by the consumer himself, in absence of chemical contamination. Fish caught in the high seas away from the coast, thanks to increasing leisure, men, at least the most active of them, will feel the necessity to become agricultural workers again.”

In conformation of (Bach’s?) fears, recent studies in, and reported on in the Science digest indicate that the contamination of the air of the entire world and of the rainfall is in progress, according to the October issue of Science Digest, I quote: “British scientist have found traces of various insecticides, including DDT and (Deoderan?) in rain water, implying that the atmosphere is now contaminated by airborne insecticides may account for the recent discovery of traces of DDT in the fat and liver of Antarctic seals and penguins. One British scientific committee described this situation as somewhat terrifying.” But it is interesting that the editor of the World in 1984 in giving biographical data on Doctor (Bach?) began by saying that: “Doctor (Bach?) is 60, the poor man is apparently too old to have any vision of the glories of 1984.” It is not that other scientists are unaware of these dangers; you can indeed find some very hair-raising statements in various scientists concerning the possibilities; one for example has written about the millions of gallons of radioactive liquid underground, and the duct concrete containers fission products at seas, and the haunting nightmare, and I’ve been quoting of the possibility that a nuclear powered ship might be wrecked and spill its accumulated fission products into the ocean.

And yet, in the face of all of this, they do not call a halt to the increasing contamination of air, earth and water. The general confidence is that when a crisis arise, science will come up with an answer. They are confident that they can handle any situation, and meanwhile they have more important things such as the mars shot, whose purpose is as Episcopalians for Christ in a recent newsletter pointed out, basing its data on official government documents, that the purpose of the mars shot is to demonstrate the evolutionary process by an exploration of mars.

We noted earlier that Lundeberg believe that science can save us; science, as he felt can save us because science increasingly as it gains control and is able to do planning and as it gains increasing power with respect to prediction and control, will be able to deal with any situation that arises.

Now, the attributes of God in any sound theology are basically sovereignty, prediction, and control. You cannot have God without sovereignty, prediction, and control. And it is precisely these things that are to be given to the scientific elite and are claimed by the scientific elite in the world of 1984. The scientific planners are to be the world authority, to have sovereignty. And they claim that through prediction and control they will govern society and overcome all problems that arise. So the very basic attributes of any theology of God are claimed openly and specifically, not only by Lundeberg but many others for the scientific planners.

Another fact about any sound theology. The necessary premise of any true theology is simply this: “With God all things are possible.” As Jesus Christ declared.

Now it follows that if man is the new god of being, then with man all things are possible, that is with the scientific planning man. And this is precisely the mood of the scientific planners. With them, all things are possible. And there is the arrogance of unlimited possibilities and powers. There is no humility on their part as they described the world in 1984 because it is not necessary for a God to be humble.

But we should note that this control and predication, this sovereignty, will not belong to all men, but in the world of 1984 will only belong to the scientific elite, who will re-educate man. And they will re-educate man on this evolutionary faith which will make man ready to believe in science and scientific control, ready to be educated and to be re-made in terms of this faith.

It is interesting to note what one editor, himself a scientist has said of education. And I quote: “Education is currently very widely held to be the great panacea for all ills. Whether the problem be social, economic, international, or physical. Education we are told is all that’s needed. The trouble with the backward nations is that they unfortunately didn’t have the educational opportunities the western nations did. The juvenile delinquent and the underprivileged people alike are what they are for lack of education. But, education is simply slavery. The essence of slavery is the loss of freedom of choice, being compelled to learn a new way of life. The essence of education, the process, is teaching the pupil a new way of life, a new set of values and goals, a set of ideas which he did not choose to have before. ‘We’ve got to teach them a lesson’ has usually meant the intention of applying force, and pain, to change the valued judgment of an opposing group. Education, in other words.

Now in the language to be taught is a passive while to teach is active. Briefly education may be a panacea, but the process of applying it does in actuality enslaving the pupil. That is why war has down through the ages led to so much intellectual and social progress; its highly educational. The panacea man has sought for curing the problems of inter-human conflicts down through the ages have all been forms of education. ‘Teaching him a lesson’ or simply, direct enslavement. Surely, education is slavery. But that just represents the fact that nothing, not even slavery, is inherently evil or destructive.” End of quote.

We can agree that education apart from God is enslavement. Because then education refuses to keep to its appointed place, and instead of obeying God seeks to re-make man in sciences image. Christian education simply obeys its biblical mandate, to train up a child in the image of God, Jesus Christ, our new man; and in terms of our responsibilities in Him and to Him, who is the true light, which lighted every man which cometh into the world. The new world of 1984 portrayed by these scientists is the old world of Satan and the fall, of the temptation to be as gods, knowing good and evil. It is the old world of the tower of Babel, and of Babylon the great of Revelation. It is no brave new world, but the age old doomed world, of covenant breaking man. And this world of 1984 which they dream so foolishly and vainly, is a new tower of Babel being constructed, but doomed like the old one to confusion and scattering and destructing, for he that sitteth in the circle of the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.

The world of 1984 shall be God’s world, not the world of these dreamers, and man in 1984 shall only be what the predestinating power and control of God intend him to be; for known unto God are all his works, from the beginning of the world.

[Applause]