Aldous Huxley? George Sokolsky? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Social media enables people to express righteous indignation by joining together to form electronic mobs. The chance to target and maltreat individuals while maintaining a good conscience is psychologically appealing. The opportunity to hurt and pull down others is enticing to some people.
Apparently, the English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley made an observation of this type before the existence of social media. Huxley’s remark supposedly appeared in the novel “Crome Yellow”, but I have carefully examined that book, and I was unable to find any matching statement. This situation is confusing. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1934 the publisher Easton Press issued a collector’s edition of Samuel Butler’s nineteenth century novel “Erewhon”. The publisher commissioned Aldous Huxley to write an introduction.
Huxley’s commentary was memorable, and in 1938 the syndicated columnist George Sokolsky reprinted an excerpt:1
Aldous Huxley in an introduction to Samuel Butler’s “Erewhon” says:
The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people that they will have a chance of maltreating some one. Men must be bribed to build up and do good by the offer of an opportunity to hurt and pull down. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior “righteous indignation”—this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.
QI has searched the 1921 satirical novel “Crome Yellow”2 by Huxley for the phrases “righteous indignation”, “good conscience”, and “pull down”. There were no matches for these phrases in the book.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Promise People That They Will Have a Chance of Maltreating Someone”