The literal consumption of soma-like drugs also captures Huxley's attention. By the 1950s, readily available tranquilizers adjusted people to a maladjusted culture, smoothing out any inconvenient instincts of resistance, just as a soma-holiday eliminated the recognition of unhappiness.
Huxley takes particular pride, mixed with dismay, at the prophetic quality of his own future vision. In the 1950s, commercial jingles — what Huxley calls "singing commercials" — seem to invade and take over the conscious mind and culture, in the same way that the brave new world runs smoothly on the slogans of hypnopaedia. Hypnopaedia itself, of course, was a well-respected reality by the time of Brave New World Revisited. And the use of subliminal persuasion, a method for introducing subconscious suggestions, had already caused a scandal in American movies. Although subliminal persuasion does not appear in Brave New World, Huxley wishes aloud that he had included it, since the unconscious power of the suggestions seems perfect for the cheery authoritarianism of the dystopia.
In general, Huxley warns his readers that they may be talking themselves into accepting a world that they would reject, if only they were fully conscious of its nature. But, distracted by consumerism and pleasure, people seldom truly engage the reality they are living, just as the citizens of the brave new world seldom recognize the restraints of their society. Unconscious manipulation through language — propaganda — keeps individual minds open to any suggestions, even the most inhuman.
