Brave New World - Is It a Warn

Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in the 1930s. He made many future predictions and many or most of them have already come true but not to the extent that he writes about. The society in Brave New World is significannot ly different to the present one, and to the society in Huxley's time. Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World not as a warning, but as something to look forward to. The people in Brave New World are everything we, as a society, want to be. Mustapha Mond sums up the perfections of the society in Brave New World with an explanation he gave John: "The world's perfect now. People are happy; they get what they want and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about . . . And if anything should go wrong, there's soma." (p. 177) In Brave New World's society, everyone has a place to be. There are no people out of work, there are no homeless people, no one struggles financially and they haven't a family nor a singular person that they have feelings for to worry about. They are all specially skilled to fit a specific job therefore they are always needed, and people cannot survive without each other. ‘Everyone works for everyone else. We can't do without anyone.' (p. 67) As the director pointed out, everyone is specially made for a particular job: "Ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines . . . You really know where you are. For the first time in history." (p. 18) These people are conditioned to be happy all day everyday. They love their jobs, they can have sex with anyone they desire, they have entertainments to amuse them, they never want what they can't have and they don't have any or many responsibilities. They do not go through any troublesome times, or periods where they can't feel they can cope with the workload, or emotional problems. They do not spend their younger years looking for their dream jobs for they are conditioned so well that they love the job they are given and feel satisfied with it. They do not experience depression, sadness, or emotional and moral confusion. Even the lower caste people like the Deltas and Epsilons are happy. They go to work for a short amount of time during the day, and at the end they get their rations of soma. Bernard mentions everybody's happiness when talking to Lenina: ‘there's one thing we can be certain of . . . he was happy when he was alive. Everybody's happy now.' (p. 68) Everyone is pleased with the way they are, and all are very clean and hygienic people. The women don't have to worry about their bodies or face: ‘ . . . among those firm youthful bodies, those undistorted faces . . . ‘ (p. 123) and they haven't the need to bear a child any more for they have taken the need or desire away from bearing a child. ‘ . . . loathsomeness and moral obliquity of child-bearing' (p. 124) This allows the woman more freedom away from the ‘moral' obligations we have today of woman bearing children to carry on the family name. An advantage that the people in Brave New World have is that they are conditioned for life. They do not have to go through the problems we face when growing up. At a young age they are taught how to behave, what their likes and dislikes are, what their love life's are going to involve and everything that is required of them. ‘ . . . listening unconsciously to hypnopaedic lessons in hygiene and sociability, in class-consciousness and the toddler's love-life.' (p. 121) In Today's world, most or many young adults are worried about their education and finding a job that will support them and that they will enjoy. The people in Brave New World do not have to worry about the course their lives are going to take. They are conditioned to enjoy their jobs and are taught nothing more than they need to know to be able to efficiently fulfil their jobs and life. They are also not worried about finding a true love or a partner, as they do not have that aspiration or obligation any more. These people have all the freedom that they desire. Conditioning may control them, but this however is the key to their freedom. Any restrictions they may have are not seen as restrictions but are seen as a way of life, therefore the people feel they have control over their lives, hence having freedom. We may not see this type of freedom as being good, but they are happy and have no problems or worries at all, consequently they are better off than we are. We cannot say they have no freedom, for we are not free ourselves. Schools, governments, and society control us, however we do not see ourselves as not having freedom as we see this as our way of life. The people in the society of Brave New World may not be as "free" as we are in our view, but they are better off, and feel they are free just as much as we feel we're free. The society in Brave New World is perfect; there is no need to be afraid of anything. There are no causes of harm except for freak accidents like a helicopter crashing. No one is in fear of being murdered, there is no rape, there are no burglars, there aren't any prostitutes nor rapists, there are rarely any brawls, and if there happens to be one, it is easily controlled with soma. It is not known for a person to be violent in that society as shown when Lenina was shocked and startled with John's reaction to her when she tried to seduce him. Mustapha Mond points out to John that people aren't able to act rash: " . . . they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave." (p. 177) Brave New World is not a warning. It prevails a society that we all dream of, no crimes, no pain, no worries and no complex decisions to make about life. They have been given life on a silver platter with everything they want and no desire for what they can't get. They are happy with themselves, their jobs and their way of life. They have their freedom in their own state of mind, just like we do. This is a perfect world that we should be anticipating rather than dreading.