Sunday, October 14, 2012

Are We Becoming a Brave New World?




A classic dystopia is featured in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Set far in the future in A.F. 632, approximately seven centuries after the twentieth century. A.F. stands for After Ford, named for the great industrialist Henry Ford that the society idolized as if he was God, who invented mass production techniques for automobiles such as the assembly line. World Controllers ensure the stability of society through the creation of a caste system. Alphas and Betas are at the top, known to be the smartest and most attractive. They are usually scientists, politicians, and other top minds, while Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons are towards the bottom and represent the world's industrial working class. A drug called soma ensures that no one ever feels pain or remains unhappy, and members of every caste receive rations of the drug. Every human in this society is bread at birth, their life is pre determined based on the caste they are chosen to be a part of.  The main character is Bernard Marx, conveniently named after Karl Marx, a German philosopher and economist who played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist movement. He is a short, dark haired Alpha who is believed to have accidentally received a dose of alcohol as a fetus on the assembly line. His coworkers dislike him and he is not accepted because he does not look like a normal Alpha.  He resents this and therefore hates the “perfect” society in which he lives. Brave New World is a perfect example of a dystopia because all aspects are controlled greatly by a higher power. The lives of the citizens of this society are pre-determined and they must follow the strict rules of their cast.  This story is popular because even though it was written in 1931. It well predicts the future of the human race and there are many comparisons that can be made already of this story and the society we live in today.  Huxley has accurately predicted the future and he is warning us of what our society may become.

5 comments:

  1. Brave New World was definitely a horrifying, yet interesting read. It reminded me of the story The Giver which was also about a futuristic community where moral and emotional thought were eliminated. Perhaps you're right in stating that maybe this is an accurate prediction of what our world could become. The elimination of negative emotions and being unable to choose your spouse are all part of the different things that complicate our lives and society as a whole. Emotions are what drive us to do crazy things, so maybe taking that element away from everyone helps create a more uniform, controlled society.

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  2. I agree the thought process is taken away from people. As in The Giver, when one person realizes there is more to life than what is being presented by the ruling body, it's human nature to want to explore these emotions and environments for one's self. I hope our society never allows this type of control over people to exist because I do not see how people can be happy in a society with that much control.

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  3. Brave New World is definitely an interesting novel, it almost seems like it can be connected to the movie, I, Robot, with one "robot" or "worker" having different qualities than the ones around him - pointing out the errors of the societies they live in. Do you agree?

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  4. Actually, I find it interesting that while in Brave New World, the characters must take soma, in the US and other developed countries where psychiatric drugs are heavily prescribed, it's the patient's choice to take the blends of antidepressants, sedatives and stimulants that they feel help them get through their days. Of course psychiatric drugs do help people, but it's interesting that in Brave New World, humans are forced to take the soma, while here psychiatric drugs are luxury items and in most cases, patients choose to take them. Maybe I am not remembering Brave New World and taking soma was not mandatory, but either way, it’s interesting that in any way that we parallel a dystopian society reliant on drugs to make the mundaneness of life tolerable, it is due to the choices of individuals and not any ruling body.

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    1. I wonder if we aren't being influenced, though. With all the advertising surrounding anti-depressants, it's no wonder people are on these drugs. Their definition of depression seems broad enough to include everyone. I can remember sitting with an elderly woman in her home during the weekday, and a drug commercial came on her TV every 15 minutes! She turned to me at some point and said, "I don't know why, but I just feel so depressed." I told her she should turn off the TV. Call me conspiratorial, but these ads seemed like a form of brainwashing.

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