The Loss of Sovereignty in Society - Literature review Example

The Loss of Sovereignty in Society The Loss of the Creature debunks Walker Percy’s vision of the world in a new way. He argues that conditioned ideas about things make a person lose the real essence behind things. Percy believes it is possible for one to regain experiences by eliminating all the social bias, and ignoring all the things learnt through social conditioning. Loss of sovereignty is depicted in how people in the world force situations to measure up to their symbolic complex. According to him, "The highest point, the term of the sightseers satisfaction, is not the sovereign discovery of the thing before him; it is rather the measuring up of the thing to the criterion of the performed symbolic complex” (Percy 27). Educational systems and classifications in society enhance loss of sovereignty in The Loss of the Creature. He posits, "The individual is obscured in and ultimately lost to systems of education and classification” (Percy 7). Interactions among characters portray loss of sovereignty. The American couple lost their sovereignty due to their ethnologist friend when they want him to agree that their experience in the Indian village was authentic. By asking him to approve the fulfillment of their experience, this couple unconsciously gave their power of decision-making to the ethnologist, their friend. Even today, people depend on the approval of others, to the extent that they seem not to know how to choose between good and bad. Loss of sovereignty in Loss of the Creature is also depicted by the sightseer’s surrender to the expert. “The expert and the planner know and plan, but the consumer needs and experiences” (Percy 44). Readers may surrender their sovereignty to the experiences read. An American young man visits France, experiences a riot in a restaurant, and surrenders his sovereignty to the experiences of French book he read since he relates to it. This is shown through the pleasure he experiences. He becomes a consumer of experience. In another case, a nonprofessional finds a strange object but does not care to find out what the object is, claiming that he lacks expertise to unravel it. In this case, sovereignty of the nonprofessional is lost to the experts. Experts take away "sovereignty" of people because they do not give an opportunity for any challenge of a learning experience. In addition, a Falkland Islander is shown to easily spy a dead dogfish and work on it, than a Scarsdale pupil can. The Scarsdale pupil loses sovereignty of experience, as their educational system has turned them into “consumer[s] of experience” (Percy 63). Sovereignty is also lost through theories, which devalue cultural experiences of societies when they are researched and published. Percy claims, “The danger of theory and consumption is seduction and deprivation of the consumer” (Percy 416). Brave New World explores a society’s quest for peace and social stability. The society is hinged on emotions, beauty, true relationship, and love. Huxley’s Brave New world is a sinister, unsetting, and loveless community, with many features aimed at estranging the audience. The novel illustrates the feeling that disturbs readers mind with a description of a vanquished society. (Huxley 2). Loss of sovereignty is seen when science and technology in society leads to totalitarianism. For instance, the state uses powerful technology to control people’s reproduction, by reinforcing different birth control methods, and using computers to monitor people, thus exploiting their privacy. This way, people lose sovereignty, as they cannot make independent decisions on their reproduction. For instance, it is argued that, "All our science is just a cookery book, with an orthodox theory of cooking that nobodys allowed to question, and a list of recipes that mustnt be added to except by special permission from the head cook" (Huxley 225). Consumerism makes people lose sovereignty to the state and corporations. Due to people’s quest for happiness, there is manufacture of High-Tech entertainment mediums and increased consumption. Manufacturers decide what products to produce for people. People therefore, lack power of decision-making in consumerism. Huxley also warns against an overly powerful state. This state runs on high technology, surveillance, torture, and secret police. Certainly, “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards” (Huxley 89). The leaders are tyrannical, but wear the ‘goodness masks’ by ensuring citizens’ happiness, when in real sense, they limit their freedom. For instance, “sexual freedom is legalized…" (Huxley 33). There is loss of sovereignty by citizens since the government makes most decisions and the citizens are under constant surveillance. In both The Brave New World and The Loss of the Creature, social conditioning forces such as educational systems, media, governments, and science and technology lead to loss of sovereignty. However, loss of sovereignty is experienced mostly unconsciously “They are not aware of the loss, beyond certain uneasiness (even if they read this and admitted it, it would be very difficult for them to bridge the gap in their confrontation of the world” (Percy 197). Loss of sovereignty results in classifications in society. The nonprofessional becomes a consumer, who finds a place in the classification and theories of consumers in society. Communities also lose their sovereignty when their culture is researched, documented, and sold. However, Percy argues that this can only be solved by struggling to repossess our rightful places in society. “But unless he also struggles for himself, unless he knows that there is a struggle, he is going to be just what the planners think he is” (Percy 422). Experience and sovereignty can therefore, be regained. Works Cited Huxley, Aldous. “Aldous Huxleys Brave New World.” (Ed). New York: Facts on File, Incorporated, 2009. Print. Percy, Walker. “The Loss of the Creature.” (Ed). Massachusetts: Oxford University Press, 2006.  Read More