Aldous Huxley's Brave New World-A Powerless Society

Huxley’s Brave New World centers around a society far from modern day. In this warped

The government in this “Brave New World” have completely taken control of their people leaving them under their command and every control. The controllers have substituted a drug called “Soma” that leaves the people feeling complete happiness which then leads them to forget all their problems and worries putting the humans in a trance. When a problem begins to arise amongst people “Soma” is always the answer one stated, “Why you don’t take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours. You’d forget all about them. And instead of feeling miserable, you’d be jolly. So jolly,” (Huxley 92). By giving the humans in this society a drug that washes away all their pains and worries it also causes them to lose all of their feelings in which a normal human would inhibit. Losing and not having feelings due to a drug given by the government to the people is a way of brainwashing their people because the humans no longer have the control over their bodies that they once did. Bromige describes the corruption in feelings and choices describing,

It is important to note that the citizens in Huxley’s novel are always happy. While happiness in its purest form is greatly treasured in our modern society, happiness in World Society existed in the form of a drug by the name of ‘Soma.’ In their society, the commonly used, “euphoric narcotic pleasantly hallucinant” drug symbolizes a state of happiness that is rarely attainable in the contemporary era” (37). However, it is significant because it symbolizes the powerful impact that science and technology have on society. In situations of unease and apprehension, and also in individuals are not only encouraged to, but conditioned to take doses of Soma, which brings them back into a state of high which ensures absolutely little to no acts of rebellion. Furthermore, Soma is commonplace that it is “served with the coffee” (50). This come to illustrate the immense amount of influence that scientific innovation and government regulations have on individuals to the point where it becomes integrated into their everyday lives. While the usage of drugs is greatly ridiculed in the modern world, it is encouraged in World Society, and this comes to demonstrate how great emphasis on scientific innovations can be destructive, stripping away natural human

One may think that the society in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a gross representation of the future, but perhaps our society isn’t that much different. In his foreword to the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley envisioned this statement when he wrote: "To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda...." Thus, through hypnopaedic teaching (brainwashing), mandatory attendance to community gatherings, and the use of drugs to control emotions, Huxley bitterly satirized the society in which we live.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley illustrates what is actually happening in modern society. The novel is a satire of a totalitarian government and although it is fantasy, there are early traces of it occurring in modern day. It is hard to imagine a government that is solely based on the ideals of the people when there is an elected government body who makes decisions. The government’s goal is to have stability and prosperity and that, at times, is accomplished at the expense of the individuals who are governed. Accordingly, there is danger in having an all-powerful state because personal freedoms are lost. More so, there is power in having knowledge that others do not possess because it is a gateway for the government to control the public

Soma is "Euphoric, narcotic, and pleasantly hallucinant” which seems somewhat comparable to drugs like LSD (Huxley). LSD became a craze in society during the 1900’s and even Huxley got involved. Huxley took mind expanding drugs like mescaline and LSD often for about ten years (Drugs). Huxley keeps the people in his dystopian society almost completely influenced by Soma. It can be inferred that Huxley saw that drugs kept society and himself happy and that drug kept peace in the mind.

In Brave New World, soma is used to oppress the competence to be aware of one’s personal feelings and the ability to communicate their emotions. The people in Brave New World have been so conditioned to seek drugs to forget their human feelings, they have become incapable of self-expression. Soma is a powerful drug encouraged by the government to consume whenever one gets any emotional urges. It is distributed rationally throughout the population and acts as an anti-depressant. Soma is provided by the government to distract people from any cruel realities or any human emotion that may want to question or change the government in power. It numbs people of their feelings and abolishes any emotional responses while creating a sense of euphoria and well-being. With the backing of science, the state provides them with soma to dissuade their attention from the harsh truth, while keeping them in a happy bliss. Throughout the years, scientists and doctors have seen a growing trend in the integration of pharmaceutical drugs in our healthcare, rather than encouraging life style changes. For instance, pain-reliving drugs are the most commonly prescribed medication in America. Pain-reviving medication produces a false euphoric sense of well-being and pleasure.

In Huxley’s satirical novel Brave New World, he shows the horrors of a culturally collectivist, escapist, self-indulgent society. Through a mass-produced society bent on escaping reality, he warns against giving up power over oneself to a government, a drug, or a cultural ideal, despite how appealing it might seem. At the same time, he contrasts the character of John against the odd, childish citizens of the World State to show how reasonable and necessary high art, individualism, and even instability are, because they are indicative of freedom. Behind the culture shock of what many would see as a backwards society, Huxley makes the argument for the individual, even at the price of a perfect society.

This “utopian” society created by Huxley brainwashes its citizens in every aspect of their lives. Brave New World revoles around an idea of complete government control through the use of science, technology and pleasure to form a submissive society. Huxley, through Brave New World sets a warning for the future of technology, by exposing its power, he attempts to send a message about the dangers of technology. While it can drastically improve our lives, it can become invasive to the point our basic free will. By depending on technology, it has allowed for the replacement of the mind.

The formative years of the 1900’s, suffered from communism, fascism, and capitalism. The author of the Brave New World, Mr. Aldous Huxley lived in a social order in which he had been exposed to all three of these systems. In the society of the Brave New World, which is set 600 years into the future, individuality is not condoned and the special motto “Community, Identity, Stability” frames the structure of the Totalitarian Government.

Brave New World is a novel written by Aldous Huxley, in which social stability is placed above all else. The sacrifice of individuality in the name of social stability is indeed worth the cost as the citizens of the World State are kept healthy, safe, and happy. “One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them” (Huxley16). Social stability has numerous benefits, the major one being keeping the citizens of world state safe. To ensure their safety, the leaders of society have programmed everyone to believe what they are told.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley depicts a future that seems happy and stable on the surface, but when you dig deeper you realize that it is not so bright at all. People almost autonomously fall in line to do what they have been taught to do through constant conditioning and hypnopædia. Neil Postman’s argument that Huxley’s book is becoming more relevant than George Orwell’s 1984 is partly true. Huxley’s vision of the future is not only partly true, but it is only the beginning of what is to come.

The Russian Revolution and challenges to the British Empire abroad raised the possibility of change on a world scale. At home, the expansion of transportation and communication, the cars, telephones, and radios made affordable through mass production, also brought revolutionary changes to daily life. With this new technology, distances grew suddenly shorter and true privacy rarer. In Brave New World, such technologies and more have been introduced to The World State, and this society brings to life these exact fears of distance between people: While people in industrialized societies welcomed these advances, they also worried about losing a familiar way of life, and perhaps even themselves. Huxley’s novel also attempts to show how science, when taken too far, can limit the flourishing of human thought: “The lower the caste,’ said Mr. Foster, ‘"the shorter the oxygen.’ The first organ affected was the brain. After that the skeleton. At seventy per cent of normal oxygen you got dwarfs. At less than seventy eyeless monsters.’” (Huxley, 70). In World War I, humanity had seen the great destruction that technology such as bombs, planes, and machine guns could cause. Huxley believed that the possibility for such destruction did not only belong to weapons of war but to other scientific advancements as well, such

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World focuses not on technology, but technology as it modifies people. For example, Harry Potter isn’t a book informing the reader of the blood types or dental care necessities of wizards, but rather how wizards affect the world. Huxley reveals a high tech and seemingly revolutionary future; a world where people are manipulated and dictated down to their emotions, daydreams, and preferences. In this book, science and technology imprison humanity. Science is corrupted and somewhat dangerous; its powerful technological advances threaten society. The people rely solely on technology for all their basic functions. This results in a lack of control by the citizens and gain of control by those in charge. In Brave New World

A dystopia is an imaginary, imperfect place where those who dwell are faced with terrible circumstances. The novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley illustrates the concept of a dystopia. A utopia is an ideal place where everything is perfect, but in the novel, it becomes apparent that the author is trying to demonstrate the negative effects on a society when it attempts to become an unreachable utopian society. Brave New World is seen as a dystopia for many reasons, as citizens are deprived of freedom, programmed to be emotionless and under the control of a corrupt dictatorship. These points illustrate the irony of a society’s attempt to reach utopia by opposing ethics and morality; citizens are tragically distanced from paradise,