Happiness In Brave New World

Modern Society’s Happiness… Genuine or Not? Modern day society is not at the same extent of totalitarianism through science and technology as the one depicted in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The utopian society which is set in A.F. 632 revolves around a world in which pleasure and the pursuit of happiness are the key aspects in each characters everyday life. This is achieved by the scientific and technological advances in Brave New World. The government’s means of control is to ensure happiness through drugs, stability by controlling the classes of people through what the book refers to as the “Bokanovsky Process,” and pleasure being achieved through the cheapening of moral entertainment. In today’s society, the desire to
Throughout the story, the cheapening of sexual pleasure is illustrated. The belief that “everyone belongs to everyone else” is taught since the beginning of every class’s conditioning. Individual thought is not part of the stability in society, therefore is not accepted into happiness. Society’s happiness must come from what they are conditioned to believe is right and acceptable. “The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get... And if anything should go wrong, there's soma.” (Huxley 220) Due to the cheapening of the way pleasure is achieved, that means that society is cheapening its moral entertainment. Due to the conditioning, they are taught to like the new, and get rid of the old. “‘But old clothes are beastly,’ continued the untiring whisper. ‘We always throw away old clothes. Ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending (Huxley 54).’” This illustrates how society is concerned on keeping up with the new, and not with the old. This relates directly to today’s society because every teenager and young adult wants to have the newest gadgets and clothes. Statistics according to Web Wise Kids state that since 2004, the percentage of children with a cell phone has gone up to 75% from 45%. The rate at which kids become involved and productive with the internet is between the ages of 2 and 5. With an ever growing technology market, more and more young adults have learned “computer skills” rather than “life skills” according to Dirk Singer from Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics (Singer 2012). . Another way in which society receives pleasure is through technological advances such as the “Feelies.” The “Feelies” is where the characters go to watch a film and “feel” what they are viewing. Similarly, we go to the movie theater and through seeing different scenes throughout the