Pursuit Of Vanity In Brave New World

The Pursuit of Vanity “Truth and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and opened for me the wisdom of the ages” - John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley examines a futuristic society where people live lifestyle where sexual and mental gratification are available. A lifestyle of sexual promiscuity, soma/drugs that release dopamine, and high status is the purpose of life. Short-term bursts of happiness and technological advancements enable the people of Brave New World to disregard consequences and always look forward to novelty. In Brave New World, novelty/instant gratification and the never ending need for more creates a consumer utopia that set the standard for happiness.
New and upcoming advancements are always praised but “historical facts are unpleasant” (Huxley 24). Children are conditioned to dislike history and past suffering; the past is seen as the state of society in which everything was vain and ridiculous. On page 32, the Director states, “For a very long period before the time of Our Ford… erotic play between children had been regarded as abnormal… absolutely nothing… til they were over twenty years old” (32-33). The students are appalled at the fact that sex is put off till the age of twenty; the thought of delaying instant sexual gratification and waiting is a terrible thought in a society where drugs and sex are available in an instant whenever one wants