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aldous huxley explains brave new world
aldous huxley explains brave new world
aldous huxley explains brave new world
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Utopian societies are someone’s vision of a perfect world, and Neil Postman’s assertions discuss what he sees in a strong utopian society. His assertions may also be considered controversial in today’s society due to how they showcase Huxley’s idea of the future. Aldous Huxley’s future is set in a utopia where community, identity, and stability are heavily stressed upon citizens of the Brave New World. However, Postman’s assertions can be qualified to seek both sides of whether or not they are to be agreed upon. I agree with Assertion #1: “As he (Huxley) saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” This is already seen in today’s world. People rely on technology to perform simple tasks that can be done without the use of technology, causing laziness among children. Even adults are slowly but surely being …show more content…
In other words, Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.” In the sense that love is what one enjoys doing or what is entertaining to someone rather than the feeling exhibited between people, having a passion or hobby cannot ruin a person. If anything, passions and hobbies are what make people happier and more driven in life. Pursuing something that interests and motivates you to become the best version of yourself is very powerful. How can something one enjoys doing ruin them? The joys in life do not ruin people, it is the outside forces that tear them down and make them believe that their gifts cannot be used to be sufficient in life. Those who have passions in things that do not supply an efficient amount of income for careers are easily discouraged to continue their path and pursue their passion due to the stress that comes with the fear of the unknown and the fear that they will not be able to live comfortably with enough money to survive and live a healthy, happy
In all aspects a utopian society is a society that is place to achieve perfection, and that is the society that both the “Uglies”, by Scott Westfield and “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, was striving for. In both of these stories, the government had control over the people’s choices, freedoms, and their natural abilities. Yet both government strive for a perfect society, the methods they use to achieve this goal were different from each other.
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, truth and happiness are falsely engineered to create a perfect society; the belief of the World Controllers that stability is the the key to a utopian society actually led to the creation of an anti-utopian society in which loose morals and artificial happiness exist. Huxley uses symbolism, metaphors, and imagery to satirize the possibiliy of an artificial society in the future as well as the “brave new world” itself.
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.
The authors therefor saw the ‘utopian’ societies to be a trap for weak minded publics, and that once in place, such systems would be able to perpetuate indefinitely due to the efficiency at which they protect and propagate themselves. Through fear, diversion and sedation the utopia can maintain a strong grip on the people it encompasses before anyone realizes the sacrifices made. The popularity of these books does rule out the possibility of such a society coming into existence in the future, however. The state of people is not about to change, and their ignorance will continue regardless of the harshness of the wake up calls issued.
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.
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the author depicts a collective society in which everyone has the same values and beliefs. From a young age, the people in the World State’s civilization are conditioned to believe in their motto of “Community, Identity, Stability.” Through hypnopaedia, the citizens of the World State learn their morals, values, and beliefs, which stay with them as they age. However, like any society, there are outsiders who alienate themselves from the rest of the population because they have different values and beliefs. Unfortunately, being an outsider in the World State is not ideal, and therefore there are consequences as a result. One such outsider is John. Brought from the Savage Reservation, John is lead to conform to the beliefs of the World State, thus losing his individuality, which ultimately leads him to commit suicide. Through John and the World State populace as an example, Huxley uses his novel to emphasize his disapproval of conformity over individuality.
Martin Luther King Jr. tells the danger of valuing technology, “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.” King uses antithesis to compare two contrasting principles (guided missiles and misguided men). Huxley cautions readers and warns about the effects of an abundance of scientific power- unreasonable and immoral practices. In Brave New World society values consumption and material objects instead of love and
A “utopia is that which is in contradiction with reality,” said the famous French novelist Albert Camus in his collection of essays, Between Hell and Reason. History shows us that seemingly exemplary ideals in practice have led to the collapse of societies. Just examine the two most prominent attempts at a utopia: Hitler’s attempt to socialize all of Europe and create the “perfect” Aryan race coupled with Karl Marx’s beliefs to instate communism into society. The final result was the destruction of their perspective visionary worlds. There was one major facet that prevented these two from creating their paradigms: utopias take away individual freedom and identity and therefore society cannot exist. Aldous Huxley’s science fiction novel Brave New World examines the large disconnect between the future and present day societies, showing how several aspects of this dystopian world lead to the downfall of the individual identity, most prominently exemplified by the death of John Savage.
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 government. The destruction and ban of information and media would limit knowledge, and truth would be concealed through repressive control. In the Huxleyan future, governments encourage mass distribution of entertainment, as it pacifies the people and diverts attention away from political issues. Transfixion with entertainment would drown any desire for real knowledge and society would allow itself to be consumed with that which is amusing, disregarding anything of importance. While both authors made incredible predictions for their time, Huxley’s would certainly be more accurate in terms of today’s society. Plagued with the desire to consume, [insert rest of essay]
"'God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness.'" So says Mustapha Mond, the World Controller for Western Europe in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. In doing so, he highlights a major theme in this story of a Utopian society. Although the people in this modernized world enjoy no disease, effects of old age, war, poverty, social unrest, or any other infirmities or discomforts, Huxley asks 'is the price they pay really worth the benefits?' This novel shows that when you must give up religion, high art, true science, and other foundations of modern life in place of a sort of unending happiness, it is not worth the sacrifice.
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.
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.
In Huxley’s novel, the government uses distractions in the form of technology to prevent any changes from occurring in society. Conditioning center workers implant the instinct in each growing child’s mind that he/she should never have free time to think. Instead, he/she should have continuous distractions. The government helps in this process by providing many different distractions. An example of this would be the feelies. Every night, London citizens can go to a cinema, which plays a movie that not only one can watch, but can also smell and feel. Going to the feelies gives people a sense of pleasure, making them want to go more and more. For people to “. . . have no time, no leisure from pleasure, not a moment to sit down and think…” is the government’s aim, making it so that people will be too busy enjoying their pleasures to make any discoveries, which could then destroy society (40). Most governments consider new advances in science and art as good, however, in Huxley’s London, “…science is a public danger…as dangerous as it’s been beneficent” (168). Due to this unwanted feeling towards science, technology in London distracts people from engaging in it, thus keeping society virtually the same for long periods of time. Although the United States embraces science, art, and all of their advances, technology still remains as a setback to society. As
Thomas More’s Utopia and Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World , are novels about societies that differ from our own. Though the two authors have chosen different approaches to create an alternate society, both books have similarities which represent the visions of men who were moved to great indignation by the societies in which they lived. Both novels have transcended contemporary problems in society , they both have a structured, work based civilization and both have separated themselves from the ways of past society. It is important when reading these novels to focus on the differences as well as the similarities. The two novels differ in their views of love, religion, and the way to eliminate social classes. These differences seem to suggest that if we do not come closer to More’s goal in Utopia, we will end up in a society much like that of Huxley’s Brave New World.