Brave New World

I ran across this book the other day.  I vaguely remember reading it before.  I believe I read it at the same time I read 1984 and Animal Farm.  All 3 books are about Dystopian societies.

I had a little time to spare, so I thought I'd tackle it once again, and see what, if anything, I got out of the book.

Funny thing.  Aldous Huxley wrote this book in 1932.  He was writing about an imaginary society that existed 600 years in the future. At that time, Huxley postulated a world in which people had become total wards of the state.  They were bred in a laboratory, hatched in the warmth of a laboratory, and brought into the world.

From the time that their embryos were fertilized, their entire life, from their physical features, to their caste, to their mental capabilities were determined for them by the scientists in the laboratory.

Raised within the facility by the state, divided by caste, these infants are indoctrinated into the philosophies of the state through negative reinforcement, as well as sleep teaching- where a voice droned on and on throughout the night that teaches them the "official" views that they are to keep.

Raised to live alone, these people are also trained to value a hedonistic lifestyle that puts their own pleasure and comfort above all else.

If anything uncomfortable faces them, why, they don't have to deal with these uncomfortable feelings.  The state issues them an official drug, Soma, and they are encouraged to use it whenever those messy feelings get in the way of them pursuing that hedonistic lifestyle that is condoned by the state.

Life and death are meaningless.  No value is placed on life.  Children are conditioned to death in order to make it seem like "no big deal".  With the advances in genetic engineering, the residents never age.  They stay in a perpetual state of youth until they "expire" and are taken to be decommissioned.

There's more. Oh, so much more.  Aldous Huxley wrote this book to disturb.  He intended to shake his audience up a bit, show them what horrible future awaited them if they didn't wake up and realize that their choices - and what he saw at the time in the rise of Communism and the Soviet Union - could easily become the official way of life, with no choices and no free will to make choices in front of them.

I remember back when I originally read this book in 1982, I thought how ridiculously far fetched these ideas were.

Reading it now, over 30 years later, I begin to wonder because so much that future is not only before us - it seems to be coming a reality.

We live in a hedonistic society that places materialism above all else.  Doubt me?  Take a look at the video footage of crowds stampeding on Black Friday to get the best deals. 

Advertisers on television and the radio encourage us to pursue a materialistic, me first mentality that ignores the needs of others or the less fortunate around us. 

Genetic Engineering is here.  It's a reality.  With the advent of test tube babies (now known as IVF fertilization), we began to cross that uncomfortable line.  While we do not yet have the ability to "design" a human being (read infant) to meet our personal needs- hair and eye color, intelligence, we do have the ability to get into the cells of an embryo who will have mitochondrial disease and change the DNA of that individual before birth. 

Cloning.  Huxley didn't even dream of this reality in his novel.  Instead, he spoke of manipulating an ovum so that up to 90 viable embryos could result.  Instead of recreating the ovum, scientists have skipped that step entirely and are capable of taking the DNA of an organism and recreating this organism exactly.

Soma.  In the novel, Soma was used to pacify the masses.  When they experienced feelings, they took drugs to supress the feelings.  By supressing the feelings, people never questioned why and never looked for deeper meanings of life.  As a result, they turned away from all religion.  What need is there of religion when the state can guarantee you will never feel the need of anything but the pursuit of pleasure?  Not quite so far fetched, now.  Marijuana is legal in Colorado and Washington State.  Beginning next year, it will be legal in Washington DC and Alaska.  (What really is the driving force behind approving mood altering drugs, anyway?)

If you are up for a read that is going to make you look hard - very hard - at today's society, take the time to read Brave New World.

It's not a "Feel Good Book".  It will make you think, and think hard, about our world today.

Remember, Huxley wrote it to upset his audience.  What does it say that 80 years later, it is still upsetting and angering people?  Why is it still a relevant read?