Huxley cites, from recent history, Hitler's power of manipulation through language as a frightening example. Quoting from the dictator's autobiography, Huxley emphasizes the importance of Hitler's skillful use of propaganda in motivating citizens to support his leadership. Hitler, for instance, deliberately scheduled his public addresses at night, a time when fatigue makes people vulnerable to suggestion, excitable, and most likely to succumb to the mass hysteria Hitler produced at his rallies. Huxley's fictional Controllers of the brave new world follow the same pattern with the Solidarity Services, a ritual of programmed mass hysteria to produce social loyalty. A different form of the same suggestibility occurs in light sleep, the period when the hypnopaedic voices whisper society's wisdom into the ears of children and young adults. In both cases, the rational self has its guards down, and any message — however irrational — may make its way into the mind and influence behavior.
According to Huxley, even in the 1950s, propaganda emanates from those who want to control behavior on a large scale, just as the World Controllers of Brave New World want to maintain stability. Dictators like Hitler use propaganda to whip up support and to direct violence against anyone identified as the enemy. In the 1950s, Huxley argues, propaganda represents the principal tool of the "Power Elite," C. Wright Mills' term for the government and business leaders controlling communication and the economy. Through commercials, subliminal messages, and careful suppression of challenging truths, Huxley declares, propaganda is infiltrating the language of society, becoming perhaps the only way to speak at all. If the trend continues, Westerners may be in danger of becoming as unconsciously manipulated and enslaved as the citizens of the brave new world.
