The Mechanization Of Man In Brave New World, By Aldous Huxley
The Mechanization of Man
As human beings, it is natural to feel emotions that are both pleasant and unpleasant, because one cannot truly enjoy the highest mountains without experiencing the deepest valleys. Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World depicts a society ruled by a totalitarian government, striving to achieve “Community. Identity. Stability” (1). It is a world where every aspect of human life is artificial, from one’s birth to death. Technological advancements in the World State has allowed for life to be mass produced and biologically engineered in laboratories, eliminating concepts of emotional and familial connections. Human genetic modification/manipulation has become a crucial pillar of the social caste system, categorizing each …show more content…
Although children already assigned an “unescapable social destiny” (12), they must also undergo several types of social conditioning to ensure absolute conformity, including hypnopaedic conditioning, the Neo Pavlovian technique, death conditioning, and so on. Despite the World State’s intentions of maximizing societal happiness, it is impossible to achieve a state of complete perfection, as the political system itself is not perfect. Therefore, citizens are taught to rely on soma, a hallucinant drug, to annihilate any unpleasant emotions, and to “Take a holiday from reality whenever you like” (46). Citizens are essentially dehumanized into mindless human drones, incapable of feeling genuine emotions or thinking unconventional thoughts. Huxley’s Brave New World inspires horror, not awe, as it is based on the flawed idea that mankind is capable of fabricating a perfect world, which will inevitably …show more content…
With hypnopaedia, citizens are taught that “One cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments” (46), and thus are enslaved by soma and the illusion of escaping. However, these gloomy sentiments that the World State refers to, be it anger or envy, are never truly dealt with, only avoided, which can have long lasting effects on one’s growth. While anger and envy are natural emotions that help human beings learn and grow, continual repression of them simply takes away their entire condition of being human. Without emotional extremities, one may never experience the heart-wrenchingly painful side of life, but at the same time, it is just as impossible to experience true happiness and excitement, even with the use of
As human beings, it is natural to feel emotions that are both pleasant and unpleasant, because one cannot truly enjoy the highest mountains without experiencing the deepest valleys. Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World depicts a society ruled by a totalitarian government, striving to achieve “Community. Identity. Stability” (1). It is a world where every aspect of human life is artificial, from one’s birth to death. Technological advancements in the World State has allowed for life to be mass produced and biologically engineered in laboratories, eliminating concepts of emotional and familial connections. Human genetic modification/manipulation has become a crucial pillar of the social caste system, categorizing each …show more content…
Although children already assigned an “unescapable social destiny” (12), they must also undergo several types of social conditioning to ensure absolute conformity, including hypnopaedic conditioning, the Neo Pavlovian technique, death conditioning, and so on. Despite the World State’s intentions of maximizing societal happiness, it is impossible to achieve a state of complete perfection, as the political system itself is not perfect. Therefore, citizens are taught to rely on soma, a hallucinant drug, to annihilate any unpleasant emotions, and to “Take a holiday from reality whenever you like” (46). Citizens are essentially dehumanized into mindless human drones, incapable of feeling genuine emotions or thinking unconventional thoughts. Huxley’s Brave New World inspires horror, not awe, as it is based on the flawed idea that mankind is capable of fabricating a perfect world, which will inevitably …show more content…
With hypnopaedia, citizens are taught that “One cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments” (46), and thus are enslaved by soma and the illusion of escaping. However, these gloomy sentiments that the World State refers to, be it anger or envy, are never truly dealt with, only avoided, which can have long lasting effects on one’s growth. While anger and envy are natural emotions that help human beings learn and grow, continual repression of them simply takes away their entire condition of being human. Without emotional extremities, one may never experience the heart-wrenchingly painful side of life, but at the same time, it is just as impossible to experience true happiness and excitement, even with the use of