Drew Smuts
Mrs.Beebe
English 12: Period 5
13 May 2014
Societal Predictions
For many years numerous people have attempted to predict what our world will be like in future years.These predictions range from legitimate novels written by philosophers to hollywood cinema interpretationsinterprations. Whether or not you agree with these predictions is up to the consent of each and every person. In his book ¨Brave New World¨ Aldous Huxley depicts a futuristic utopian society knows as the World State where technology consumes our everyday life and deprives us from the truth about our society.In reality our modern world technological advances have made life simpler for us while also maintaining our knowledge and awareness of the truth around us.
In todays world each person still reserves the right of free will and personal consent, in Huxley's World State an oligarchy known as the world controllers decides what the general population will be allowed to see,feel, and know. This utopian society leaves each persons life not in their own hands but in the hands of those who have been predestined to be superior. Ones willpowerwill power and determination decides the successes and failures of their life in our society today, the World State sends each unborn child through conditioning which will determine their intellectual ability as well as their social caste. The question still remains, is our world today leading us toward an unhealthy society similar to the infamous World State or are we taking the appropriate steps to grow as a society without hurting our knowledge of the truth?
In the U.S. constitution the right of free will is not only given to each and every person it is a mandatory law. In his book Brave New World Huxley writes ¨ One b...
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...also provides strict social castes, castes in which a person has no opportunity to gain or lose self worth. This government restriction indirectly inhibits the right of free will causing a major difference between the two societies being compared.
The argument between people who feel that our society is becoming like that of the World State and those who feel that it is not will continue to grow. Although our worlds may have some loosely related similarities there are many more definite differences that set the societies apart. Regardless of how today’s technological advances affect the simplicity of living the human race will remain awareness and knowledge of the truth that surrounds us. When comparing the World State to what is happening now it would be incredibly hard to make a confident case as to how we are on the track to becoming our very own “World State”.
Brave New World is an unsettling, loveless and even sinister place. This is because Huxley endows his "ideal" society with features calculated to alienate his audience. Typically, reading Brave New World elicits the very same disturbing feelings in the reader which the society it depicts has notionally vanquished - not a sense of joyful anticipation. Huxley's novel presents a startling view of the future which on the surface appears almost comical. His intent, however, is not humor. Huxley's message is dark and depressing. His idea that in centuries to come, a one-world government will rise to power, stripping people's freedom, is not a new idea. What makes Huxley's interpretation different is the fact that his fictional society not only lives in a totalitarian government, but takes an embracive approach like mindless robots. For example, Soma, not nuclear bombs, is the weapon of choice for the World Controllers in Brave New World. The world leaders have realized that fear and intimidation have only limited power; these tactics simply build up resentment in the minds of the oppressed. Subconscious persuasion and mind-altering drugs, on the other hand, appear to have no side effects.
To conclude, Postman's analysis that Huxley's vision of the future has become more of a reality than that of Orwell's. Although the present day is not exactly how Huxley had envisioned it, our society will soon reflect the one created in Brave New World if it continues to progress as it had in the past few decades. Orwell's prediction does not hold much relevance in today's society. Our government is not constantly watching over us, they have more important difficulties to overcome. Government is not concerned with the actions of individuals; they base their decisions on the opinions of the masses. Huxley's travesty holds far more relevance than the prestigious social theory of Orwell.
In the novel, Huxley exhibits a utopian society where the citizens are free of anxiety and discomfort due to technological advancements, and are conditioned from birth to agree with their social and economic status. The World State’s main goal is to create a society in which stability is achieved through technological progress, and in order to achieve stability, the World Controllers focus on creating a ‘perfect’ community. To produce this ‘perfect’ utopian community, the World Controllers apply advanced technology to create individuals u...
The characters in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World represent certain political and social ideas. Huxley used what he saw in the world in which he lived to form his book. From what he saw, he imagined that life was heading in a direction of a utopian government control. Huxley did not imagine this as a good thing. He uses the characters of Brave New World to express his view of utopia being impossible and detrimental. One such character he uses to represent the idealogy behind this is Bernard Marx.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World portrays a society in which science has clearly taken over. This was an idea of what the future could hold for humankind. Is it true that Huxley’s prediction may be correct? Although there are many examples of Huxley’s theories in our society, there is reason to believe that his predictions will not hold true for the future of society.
The Indian government is corrupted and makes promises it is unable to keep. In The White Tiger, Balram describes that the government is “...the world’s greatest democracy. What a fucking joke.” (Adiga 145). When Balram lived in Laxmangarh his right to vote for the prime minister was taken from him, due to the fact that running candidates pay the current government to make sure they are elected. The government system also enables the rich to get richer. They do this by immensely taxing the poor and enforcing the caste system on the poor. The caste system is a labeling system you were born into and of what you are expected of in life. For example Balram had the caste of Halwai, which is derived from “sweet-maker”. This meant Balram was expected to work...
During the past few weeks my class and I have been reading your book, “ Brave New World”. While reading your book I have discovered a few captivating issues. These issues include the destruction of the family, the use of drugs, and polygamy (obligatory sex). These issues are interesting because of their implications in life today, and the frequent times they are shown in the book. The ways they are used to control people and make their life easier, and the fact that our world seems to be falling into the same state.
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley deftly creates a society that is indeed quite stable. Although they are being mentally manipulated, the members of this world are content with their lives, and the presence of serious conflict is minimal, if not nonexistent. For the most part, the members of this society have complete respect and trust in their superiors, and those who don’t are dealt with in a peaceful manner as to keep both society and the heretic happy. Maintained by cultural values, mental conditioning, and segregation, the idea of social stability as demonstrated in Brave New World is, in my opinion, both insightful and intriguing.
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...
In the novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley wrote about his idea of a futuristic, manmade society. This future world is not one of a hopeful, or a perfect utopia; the opposite is true in this novel. It becomes clear early in this story that the created society is a disturbing dystopia where, technological advancement controls the citizens and strips them of their individuality. This future world focuses on the entire collective civilization whose importance is that of economy, industry and improving technology these are the things that society feels will make them happy. The individual has no place in the Brave New World, a world where science is used to enslave humans and
Brainwashing… does it exist now? In Aldous Huxleys book, Brave New World, people are grown from tubes, and then psychologically conditioned to behave and act the way the World State, or government per say, wants them to act. Sometimes psychological conditioning can be good, but in this case it is more of a type of brainwashing. The World State misuses its power to make sure people are controlled because they don’t want anyone to be unhappy or to know what is actually happening. This book can be a warning to humanity, telling society that brainwashing can become common and destroy the modern day world. This book makes the people of the modern day world think about what could happen in the near future if society decides to go farther and more into scientific research. Misuses science could contribute to the making of man into an animal, not a smart, adapted, emotional connected human being.
Literature is both shaped by our culture and shapes it. Because of this it is an effective representation of the culture of a time. One can tell how people were affected by the events of the times by how it comes through in their writing. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is a prime example of this. The work was targeted at people in a post WWI world. This is a time between WWI and WWII where the world is still shocked by how rapidly the science of war had advanced. People also continue to be appalled with the mass death of a World War caused by such technology and therefore yearn for a more stable world. Because of this yearning, they attempt to create a more stable environment for themselves. Most people had lost faith in the institutions they came to know because those institutions caused the War. Therefore the League of Nations was founded in 1919 only 13 years before “Brave New World” was published in 1932.
If we start letting simple freedoms go, we could lose some major ones. Works Cited Huxley, Aldous. A. & Co. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
There were quite a few changes made from Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World to turn it into a “made for TV” movie. The first major change most people noticed was Bernard Marx’s attitude. In the book he was very shy and timid toward the opposite sex, he was also very cynical about their utopian lifestyle. In the movie Bernard was a regular Casanova. He had no shyness towards anyone. A second major deviation the movie made form the book was when Bernard exposed the existing director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, Bernard himself was moved up to this position. In the book the author doesn’t even mention who takes over the position. The biggest change between the two was Lenina, Bernard’s girlfriend becomes pregnant and has the baby. The screenwriters must have made this up because the author doesn’t even mention it. The differences between the book and the movie both helped it and hurt it.
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, portrays a future society where people are no longer individuals but are controlled by the World State. The World State dominates the people by creating citizens that are content with who they are. Brave New World describes how the science of biology and psychology are manipulated so that the government can develop technologies to change the way humans think and act. The World State designs humans from conception for this society. Once the humans are within the society the state ensures all people remain happy. They program these humans to have needs and desires that will sustain a lucrative economy while not thinking of themselves as an individual. Huxley describes the Worlds State’s intent to control their society through medical intervention, happiness, and consumerism which has similarities to modern society.