„« Family
In the totalitarian society of Brave New World, the development of human beings is completely controlled by the World State. Each person is raised in a hatchery, where the government controls every stage of their development until maturity, a process that takes Two-hundred and sixty-seven days. The embryos¡¦ DNA is controlled chemically to stimulate or to retard their physical and mental growth to create a biological class structure. The human¡¦s placement into a certain class, such as Alpha, Beta, etc., depends on their level of physical and mental ¡§perfection.¡¨ The very notion of human reproduction without genetic purity (regular human birth) is viewed as dirty and illegal.
The hatcheries, including the use of hypnopaedia to teach and build ¡§values,¡¨ have done away with the traditional nuclear family. The strict biological class structure, which influences the behavior and intellect of the humans within those classes, and psychological messages that are broadcast continually, replace the same process done by the parents of children of centuries past with a system of development that is faster and more efficient. Hypnopaedia also instills the people of the state with the knowledge of the different classes in the world and why it is best to be in the class you are in, guaranteeing that the masses comply with the situation they are placed in. Thinking as a whole class, rather than as individuals, eliminates overachieving and striving to better their lives so the State can better control the populace.
Because of the birthing system and views towards biological reproduction, marriage is not practiced. Since everyone ¡§belongs¡¨ to everyone else within a class, sexual coupling is encouraged without fear of commitment to any one individual, and it even helps the society prosper according to the World State.
„« Education
The entire educational process is provided by the World State during the period where human beings are developing within the hatcheries. This is mostly performed through Hypnopaedia, ¡§sleep-learning.¡¨ By repeating phrases over and over while the children sleep, the State can condition each person to accept his role in the world around him and to behave in what is deemed as "safe." Other forms of education include sessions that are much like behavioral training of laboratory animals. For example, the dislike of roses and books is enforced through electric shock while they are still babies. Even sexual promiscuity is regular education for humans as soon as they reach puberty.
The eugenics movement started in the early 1900s and was adopted by doctors and the general public during the 1920s. The movement aimed to create a better society through the monitoring of genetic traits through selective heredity. Over time, eugenics took on two different views. Supporters of positive eugenics believed in promoting childbearing by a class who was “genetically superior.” On the contrary, proponents of negative eugenics tried to monitor society’s flaws through the sterilization of the “inferior.”
What if there was a place where you did not have to, or rather, you could not think for yourself? A place where one's happiness was controlled and rationed? How would you adapt with no freedom of thought, speech, or happiness in general? In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, there are many different attitudes portrayed with the purpose to make the reader think of the possible changes in our society and how they could affect its people.
Christian Nestell Bovee, a famous epigrammatic New York writer, once said, “No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.” This quote ties in wonderfully with the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and the concept of control. In the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley captured the true essences of a perfect dystopia. With people living seamless happy lives, and not knowing they are being controlled. How does one control entire nation? The World State does this by hatching, conditioning, and a synthetic drug called soma.
Lenina and Bernard go on a date. He tries to show her the ocean, and
The Beta caste is conditioned to be happy with their placement in society. They are taught to believe that they are the best class in their society. By conditioning the Beta caste to believe in this, the World State is taking away their individuality. Without their individuality, the Beta caste cannot think on their own, and thus will not try to seek more power in the community that they are in. Overall, the effects of the Hypnopaedia conditioning results in a stable community, thus conforming the individual people to have the same values as the World State, and therefore losing their individuality in the
Have you ever thought what a world without children would be? Well, from comparing both “Brave New World” and “Children of Men,” it is found that a world without children is a dystopia. In other words, it is a complete disaster and everything in the world is not how it is today. By comparing the Brave New World society and the society in the film “Children of Men,” we can establish that in both dystopias there are no children, which impacts the relationship between man and woman. War, drugs, castes are common in both dystopias, as people tend to cope drugs to get away from the reality of war caused by people of different “castes.”
Aldous Huxley begins _Brave New World_ by explaining to the reader the process of civi-lization in A.F. 632 of decanting children. First the children are led into the London Hatch-ery and Conditioning Centerthe main entrance of which reads the World State's motto: COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY (Huxley 1). This signifies that the world has become unified into _one_ state with _one_ main government and _one_ set of rules and regula-tions. The world has become "over-organized"; everything has been taken over by what Aldous Huxley describes as the "Power Elite": a group of people who control the world and everyone in it (Huxley [_Brave New World Revisited_] 1423). Hatchery workers wearing white lab coats working in sterilized scientific labs artificially fertilize sperm cells and egg cells in test tubes. Then, depending on the particular caste of the sperm and egg, some embryos are bokanovskified (made to bud/replicate by bombardment of X-rays); finally all embryos are sent to the Social Predestination Room, where during the nine-month process of devel-opment they are conditioned through additions or subtractions to their biological chemistry depending on their caste (Huxley 29). This shows the reader that there is no concern for the traditional family structure or any respect for the mystery of human creation. The society of _Brave New World_ is totally based on scientific facts and possibilities. Ethics and religion have become obsolete. Instead of having God's gift of free will, people are now prisoners of their predetermined conditioning. Ethics and religion are grouped with history and in the words of Mustapha Mond, "History is _bunk_" (Huxley 24).
Seven-foot, blonde haired, blue-eyed super-humans bearing the swastika and marching in perfect Aryan rhythm, bred to be smarter, stronger, superior. This is a typical image when people hear the word eugenics, but there are two distinct branches: negative eugenics, which looks at removing undesirables and degenerates from society, and positive eugenics, which looks to promote the positive hereditary traits within society. In this essay I will Look at both sides of the eugenics argument in order to find a conclusion.
...cs and New Genetics” the ways that Factor X and human dignity spreads throughout society in the future show that it is the moral responsibility of society to continue to show others respect and dignity. Through the use of the pieces, “Human Dignity and Human Reproductive Cloning” by Steven Malby, “Genetic Testing and Its Implications: Human Genetics Researchers Grapple with Ethical Issues” by Isaac Rabino, and “Gender Differences in the Perception of Genetic Engineering Applied to Human Reproduction”,by Carol L. Napolitano and Oladele A. Ogunseitan, the decline on the amount of human dignity found in today's society as well as the regression in Factor X that can be found today compared to times past and how the increase in genetic engineering has greater caused for even more hurdles, for the spread of human dignity and Factor X to all members of society, to overcome.
Eugenics is defined as “a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed (1).” The principles of eugenics have been used in many different countries for various reasons. In the United States, eugenics reached its peak in the pre-World War II period. It was believed that the most efficient way to deal with social problems, such as mental illness, poverty and crime, was to inhibit reproduction among people with such characteristics. Involuntary sterilization laws were enacted in many states. The United Kingdom’s government Mental Deficiency Committee stated in a report that “birth control was the best method to eliminate the hoards (sic) of weak, unhealthy, and tainted poor children whose dependence on tax-supported welfare programs prevented the overburdened middle classes from producing more children of good quality (1).” The goals of the eugenics movement were “the 'improvement of the human stock' and the avoidance of financial drain on society (1).” Supporters argued that people could be enhanced, and thus 'improved', by genetic treatments and manipulation. They maintained that if they could select children that were not disadvantaged, then they should.
Naturally, to fulfill their dharma, people had to marry within their caste. Parents arranged proper unions for their children, sometimes at ages as young as eight or nine, before sexual attraction had a chance to complicate things.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World illustrates a colorful, fantastic universe of sex and emotion, programming and fascism that has a powerful draw in a happy handicap. This reality pause button is called “Soma”. “Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology.” ( Huxley 54 ).
Designing life from conception is an intriguing concept. Brave New World’s World State is in control of the reproduction of people by intervening medically. The Hatchery and Conditioning Centre is the factory that produces human beings. Ovaries are surgically removed, fertilized and then fetuses are kept incubated in specifically designed bottles. There are five castes which include: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Each caste is destined to have a different role; for example, an Epsilon, the lowest caste, is not capable of doing an Alpha’s job. This is because “the fetuses undergo different treatments depending on their castes. Oxygen deprivation and alcohol treatment ensure the lower intelligence and smaller size of members of the three lowers castes. Fetuses destined to work in the tropical climate are heat conditioned as embryos” (Sparknotes Editors). When producing ...
When created in 1923, the American Eugenics Society exemplified an air of reform with a seemingly positive purpose, however this cannot be further from the truth. In reality, the society polluted the air with myths of weeding out imperfections with the Galtonian ideal, the breeding of the fittest (Carison). The founder of the society, Charles Davensport , preached that those who are imperfect should be eliminated(Marks). From the school desk to the pulpit, the fallacies of the eugenics movement were forced into society. Preachers often encouraged the best to marry the best while biology professors would encourage DNA testing to find out ones fate (Selden). A...
The issues of transhumanism, is being contrasted with the eugenics movement ,trivialization of human life and the growing gap of socioeconomic groups. Many transhuman advocates say that the current human condition is a work in-progress, a functional, yet incomplete form that we should seek to make better thr...