The Government In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

The government arguably has a tremendous amount of power and authority over its citizens. In V for Vendetta, Alan Moore writes, “People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” From this, one may wonder what would happen if the government discovers a way to ensure that their citizens follow everything they want them to. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the World State’s government controls its citizens in many ways to ensure that no one rebels against their beliefs. These methods are similar in nature to the methods that the government in the real world uses to keep its citizens in line with what is socially acceptable. The World State and the real world control their citizens through maintaining a society that rewards the conformed, leads by means of domination and publicizes their system.

To begin, both the real world and the World State have their own standards for their citizens. This is quite evident in the World State in Brave New World as citizens are conditioned to conform or they are tortured by their society. In chapter 16, Mustapha Mond reveals to Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson and John the “Savage” that he was a pretty good physicist who made a new discovery. He tells them that his punishment for it was “Very nearly what’s going to happen to you young men. I was on the point of being sent to an island,” (Huxley 232). Upon hearing this, Bernard goes mad and immediately points fingers to his two friends, saying, “You can’t send me. … It was the others,” (232). This exchange between Mond and the other three men show the way the World State kept a short leash on their citizens. This quote reveals how any form of
This shows how human nature