Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - Essay Example

? Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The book Brave New World was written by Aldous Huxley in the year 1932. However, it is set way much more in the future. In his novel, Huxley makes the readers aware of what he thinks might happen in the coming decades. He writes the story of a fictional time when no one believes in anything but science, which does all the work and fulfills all their needs; they do not have to pray for a better life. Considering Huxley’s predictions of the world in the future, the readers cannot help but wonder to what extent the writer has managed to get them right, how much the future thought up by an imaginative mind matches that of the reality. The idea behind hypnopaedia “implies hypnosis, and it is typically claimed that learning only occurs when ‘suggestible’” (Fromm and Shor 176). It is commonly known as the art through which new material enters an individual’s mind through the process of repetition – is greatly used throughout the book. It is a way to allow the peoples’ stress to disappear, making them almost like robots by having a complete influence over their minds. If they were satisfied with their lot in their life then they would not bother wondering over why exactly all the emotions that they experienced were always positive but never sad or frustrating. Anything that would make them stop and think and – maybe – rebel. As explained by Bob Barr, “by using the power of technology to deliver pleasure and a sense of stability and security to its subjects, the government in Huxley’s vision could actually minimize the use of force to coerce the populace; thereby also disguising what it is in fact doing” (Barr 849). One of the repeated phrases used in the book regarding this is “a gramme is better than a damn” (Huxley Chapters 3 and 7). Over here, the “gramme” is the amount of “soma” that a person consumes. Soma in itself is a hallucinogen carefully created so that the user forgets all about his worries and just be happy. It is a drug of sorts which takes over a person’s mind and his ability to feel all sorts of emotions. It is greatly regulated and its consumption highly encouraged amongst the masses. Similarly, in the current world, we may see people around us taking drugs. There is a whole variety to choose from depending on how far exactly the person wants to go. Often we hear about someone experiencing extreme emotions – either good or bad – and then getting drunk on alcohol just because they cannot bear it. If taken in limited and careful amounts, the consumption of either of the two – drugs or alcohol – is not dangerous. However, once a person loses track and becomes an addict as the phrase is, it could lead to the individual greatly harming himself as he is no longer in his senses to realize the difference between right and wrong. But, the one good thing about the real world is that these substances are not just handed around, like, in the United Kingdom, there are “the Medicines Act 1968 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971” (Bennett and Holloway 3). There are certain laws that are passed to ensure trying to keep the damage as little as possible. In the countries where drinking alcohol is not banned, they have a minimum age that a person has to be to be permitted to have a drink. They need to show their identification cards to confirm their age before they are allowed to buy alcohol. This is because they believe the individual is old enough to be responsible for himself and the decisions he makes when he has reached that age – usually of sixteen years and above. Buying drugs is not that easy, a prescription is often required when they are needed for medicinal purposes. Otherwise, most people have to get their hands on some through other means. But they are not considered to be acceptable in most societies so the consumption is relatively lesser than it could have been if it had been openly been made available and encouraged of like “soma” is in the book. The freedom of feeling what one wants to is quite obviously very limited. It is not just the adults who let go of their real feelings with the help of the drugs; the children are molded in a form, too. They are desensitized to death as well as grief since their early years. Showing such emotions is not encouraged in the society, thus, they get started early on to work it out of the person’s system. It is a daily routine for the children to watch the really elderly people get euthanized. If the manage to last throughout the process without making any sound and showing how distressed they actually are for seeing what is happening before them, they are rewarded with sweets. Soon enough, the promise of candy allows them to become immune to what they are viewing. This is most assuredly not the case with the children today. Their innocence is something that is carefully looked after and really treasured. The parents go to great lengths so that their children do not have to face any kinds of problems. Bad news is covered up in front of them, not dangled in front of their noses. That being said, it is true that the much older people have become immune to the atrocities of life to an extent. It is every day that one reads or hears the news informing everyone about all that went wrong in the world. Rogue shooting, bomb blasts, raping, all these are everyday news which is why we just seem to have stopped caring. It is the media which passes on all kinds of news – some not as important as the others even if they are thought to be and are given more priority – and makes everyone aware of the latest updates. In Huxley’s imagined world, the whole of the society is materialistic. They work and they earn their wages that they want to spend by buying things considered to be as the latest trend. They do not bother to fix any old belongings that they may have or even keep those that work just fine when they can just buy new, much more fashionable versions of them. Their obsession is to the point that they count Henry Ford – the man who founded the assembly line and, thus, the way to produce greater quantity of goods in less amount of time, which they can later buy – as their god. Those who did not keep up-to-date were not part of the crowd. In our current society, the “mass media are a persistent and pervasive influence in our lives” (Dill 5). The television and the billboards as well as the magazines play their role famously when a new fad comes in and has to be passed on to the general public. What to eat, how to dress, even which movie to watch, all the decisions which we make regarding these seemingly meaningless tasks are influenced by the others. If one does not follow the rules and decides to take a completely new path, he is shunned by the society and considered to be bad in a demeaning way. We may say that Aldous Huxley did manage to conjure up the future world with quite a bit of accuracy. Comparing our world and his fictional world, they are not completely accurate and one may only be thankful for that. Neither of the worlds are perfect and have their own respective faults. Nonetheless, it seems that the real world is the better of the two; we have the better balance of right and wrong. Most of the scientific advances mentioned in Huxley’s world – including the cloning of beings – have been covered by us, too. However, the more important part is about how we have kept our emotions in regulation and not let go off our humanity to that great an extent. Undoubtedly, Huxley made some right predictions, but our world is in a better condition. Bibliography Barr, Bob. "Aldous Huxley's Brave New World—Still a Chilling Vision After All These Years." Michigan Law Review 108.6 (2010): 847 - 858. Bennett, Trevor and Katy Holloway. Understanding Drugs, Alcohol and Crime (Crime and Justice). 1st. Open University Press, 2005. Dill, Karen E. How Fantasy Becomes Reality: Seeing Through Media Influence. 1st. Oxford University Press, 2009. Fromm, Erika and Ronald E. Shor. Hypnosis: Developments in Research and New Perspectives. 2nd. Aldine Transaction, 2009. Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. n.d. Read More