How much would civilization and humanity change, if we created a society centered around stability? The futuristic novel Brave New World, published by Aldous Huxley, depicts a totalitarian government, which is a “political regime based on subordination… and strict control of all aspects of the life and productive capacity of the nation.” This government succeeds in securing stability with the use of biotechnological and socio-scientific techniques. The World State has achieved “Community, Identity, Stability” (21) and prosperity at the loss of individuality and humanity. In Huxley’s Brave New World, the reigning totalitarian government gets rid of individualism through artificial births, physiological training, and censorship of religion …show more content…
Atkinson speaks on conditioning when he states, “… children are formed to think along the lines of the state’s ‘suggestions,’ or what the state believes and finds to be important.” At the Hatchery, children go through hypnopaedia. Hypnopaedia, or sleep teaching, is the repetition of a particular phrase until it is embedded in their minds. An example of this is the phrase, “everyone belongs to everyone else” (40). We learn this phrase is repeated one hundred times, three times a week for four years (52). The children are conditioned other ways, however. Young brave new worlders are traumatized with shock therapy to condition them against liking flowers and books. When they are older, the children visit hospitals to be death-conditioned; they learn death is natural and pleasant, not something to cry over. None of these processes can beat what soma does though. Soma is a drug that is supposed to make you forget the struggles of real life and to alleviate stress and pain. Rather, it provides an inauthentic sense of happiness which makes people comfortable with the lack of freedom they have. Soma is a substitute for religious feelings and is named “Christianity without tears,” (217) by Mr. Mond. Citizens are basically mentally powerless, making it impossible to protest stability. Not only are the citizens mentally limited, but they
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley uses tone to develop characters in the novel while simultaneously showing that every character is cast out at some point in their lives. This utopian future setting is developed throughout the whole first half of the novel.The entire culture is different, children are genetically bred and conditioned in so called Hatcheries. “ “Stability,” said the controller, “Stability. No civilization without social stability. No social stability without individual stability” (page 42) Each person supports a specific role in society, and if they break that role they are exiled. Readers get the chance to meet a few characters who question why they were even decanted or in John's case, Born.
What is social stability? According to ReversoDictionary it’s, “living or preferring to live in a community rather than alone”. In Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, stability means much more than that. In the World State the government takes full control of every aspect of the people’s lives; even going as far as to brainwash the community into being content with their lives. Through genetic engineering people are mass produced and then conditioned into certain castes that they’re forced into for the rest of their short lives. Technology has been made to eliminate all suffering and a widely used, if not overused, drug called Soma has been created to diminish any pain. Individuality is stolen from the people of the World State and they have no way of understanding their dissatisfaction because the government has manipulated their entire existence. Conditioning, drugs, and promiscuity aren 't the only things in life a person will need to feel satisfied; we as human will always yearn for more, which is why going as far as the World State did for social stability is wrong.
Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe. They're smut." -Mustapha Mond (234). Instead of relying on fear to control the people and letting them choose from their own perspective, the government controls them through happiness; a fake happiness which is put into their heads as they grow up. In the novel, according to the World State, happiness is combined with stability. The basic goal of the brave new world is, supreme: the "happiness" of all, even if the consequences lead to the loss of freedom and free will. We can see how important it is for the state to improve happiness upon the people when Mustapha Mond says: "The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's soma." (220). The government's goal is to control people but it uses a very inhumane way. People aren't experiencing what life is really about because the state wants to keep people away form questioning. The essay Brave New World Society's Moral Decline found in www.123helpme.com, talks about Huxley's beliefs and predictions of the future when he was writing the novel. Some of these, he believed were
I strongly believe that individuality should be valued over conformity. Today I will tell you how precious and rare individuality is, and why we should value it over conformity.
"'God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness.'" So says Mustapha Mond, the World Controller for Western Europe in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. In doing so, he highlights a major theme in this story of a Utopian society. Although the people in this modernized world enjoy no disease, effects of old age, war, poverty, social unrest, or any other infirmities or discomforts, Huxley asks 'is the price they pay really worth the benefits?' This novel shows that when you must give up religion, high art, true science, and other foundations of modern life in place of a sort of unending happiness, it is not worth the sacrifice.
Totalitarianism diminishes the idea of individuality and destroys all chances of self-improvement, and human’s natural hunger for knowledge. In George Orwell’s famous novel, “1984”, totalitarianism is clearly seen in the exaggerated control of the state over every single citizen, everyday, everywhere. Totalitarianism can also be seen in the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, in which humans are synthetically made and conditioned for their predestinated purpose on earth. The lack of individualism will lead a community towards a dystopia in which freedom is vanished by the uncontrolled power of the state.
When one reflects on the period during which Huxley’s novel was written and the modern world of his time, the comparison to the socialist world cannot be ignored. The whole idea of a utopia is very similar to socialism. The World State society is under the complete control of the government. Pre-destination department chooses what people will learn, what they will do and how they will look. Each caste wears a different color clothes and does different type of labor. None of these decisions are made by people themselves. In our society, even with the socialism, where government decides what products to produce, in what quantities, and how people will live, people still have a choice and opportunity to be different. Stability and individuality in utopia are reached by taking away the individuality from people. In the World State government controls desires and consumption by creating and destroying the demand for certain objects through the psychological training of infants.
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley introduces the dystopia of a society created on the principle of social stability at all costs. Huxley wrote this book in 1932 hoping to warn future generations of what he feared might happen if society did not do something to stop the inevitable. The leaders of our society today hope for and work towards social stability without taking away primitive rights. Social stability can only be achieved by a society whose beliefs in social and ethical issues are never challenged. So even though modern society hopes for social stability, it is not a practical aspiration because it is obvious that some of the social and ethical
The famous philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once stated that “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” The world is full of people who are conformists as well as people who stand for themselves and follow their own values. Emerson explains that by being yourself you are already part of something great. However, the question still lingers: Which is the real cause of genuine happiness? There have been many claims argued by various sources, such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Ursula Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Sherry Turkle’s TED Talk titled “Connected, but alone?”. All have come to a consensus
Brave New World consistently questions whether technology requires a sacrifice of human individuality. The value of society is certainly preached more than individuality and while technological advances are convenient, if they require humans to forfeit individuality and our own interpretations of life then there really isn’t much to live for. This certainly sparks questions as to whether the truth is more important than the civilian’s true happiness: truth and happiness cannot co-exist in a society like this because then humans would make their own logical decisions and stability would therefore be diminished. This is shown comparatively to the reservations of New Mexico where John “the savage” comes from and the World state’s living conditions.
Brave New World begins in an uncomfortably sterile and controlled futuristic society, commonly referred to as “the World State.” We join the story as a group of young students are receiving a factory tour of the “London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” from the center’s director, whose name is… The Director. This is a very interesting start to the story because it is able to grab the reader’s attention and pull them. With that being said, I am going to be talking about each of the chapters, what it is like to live in the World State through my summaries, how it is different from our society, and if I would like to live there.
As a result, the artificial offspring are bred a certain way and even look a certain way depending on their social rank. This same effect could be experienced today if one becomes too reliant on technology. It is extremely unethical for the government to be predetermining what career a person will have and how smart that person will be. In one’s world, they can already see this predetermination of career and social standing in certain countries. These countries, such as China, Cuba, and North Korea, have Communist governments. The lives of those living in these Communist countries are strictly regulated. Career and social ranking is determined by how well one does in school. These sovereign governments also rule with an extremely strict and sometimes brutal policy. By ruling in such a harsh manner, these governments strike fear into the hearts of their people. Protesters like those in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre in China have been killed for opposing the government. For these reasons, the American Democratic government would have to be eliminated in order to reach the stage that Huxley’s society is at. Many of the morals that Americans believe in would have to be compromised in order to reach the point portrayed in the book or even the point of Communism in one’s world. If one reached that point, they would be living
The Prison Manufactured by a Dystopian Society Throughout the semester, many pieces of literature was introduced that presented the theme of dystopian societies suppressing their citizens. These pieces ranged from printed books describing fictional characters’ struggles, to a film fabricating a fictional, civil imprisonment of an ignorant man, and even real-world examples of governmental control. All the authors were able to construct this idea of most commonly a government or some sort of controlling body that had total control over the protagonist, and was able to fool the rest of the people around the protagonist. Small indications were methodically placed in the texts to indicate the following: a) the characteristics of the chosen outsider
Many people across the world have their own definition and beliefs of the word individualism. There is nothing selfish to be able to express ones personality and internal emotions. Being an individual alone could value a person’s overall true character. The claim presented would be opposed by many because people like to feel independent and self-reliant. Individualism in today’s society lets people express themselves, and helps create something small into something big. For a long time now individualism has existed since the founding of our country. History was created by those who showed independence and proved that an individual can do it all.
1) An individualist is considered to be someone with personality and character, someone who is not easily intimidated by social pressure or customs, someone with a personal opinion and a singular view of the world. Because modern society finds it important that people think independently, decide autonomously and take personal initiatives, the concept of individualism has acquired a positive connotation. However, individualism is also linked with the tendency to withdraw from social life and turn in towards oneself.