Journal: Brave New World

Pain and suffering are powerful conditions. They shape us, develop us, make us who we are. How do we combat these conditions? Some of us turn to a god, a supreme being for emotional release and hope, for something to hold on to in a dark world. Others turn to literature, or to science or knowledge. Many turn to secular means; sex, drugs, thrills. In the creation of a peaceful world, all types of escape cause extreme conflict, except for the secular. The secular become a conflict due to the other means to escape. So in order to maintain a peaceful society in which everyone should be extremely happy, gods are cast away, controversial information is censored, and everyone is made happy. In Brave New World, most everyone is happy. Epsilons, Gammas, Deltas; all are blissfully happy in their stupidity. Most Betas are happy with their lives, easy lives with luxury. The only category that has the occasional member who is not content is the Alphas. This is due to their intelligence. Being so bright, some of them may rebel against their surroundings. The system has a fix for that, small colonies of those who do not conform to the society, where they can be happy.

            Dystopia? Nay, this society has it figured out. The goal is happiness and efficiency, and this society has achieved these goals. A non-dependant drug, a relatively flawless system for human recreation, and the right balance between duty and play. Indoctrinated from “birth” almost every human believes in what has been told to them and while in our world this leads to the blindly biased arguments and the indoctrinated conformed conflict, in the future created by Huxley, it leads to peace, prosperity, and happiness. So what is learned here? That we must sacrifice knowledge for peace? Yes. Sadly enough there is no way for humans to coexist in harmony with so many opposing viewpoints, and so many people who will fight until the stars won’t shine for whatever system’s sales pitch they bought. From a biblical standpoint, Adam and Eve were at peace until they ate from the tree of knowledge. Knowledge or life? Take your pick. If you eat the knowledge, you learn that the tree of life was the correct choice. If you eat the life, you never know what knowledge was or is. Can you have both worlds? Yes, but not the best of them. Taking knowledge, then understanding that life was the correct choice so you take life also, it leaves you moderately content but still burdened by knowledge (much like Beatty from Fahrenheit 451), or you could view it as being incredibly knowledgeable yet forever burdened by the incredible desire for sheer happiness. Now we see how John, the savage, may have felt; caught between two worlds, the desire for everlasting joy yet being held on the convictions of his acquired knowledge, such powerful convictions that when he commits what he views as a sin, as a horrible wrong-doing, he hangs himself out of guilt. Thus proving that the system of happiness instilled by this society works in almost every case, and those who do not conform should live with each other in a place where they will not negatively affect society and society will not negatively affect them.

            A system of near perfection; that is what Huxley has created; a world of happiness, nearly no emotion. Conformed not to fear or have any negative emotions towards death, indoctrinated to follow suit and be happy, and so most everyone is. This is a world I dreamed of since eighth grade, a world I wish I could live in. This is no dystopia, this is a utopia! And at last, one that may feasibly exist! But alas, it does not. In fact, this world is far more like a dystopia than Huxley’s. Love, it has caused good for me, but all the good was transformed into an overwhelming bad in time. So give me this world of bliss, it has been long awaited.

                                  USED TO FORMULATE ARGUMENT FOR BOOK

Why do you believe this world is bad, why do you disagree with what goes on? Because you have been conditioned by your raising, by your society, and by your personal quest for knowledge. This has caused you to naturally take some deep moral or religious or ethical opposition to what takes place in this book. Why? Why can’t you let this system work and let the people remain happy? Sure they are blind and in ignorance but so are you! “If you don’t conform to what you were born into then you go the other way.” – Foster the People. That song’s title is “Call it what you want” and you very well may call this book and what happened in it whatever you very well please to, but I will call it utopia. War, suffering, pain, all gone. Yet you will gnash your teeth at the sheer idea of the means to reach it! And those who can’t live in this society, they live with others like them where they can be content with life, where they will not harm society and society will not harm them. Balance remains, wars pass, conflict abolished. End of story, happiness achieved, goal made, set, match, game.