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| The Gloom of Brave New World’s Ideals |
| 06.17.04 (9:03 pm) [edit] |
In the future there is no room for truth and beauty, only comfort and stability.
“Knowledge was the highest good, truth the supreme value; all the rest was secondary and subordinate. True, ideas were beginning to change even then. Our [Hennery] Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal Happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can’t. And, of course, whenever the masses seized political power, then it was happiness rather than truth and beauty that mattered.” P. 155
The system that Brave New World created worked and not only did it work well, it could be the most efficient social system ever devised or executed. For the social goals of Brave New World there is no other system that could be as efficient at achieving comfort and stability. However, I see some chief flaws in this system that are the result of inescapable human conduct.
Throughout the book we are presented with many individuals. At first glance these people seem happy and content with their lives. Every time we get a more in-depth look at a character, we slowly learn that they are neither happy nor content with their lives to one extent or another. Both Bernard and Linda are unhappy because they are different. Physically Bernard is smaller then those of his own caste. Linda is overweight, and has had a viviparous relationship. This creates self-esteem issues that the society in which they live is not capable of coping with and they end up feeling alienated. Alienation isn’t comfort, and it’s not only those who are physically different that don’t fit. When an individual enjoys free thought, they are plagued with the same dilemmas.
”I feel,” he said, after a silence, “as though I were just beginning to be able to use that power I feel I’ve got inside me-that extra, latent power. Something seems to be coming to me.” P. 123
Some like Helmholtz just desire something more; something more then what the Brave New World can give them. It’s amazing that so many people can be, at least surface level happy, and at that Brave New World is working splendidly. The world controller said it best himself,
“Happiness is a hard master-particularly other peoples happiness. A much harder master, if one isn’t conditioned to accept it unquestioningly, than truth.” P. 154
Pulling from historical material, Communism and Marxism in theory or on paper is the perfect society. There is no poverty, no social classes, or any worries to the individual at all. Much like in Brave New World a communist society embraces the philosophies of comfort and stability. Everyone now knows of the terrible failures of communism in countries like Russia. But why did communism fail? Is something inherently wrong with these values? What can we learn about Brave New World from these failures?
Much debate can be made on what caused the failure of communism, but two things can be attributed to its failure in practice rather than in theory. Both of these two things are present in the society of Brave New World. Governments that exist with absolute control usually are not very stable. People run them without any checks and balances to prevent them from perverting the system. Without monitoring and with absolute power people become corrupted by their position. Dictators don’t usually run their societies in the best interest of the population. Both Communist Russia and the society in Brave New World had leaders, in whom absolute power was invested. The second thing, and the larger thing that contributed to the Soviet Union’s failure, was a serious lack of motivation in the society. In Brave New World everything is done for the populace, there is nothing for the society, or the individual to strive for, which begs the question, what’s the point? What’s the point, should I go to work? What’s the point, should I go to school? What’s the point, should I play obstacle golf with my friends? The human animal must have a reason to exist, that reason motivates there continued strive for survival. For people to feel fulfilled they need a reason for their existence. No amount of hypnopedeia can remove this from the human psyche; only dull it. This lack of individual motivation breeds a society that can no longer be an efficient system, but a progressively less and less capable one. Stability is stagnant and humans cannot stand being stagnate.
“Technically, it would be perfectly simple to reduce all lower-caste working hours to three or four a day. But would they be happier for that? No, they wouldn’t the experiment was tried, more than a century and a half ago. The whole of Ireland was put on to the four-hour day. What was the result? Unrest and a large increase in the consumption of soma; that is all” P. 152
Once a society of this nature is struck by a disaster or any grave challenge, it is fated to failure. It is not dynamic enough to overcome any great obstacles. It is a society full of incompetence that will prove to be its downfall. All the great societies of time have only survived if they were flexible enough to evolve and adapt to change. There is no room for change in Brave New World, because change does not lend to stability.
But wait, if the values of Brave New World’s society are so flawed, why is it that it works so efficiently? There are severely reasons for this gap. For one, no one is ever given the chance to think. They are constantly barraged with stimulation, to occupy the brain, so it doesn’t get the chance to analyze it’s self or anything else for that matter. Some even lack the ability to properly operate their brain, because of the pre-birth conditioning, “The lower the caste,” said Mr. Foster, “the shorter the oxygen” The first organ affected was the brain.” P. 9 It gets to the point where individuals feel uncomfortable with being alone or not accepting this existence. This prevents anyone from realizing they are unfulfilled with their lives and the rare few who do recognize an inadequacy in their lives are shunned by the masses. Technology’s hold on the individual and the mass creates a sense of stability that is very hard to break. Any sizeable resistance that might occur is easily neutralized by technology and the overwhelming power it gives to the government.
In the words of Albert Einstein;
“The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.”
Brave New World has abandoned the values of truth and beauty, for something more obtainable. Will it or can it last, though? Probably not, there is no functional or fulfilled person who could survive a system based on comfort and stability. Such a world can only sustain a society of mindless apparatus.
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