The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy their second worst enemy is total efficiency.

Huxley contrasts two extremes that can destroy humane society. “Total anarchy” threatens life and liberty through violence, instability, and the collapse of shared norms (“common decencies”). But he warns that the opposite extreme—“total efficiency”—can be nearly as dangerous: a perfectly streamlined system may treat people as units to be managed, sacrificing freedom, privacy, and moral consideration for order, productivity, or control. The line reflects a recurring Huxleyan concern, familiar from his dystopian thinking, that modern bureaucratic and technological rationalization can become a form of soft tyranny. The implied ideal is a balanced social order: enough structure to protect decency, but enough inefficiency and pluralism to preserve human dignity.