Speaker 1: Imagine a prison where people don't want to escape, a
Speaker 1: society where control doesn't come from force, but from pleasure.
Speaker 1: Aldus Huxley showed this nearly a century ago in his
Speaker 1: book Brave New World. He saw that the future wouldn't
Speaker 1: be made of chains and whips, but of endless entertainment
Speaker 1: and pleasures. The English writer understood something that few people
Speaker 1: realized at the time. Pleasure can be a more powerful
Speaker 1: weapon than pain. When people are busy having fun, they
Speaker 1: don't question anything, they don't fight, they don't protest, they
Speaker 1: don't think much about life. This is the story of
Speaker 1: how pleasure became the perfect method of control, and how
Speaker 1: we still live today. Inside this golden trap that Huxley described,
Speaker 1: Aldous Huxley discovered something frightening about power. Rulers no longer
Speaker 1: need to use force to control people. They can use
Speaker 1: something much more effective, constant pleasure. In Brave New World,
Speaker 1: Huxley showed a society where no one suffers, but no
Speaker 1: one really lives either. The secret lies in the anesthetization
Speaker 1: of the senses. When people are always busy with entertainment,
Speaker 1: they don't stop to think. Entertainment becomes a smoke screen
Speaker 1: that hides, reality TV series, games, parties. All of this
Speaker 1: can function like a drug that keeps the mind asleep.
Speaker 1: But here's the most clever trick. Huxley realized that pain
Speaker 1: always sparked revolts. When people suffered, they came together and
Speaker 1: fought for change. But pleasure does the opposite. It separates people,
Speaker 1: each in their own little world of personal entertainment. It's
Speaker 1: as if each person had their own gold and cell,
Speaker 1: decorated with everything they like. The most impressive thing is
Speaker 1: that this control works because people choose it. No one
Speaker 1: forces anyone to watch television for hours or stay glued
Speaker 1: to their phone. People do this because it feels good,
Speaker 1: it's easy, it's comfortable. Pleasure becomes a voluntary prison where
Speaker 1: people lock themselves in. The diabolical genius of this system
Speaker 1: is that it doesn't seem bad. On the contrary, it
Speaker 1: seems wonderful. Who doesn't want to be happy all the time,
Speaker 1: Who doesn't want to avoid pain and discomfort? But Huxley
Speaker 1: showed that this artificial happiness is actually a form of
Speaker 1: living death. The person stops growing, stops questioning, stops being
Speaker 1: truly human, and so the world's biggest factory was born.
Speaker 1: Not a factory of cars or clothes, but a factory
Speaker 1: of fake happiness. Modern society became a giant machine for
Speaker 1: producing artificial emotions. Like a factory, it takes normal people
Speaker 1: and transforms them into consumers addicted to stimuli. This process
Speaker 1: happens so subtly that most people don't even realize their
Speaker 1: being manipulated. Think about the last time you saw an advertisement.
Speaker 1: The system works by creating desires that didn't exist before.
Speaker 1: Advertisements show happy people using products, making everyone want to
Speaker 1: have the same happiness, But when the person buys the product,
Speaker 1: the happiness doesn't last long. Soon another desire appears, another product,
Speaker 1: another promise of satisfaction. Of course, not everything that gives
Speaker 1: us pleasure is bad. Watching a movie occasionally or buying
Speaker 1: something we need aren't problems. The danger is when these
Speaker 1: activities become a constant escape from reality. When the person
Speaker 1: can no longer be alone with their thoughts, when they
Speaker 1: always need some external distraction. That's when pleasure has become prison.
Speaker 1: People's emotions become shallow because they never have to deal
Speaker 1: with real difficulties. It's like a muscle that isn't used.
Speaker 1: It gets weak when the person only feels superficial pleasures.
Speaker 1: They lose the ability to feel deeper things like compassion, courage,
Speaker 1: or true love. This emotional superficiality makes people predictable. They
Speaker 1: always react the same way, seeking more pleasure when they're sad,
Speaker 1: more fun when they're bored. The system can easily control
Speaker 1: these people because it knows exactly what they'll do in
Speaker 1: each situation. Now, get ready to meet Soma, the most
Speaker 1: dangerous drug that ever existed. In Huxley's book, there was
Speaker 1: a drug called soma that solved any emotional problem. Were
Speaker 1: you sad, Take Soma? Were you anxious? Take soma. It
Speaker 1: was the magic solution for everything. Today we don't have
Speaker 1: a pill called soma, but we have many other things
Speaker 1: that play the same role. You've probably taken soma today
Speaker 1: without realizing it. Social media functions as modern soma. When
Speaker 1: the person feels lonely or insecure, they grab their phone
Speaker 1: and dive into the virtual world. There they find likes, comments,
Speaker 1: funny videos. For a few hours, the existential pain disappears,
Speaker 1: but as soon as they leave social media, the pain returns,
Speaker 1: sometimes even stronger. Pornography is another type of soma. It
Speaker 1: offers instant pleasure without having to deal with the complications
Speaker 1: of a real relationship. The person doesn't need to know themselves,
Speaker 1: doesn't need to grow emotionally, doesn't need to face their fears,
Speaker 1: but this artificial pleasure leaves an even bigger emptiness afterward.
Speaker 1: Uncontrolled consumption also works like a drug. Buying new things
Speaker 1: gives a good, temporary feeling. The person feels important, fulfilled, happy,
Speaker 1: but this happiness disappears quickly, and soon they need to
Speaker 1: buy something else to feel pleasure again. Even medications can
Speaker 1: become soma when they are used to escape from life.
Speaker 1: Of course, many people really need medicine for health problems,
Speaker 1: but when medicines are used just to avoid feeling sadness, anxiety,
Speaker 1: or any emotional discomfort, they become a way of escaping
Speaker 1: personal growth. All these modern somas have something in common.
Speaker 1: They promise to solve pain without the person needing to
Speaker 1: make any real effort to change. It's like putting a
Speaker 1: band aid on an infected wound. The pain goes away
Speaker 1: for a while, but the problem remains there, often getting worse.
Speaker 1: But there's something even more sinister happening. There's a very
Speaker 1: thin line between wanting something and being a slave to
Speaker 1: that desire. Huxley showed how the constant promise of satisfaction
Speaker 1: transforms free people into voluntary slaves. They think they're choosing,
Speaker 1: but actually they're being chosen by their impulses. Ettiend de
Speaker 1: la Boissi, an ancient French thinker, wrote about voluntary servitude.
Speaker 1: He said that people often choose to be slaves because
Speaker 1: it's easier than being free. Freedom takes work, requires responsibility,
Speaker 1: is sometimes uncomfortable. Slavery, on the other hand, offers security
Speaker 1: and comfort. See if this sounds familiar. Pleasure functions as
Speaker 1: an invisible chain. The person doesn't see they're trapped because
Speaker 1: the chain is made of pleasant things. It's like an
Speaker 1: addiction to chocolate. The person knows it's bad for them,
Speaker 1: but can't stop because it tastes so good. The difference
Speaker 1: is that addiction to pleasure in general is much more
Speaker 1: subtle and socially accepted. Emotional dependence happens when the person
Speaker 1: can no longer be alone with themselves. They always need
Speaker 1: some distraction, some external stimulus. Being in silence doing nothing
Speaker 1: becomes torture. The person has lost the ability to find
Speaker 1: peace and joy within themselves. The most dangerous thing is
Speaker 1: that this slavery looks like freedom. The person can do
Speaker 1: everything they want, eat, drink, have sex, buy, have fun,
Speaker 1: but they can't not do these things. When pleasure becomes mandatory,
Speaker 1: it stops being pleasure and becomes prison. And here we
Speaker 1: arrive at a terrible paradox. Excess comfort can be as
Speaker 1: dangerous as lack of it. Huxley realize that when people
Speaker 1: have everything too easy, they stop fighting for important things.
Speaker 1: It's as if freedom were a muscle. If it's not exercised,
Speaker 1: it gets weak and can even die. Look around you.
Speaker 1: Political apathy is one of the symptoms of this anesthetized freedom.
Speaker 1: When people are busy with their personal pleasures, they're not
Speaker 1: interested in what happens in society. Politicians can do whatever
Speaker 1: they want because the people are distracted with entertainment. It's
Speaker 1: easier to complain about the government from the couch at
Speaker 1: home than to go out on the street to protest.
Speaker 1: Spiritual alienation is another serious problem. People stop asking life's
Speaker 1: big questions. Why am I here? What's the meaning of
Speaker 1: all this? How can I be a better person? These
Speaker 1: questions are uncomfortable, so it's easier to turn on the
Speaker 1: television and forget about them. Intellectual demobilization is perhaps the
Speaker 1: most dangerous. When the brain is always busy with superficial stimuli,
Speaker 1: it loses the ability to think deeply. It's like eating
Speaker 1: only fast food. It satisfies hunger but doesn't really nourish.
Speaker 1: Thinking becomes shallow, incapable of making complex connections or questioning
Speaker 1: accepted ideas. But maybe you're wondering is there a way out?
Speaker 1: And the answer might shock you. Huxley said something very profound.
Speaker 1: Truth is not always comfortable. Actually, truth is almost never comfortable.
Speaker 1: It requires the person to face things about themselves and
Speaker 1: about the world that they'd rather not see. That's why
Speaker 1: most people choose to live in illusion. Illusion is like
Speaker 1: a soft blanket that protects from the cold of reality.
Speaker 1: It's comfortable, warm, familiar. Truth is like leaving home on
Speaker 1: a cold morning, unpleasant at first, but necessary to get somewhere.
Speaker 1: The problem is that many people prefer to stay in
Speaker 1: bed forever. The dilemma between the real and the pleasurable
Speaker 1: happens every day in small and big decisions. It's more
Speaker 1: pleasurable to believe there are no problems in the world
Speaker 1: than to face difficult issues like poverty, injustice, or environmental destruction.
Speaker 1: It's more comfortable to think everything will work out by
Speaker 1: itself than to take responsibility for necessary changes in personal life.
Speaker 1: It's also easier to pretend everything's fine than to admit
Speaker 1: problems in marriage, career, or mental health. Denial is a
Speaker 1: form of pleasure because it avoids the pain of confrontation.
Speaker 1: But this avoided pain doesn't disappear. It accumulates and can
Speaker 1: explode later in a much worse way. The choice between
Speaker 1: truth and pleasure is also an ethical choice. When the
Speaker 1: person chooses comfortable illusion, they're not just hurting themselves. They're
Speaker 1: contributing to a world where lies are more valued than honesty,
Speaker 1: where appearance matters more than essence, and this leads us
Speaker 1: to a disturbing discovery about our own bodies. The human
Speaker 1: body has always been seen as something sacred. In many cultures,
Speaker 1: it was the temple of the soul, the vehicle for
Speaker 1: deep spiritual experiences. But in modern society the body became
Speaker 1: an object of hedonistic worship. Instead of being a path
Speaker 1: to something, it became the final destination. This inversion of
Speaker 1: the sacred is very dangerous. When the body is treated
Speaker 1: only as a source of immediate satisfaction, it becomes a prison.
Speaker 1: The person gets trapped in their physical desires, unable to
Speaker 1: see beyond the needs of the moment. It's like living
Speaker 1: in a beautiful house but never leaving it to explore
Speaker 1: the world outside. Jung, the famous psychologist, talked about how
Speaker 1: desires can be illusions of freedom. The person thinks they're
Speaker 1: free because they can do what they want with their body,
Speaker 1: but actually they've become a slave to their impulses. It's
Speaker 1: like a dog chasing its own tail, lots of movement,
Speaker 1: but no real progress. Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, said
Speaker 1: that desire is a source of suffering. When the person
Speaker 1: wants something, they suffer because they don't have it. When
Speaker 1: they get what they want, they suffer because soon another
Speaker 1: desire appears, and when they lose what they had, they
Speaker 1: suffer again. It's an endless cycle of dissatisfaction. But there's
Speaker 1: something even more subtle happening, the murder of silence. The
Speaker 1: constant noise of modern life isn't just external. There's an
Speaker 1: internal noise that's even more disturbing, the mental chatter that
Speaker 1: never stops. People live with their heads full of thoughts, worries, plans, phantasies.
Speaker 1: And the worst part is that much of this mental
Speaker 1: noise is fed by the constant search for stimuli. When
Speaker 1: was the last time you were in complete silence? Interior
Speaker 1: silence is the place where the deepest transformations happen. It's
Speaker 1: in silence that the person can hear their true voice,
Speaker 1: the one that knows their real needs. But to reach
Speaker 1: this silence, you need to stop feeding the mind with
Speaker 1: constant stimuli. Mystics from all traditions have always associated silence
Speaker 1: with self knowledge. They knew it's impossible to know yourself
Speaker 1: in the middle of mental confusion. It's like trying to
Speaker 1: see the bottom of a lake while someone is throwing
Speaker 1: stones in the water. Only when the water becomes still
Speaker 1: is it possible to see clearly. Philosophers also valued silence
Speaker 1: as a path to wisdom. Socrates said that an unexamined
Speaker 1: life is not worth living. But how can you reflect
Speaker 1: if your mind never stops? How can you think deeply
Speaker 1: if you're always consuming information and entertainment. Here's a simple practice.
Speaker 1: Start with just five minutes a day without any stimulus.
Speaker 1: No phone, no music, no television, no book, just you
Speaker 1: and your thoughts. At first, it will be uncomfortable, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly what makes the exercise valuable. This discomfort shows
Speaker 1: how much we depend on external distractions, and this leads
Speaker 1: us to the most concerning phenomenon of all, the transformation
Speaker 1: of adults into big children. One of Huxley's strongest criticisms
Speaker 1: was about the infantilization of society. He saw that adults
Speaker 1: were being treated like big children, incapable of making mature
Speaker 1: decisions or dealing with frustrations. This infantilization isn't accidental. It's
Speaker 1: a very effective control strategy. Look at the people around you.
Speaker 1: Children are easy to control because they seek immediate gratification
Speaker 1: and avoid any discomfort. If you give candy to a
Speaker 1: child every time they cry, they'll learn that crying is
Speaker 1: the way to get what they want. Modern society does
Speaker 1: the same thing with adults. It offers immediate satisfactions to
Speaker 1: prevent them from crying or rebelling. Friedrich Nietzsche talked about
Speaker 1: the last man, a pathetic creature who only wants security
Speaker 1: and comfort. This last man avoids any risk, any challenge,
Speaker 1: anything that might disturb their peace of mind. They prefer
Speaker 1: a small and safe life to a big and dangerous one.
Speaker 1: Infantalization manifests in the inability to tolerate frustrations. If the
Speaker 1: Wi Fi takes time to connect, the person gets irritated.
Speaker 1: If they have to wait in line, they despair. If
Speaker 1: someone disagrees with them on social media, they get deeply offended.
Speaker 1: It's as if every small discomfort were a terrible tragedy.
Speaker 1: Infantilized adults don't question authority because they're too busy seeking
Speaker 1: immediate rewards. It's like giving a lollipop to a child
Speaker 1: to stop asking difficult questions. While people are distracted with
Speaker 1: their lollipops, entertainment, consumption, various pleasures, they don't notice what's
Speaker 1: happening around them. But wait, there's a path of resistance
Speaker 1: that can change everything. In the midst of all this
Speaker 1: manipulation through pleasure, there's a powerful form of resistance, authentic
Speaker 1: spiritual seeking. Not consumer spirituality full of promises of easy happiness,
Speaker 1: but the true inner journey that requires courage and discipline.
Speaker 1: Real spirituality is revolutionary because it teaches that true satisfaction
Speaker 1: doesn't come from outside. When the person discovers this, they
Speaker 1: become very difficult to control. How do you convince someone
Speaker 1: to buy happiness? If they've already found happiness within themselves.
Speaker 1: How do you manipulate someone with external pleasures if they've
Speaker 1: learned to find pleasure in simplicity. Young talked about the
Speaker 1: process of individuation, which is the path to becoming who
Speaker 1: you really are. This process requires facing dark parts of yourself, questioning,
Speaker 1: limiting beliefs, going through crises and transformations. It's not comfortable
Speaker 1: at all, but it's the only path to reel in
Speaker 1: a freedom. Pain, emptiness, and doubt aren't enemies of spirituality
Speaker 1: their teachers. Pain teaches compassion, emptiness teaches humility. Doubt teaches
Speaker 1: us to seek deeper answers. When the person stops running
Speaker 1: from these difficult experiences and learns from them, they develop
Speaker 1: a wisdom that no artificial pleasure can offer. But not
Speaker 1: all pleasure is an enemy. There's a surprising discovery here.
Speaker 1: Not all pleasure is manipulation. There's a fundamental difference between
Speaker 1: pleasure that liberates and pleasure that enslaves. Conscious pleasure arises
Speaker 1: from presence, from genuine connection, from appreciating the simple beauty
Speaker 1: of life. It doesn't create addiction because it doesn't promise
Speaker 1: to be more than it is. The pleasure of contemplating
Speaker 1: a sunset is different from the pleasure of watching television.
Speaker 1: The first connects the person with something greater than themselves.
Speaker 1: The second disconnects them from reality. The first leaves the
Speaker 1: person more awake, the second leaves them more asleep. The
Speaker 1: first nourishes the soul, the second only distracts the mind.
Speaker 1: The pleasure of authentic human bonds is also liberating. When
Speaker 1: two people truly connect, talking deeply, sharing vulnerabilities, creating together,
Speaker 1: a type of joy emerges that doesn't depend on external stimuli.
Speaker 1: It's a pleasure born from the human capacity to love
Speaker 1: and be loved. Artistic creation is another source of conscious pleasure.
Speaker 1: When the person writes, paints, dances, sings, or create anything
Speaker 1: that comes from the heart, they experience very deep satisfaction.
Speaker 1: It's the pleasure of giving form to their feelings, of
Speaker 1: expressing their uniqueness, of contributing beauty to the world. And
Speaker 1: now we arrive at the moment of the most important
Speaker 1: choice of all. We've reached the most crucial point of
Speaker 1: this entire reflection. How do we escape this trap? How
Speaker 1: can an ordinary person free themselves from control through pleasure
Speaker 1: without becoming a monk isolated from the world. The answer
Speaker 1: isn't to reject all pleasure. That would be impossible and
Speaker 1: even harmful. The key is to develop awareness. Awareness is
Speaker 1: the ability to observe our own impulses before acting. It's
Speaker 1: creating a space between desire and action where we can
Speaker 1: consciously choose what to do. Here are some concrete practices
Speaker 1: to develop this awareness. First, practice the conscious pause before
Speaker 1: picking up your phone, watching television, or buying something. Stop
Speaker 1: for ten seconds and ask why am I doing this?
Speaker 1: Am I running away from some feeling? This simple question
Speaker 1: can break the automatism that makes us slaves to impulses. Second,
Speaker 1: establish regular pleasure fasts once a week. Choose to go
Speaker 1: without some habitual source of pleasure social media, music, series suites.
Speaker 1: This shows how much we depend on these things and
Speaker 1: strengthens our capacity for choice. It's like exercising a muscle.
Speaker 1: The more we practice, the stronger it gets. Third, cultivate
Speaker 1: pleasures that require presence, walking in nature, talking deeply with friends,
Speaker 1: reading books that challenge your thinking, learning something new. These
Speaker 1: pleasures nourish instead of draining energy, connect instead of isolating,
Speaker 1: expand instead of diminishing. Fourth, learn to relate to discomfort
Speaker 1: differently instead of immediately running from sadness, anxiety, or boredom.
Speaker 1: Try observing these feelings with curiosity. What are they trying
Speaker 1: to teach you? What unmet need do they reveal? Often
Speaker 1: our discomforts are portals to self knowledge and growth. The
Speaker 1: path of real freedom requires going through the comfort that
Speaker 1: paralyzes us. It's like leaving a heated pool to dive
Speaker 1: into the open sea. At first, it's scary and uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: but then comes the incredible feeling of being truly alive,
Speaker 1: of being in contact with forces greater than ourselves. Huxley
Speaker 1: left us a warning and an invitation. The warning beware
Speaker 1: of pleasures that promise to solve everything without demanding anything
Speaker 1: in return. The invitation have the courage to seek an
Speaker 1: authentic life, even if it's more challenging than artificial life,
Speaker 1: because in the end, one real and difficult life is
Speaker 1: worth more than a thousand fake and easy lives. The
Speaker 1: choice is ours continue sleeping in the comfort of allusion,
Speaker 1: or wake up to the challenging adventure of being truly human.
Speaker 1: You can start to day with a simple question, before
Speaker 1: seeking your next pleasure, does this free me or trap me?
Speaker 1: The honest answer to this question can be the first
Speaker 1: step toward your true freedom.