David Grayson once said that "Commandment Number One of any truly civilized society is this: Let people be different". Difference, or individuality, however, may not be possible under a dictatorial government. Aldous Huxley's satirical novel Brave New World shows that a government-controlled society often places restraints upon its citizens, which results in a loss of social and mental freedom. These methods of limiting human behavior are carried out by the conditioning of the citizens, the categorical division of society, and the censorship of art and religion.
Conditioning the citizens to like what they have and reject what they do not have is an authoritative government's ideal way of maximizing efficiency. The citizens will consume what they are told to, there will be no brawls or disagreements and the state will retain high profits from the earnings. People can be conditioned chemically and physically prior to birth and psychologically afterwards.
The novel, Brave New World, takes place in the future, 632 A. F. (After Ford), where biological engineering reaches new heights. Babies are no longer born viviparously, they are now decanted in bottles passed through a 2136 metre assembly line. Pre-natal conditioning of embryos is an effective way of limiting human behaviour. Chemical additives can be used to control the population not only in Huxley's future society, but also in the real world today. This method of control can easily be exercised within a government-controlled society to limit population growth and to control the flaws in future citizens. In today's world, there are chemical drugs, which can help a pregnant mother conceive more easily or undergo an abortion. In the new world, since there is no need...
... middle of paper ...
...rolled society appears to be a Utopia, where everyone is happy and lives in harmony, but the price paid is comparable to the superficial happiness that the citizens receive. Without the freedom of choice, the citizens do not actually realize the joy when a task is accomplished. Without having to work for a goal, the people do not appreciate the pleasure once the goal is achieved and do not actually understand the true meaning of happiness. The price for Utopia, in a word, is freedom.
Works Cited and Consulted
Bedford, Sybill. Alodus Huxley. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.
Berton, Pierre. The Great Depression. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1990.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. London: Flamingo, 1994.
Rae, John. Henry Ford. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1969.
Woodcock, George. Dawn and the Darkest Hour. London: Faber and Faber, 1972.
The Cajuns are considered to be descendants of Acadian exiles who live mostly within the state of Louisiana. The French colonized the region of Acadia which is now Nova Scotia and the Acadians were the French colonists who lived in the area. However there were also English colonists in the area and the groups didn’t get along well. The French lost Nova Scotia to the British in a war which led to the Treaty of Utrecht (signed in 1713) which formally named Acadia as a British territory (Dormon, 39). The treaty forced the Acadians to swear an oath of allegiance to the British crown which they refused because this would require them to renounce their Catholic religion for that of the Anglican church, because of this the likelihood of another war with the French was high. The Acadians refusal to swear an oath to the British caused the British to order a deportation of the Acadians who then fled with whatever they could carry. In 1784, the King of Spain consented to allowing the Acadians to settle in Southern Louisiana. However when the Acadians arrived they had some issues with the French aristocracy who didn’t rea...
The town of Mecca was the birthplace of Islam, at first the leaders of the city refused the changing of this new religion and forced Muhammad to leave. Muhammad returned and preached to the people about what he had heard, that there is only one god. Islam spread quickly for two main reasons they are the message and military conquest.
The service concluded with the bishop standing and speaking to the people for a few minutes he spoke on the importance of the service and He shared some scripture and personal stories. After the service Father Constantine invited everyone next door for refreshments, and stayed in the nave to answer any of our questions, this time was very helpful to me since this was my first time at a Orthodox church. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience I learned a lot about the Orthodox tradition. I don't think I would have been able to grasp the differences between the different branches in Christianity without witnessing them first hand.
“The unprecedented growth of the gay community in recent history has transformed our culture and consciousness, creating radically new possibilities for people to ‘come out’ and live more openly as homosexuals”(Herdt 2). Before the 1969 Stonewall riot in New York, homosexuality was a taboo subject. Research concerning homosexuality emphasized the etiology, treatment, and psychological adjustment of homosexuals. Times have changed since 1969. Homosexuals have gained great attention in arts, entertainment, media, and politics. Yesterday’s research on homosexuality has expanded to include trying to understand the different experiences and situations of homosexuals (Ben-Ari 89-90).
After the fall of the Roman Empire, no one imagined that the next great world power would emerge from Saudi Arabia. Especially, because ancient empires thought that the land was worthless but they didn’t know that it had great trade routes. Trade brought them in connection with other civilizations and that’s how the city of Mecca, located in Saudi Arabia became known. The city of Mecca was a mix of religious beliefs, they used to worship many gods and had their own rituals. The world of Islam took place in Mecca where Muhammad was born in 570 CE. He became known as “the Prophet,” he was meant to be God’s final prophet. The main two groups of Islam are the Shia and Sunni; which they were created after Muhammad’s death. The Islam religion as
... ?gris-gris? or hex existed as a common belief and no one questioned their abilities. The ones who practiced this were known as ?traiteurs?. Traiteurs were greatly respected and thought to be very reliable. They were used for minor ailments when doctors were not available. The term ?traiteurs? means ?treator? and originated from the French (Post, 1974). As long as Cajuns lived in Louisiana so have these ?traiteurs? and they will forever be a part of Cajun culture.
Cajun cuisine is a fusion of food from around the world, giving it a very rich and colorful history. It was filled with great ideas and integrations from the French, Spanish, Africans, and Native Americans. After many years Cajun cuisine has developed into what it is today: a well respected southern culinary classic.
Imagine a society in which its citizens have forfeited all personal liberties for government protection and stability; Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, explores a civilization in which this hypothetical has become reality. The inevitable trade-off of citizens’ freedoms for government protection traditionally follows periods of war and terror. The voluntary degradation of the citizens’ rights begins with small, benign steps to full, totalitarian control. Major methods for government control and censorship are political, religious, economic, and moral avenues. Huxley’s Brave New World provides a prophetic glimpse of government censorship and control through technology; the citizens of the World State mimic those of the real world by trading their personal liberties for safety and stability, suggesting that a society similar to Huxley’s could exist outside the realm of dystopian science fiction.
In 2001, a statement by the Chinese Psychiatric Association helped endorse the fact, in a non-Western context, that homosexual behavior does not signal the need for psychopathological intervention11
Should I attend the University of Illinois in Urbana Campaign, Marquette University, or Northern Illinois University? These predominantly white institutions also received an application for admissions from me in my senior year of high school. Like many African American students I was faced with the issue of whether to attend a HBCU or a predominantly white institution. It is my personal belief that a student can be successful at either. It's up to the student to answer their own question of where they belong. Should they be stuck looking at an ocean of people with similar faces? Or stuck looking like a grain of pepper in a bowl of rice? Should they be in an atmosphere that promotes unity? Or at a place that represents the "real world" in its diversity? A HBCU is a university that was founded before 1964 with the objective of serving the African American community. There are more than 100 HBCUs in the United States and they vary in size and type. A historically black college or university can be public or private, two year or four year, and can be very small or extremely large. None of the HBCUs have only African American students. This detail poses the question that I faced while deciding on which college to attend. What are the advantages or disadvantages of attending a HBCU versus a predominantly Caucasian institution?
The people in a society are often a product of the presiding government’s policy. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, many of the citizens are artificially made and act like robots. However, in a reservation next to the new world, there exists a boy named John who was born and raised like a human. John is excited to go the new world because he believes that life will be better there. When John enters the new world, he sees many abnormalities that go against his beliefs, and the citizens call him a savage because he is not one of them. By juxtaposing John, the so-called savage, against the “refined” society, Huxley demonstrates the extreme extent of humankind 's atypical actions under the subjugation of a totalitarian government.
In his novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley illustrates ways in which government and advanced science control society. Through actual visualization of this Utopian society, the reader is able to see how this state affects Huxley’s characters. Throughout the book, the author deals with many different aspects of control. Whether it is of his subjects’ feelings and emotions or of the society’s restraint of population growth, Huxley depicts government’s and science’s role in the brave new world of tomorrow.
One way that classical conditioning can be used to better society is through forms of controlling
The best place to start a story of such grand a scale is at the very beginning. The year was 1893. France had just imposed a tax on a relatively new transportation device, the bicycle. Millions of citizens...
Many people in today’s society believe it’s wise to send their children to private schools. In making the decision on whether to put children in public or private schools, they look to four main factors: curriculum, class size, the graduation rate, and cost. When people have to pay for something, their first thought is, “Will I be getting what I’m paying for?” With a private school education, the amount you have to pay is usually well worth it. Public schools offer diversity. Here students can find people who are just like them and can associate better. Wherever you live, you have to send your child to the closest school. There’s no choice on what public school you can send your child to, whereas for private schools you can pick to send your child there. It’s not an easy choice for parents to decide, but many factors point toward a guarantee that a good education would be achieved, which is most important.