The Perfect Condition In Brave New World

In Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World, the government uses a drug called soma, “the perfect drug,” to control the people of the World State in order to have what it considers to be a more stable society. Much of the discussion concerning this novel revolves around how there are many distressing similarities between the world that Huxley describes and our society today. Just like the people in Brave New World, people today, to a lesser degree, use drugs to suppress negative feelings and to make themselves more “stable.” After reading this novel, people may ask themselves: Can society use the “perfect” drug to achieve stability?

What exactly makes a society “stable?” Journalist Adnan Syed believes that a stable society provides its

When one takes it they can “take a holiday from reality… and come back without so much as a headache or mythology,” which ideally is what a “perfect” drug should be able to do (Huxley 54). A “perfect” drug would be the answer to any medical issue. It would treat any illness, physical or psychological, and would not have any negative side effects. It would dull the senses to where a person could not feel any type of pain or feel mild pain because, after all, that is what drugs do. People use drugs to treat, prevent and alleviate the painful, uncomfortable symptoms of aliments that they suffer (“Definition of Drug"). If someone has a cold, that person takes the proper antibiotics. If someone suffers from an illness, he or she goes through the proper treatments and are given the suitable medication. Even if a person is sick psychologically or emotionally, there are drugs that treat that as well. The problem is that if someone is going through all these things at once, they need to take multiple drugs. The “perfect” drug would remove the need for those multiple medications. Since people have a tendency to try and find a way to lessen or eliminate any pain or discomfort they feel, a drug like this is what would be