It kept appearing over and over again. People talked about
Brave New World, it was referenced in Bush's
Decision Points, and it's even alluded to in a book I'm currently reading called
Parenting by the Book. It was my turn to pick the classic for our book club to read during the month of April, so I dragged some friends into my first reading of this classic that has made such an impact on so many.
Fascinating, depressing, scary, strange. . .these are just a few reactions I had to the book. I tend to find dystopian stories interesting and thought-provoking, and this one did not disappoint in that regard. I could hardly put it down in the beginning, but as the storyline progressed I was less intrigued, perhaps because it was just so hopeless--and a little too familiar.
How does one describe this book? Huxley wrote it after World War I (eerily foretelling the coming atrocities of a centralized government to take place in his own lifetime) and described a society in which technology would drastically change and imagined the effects those changes would have on the people. There would no longer be emotions like love nor committed, monogamous relationships so there would be no jealousy or anger ("every one belongs to every one else"), promiscuity would rule the day, and children would no longer be conceived in families but would be mass produced in test tubes. Not only would they be mass produced, but they would be genetically manipulated to determine their function (value?) in society--smart and gorgeous or limited mental faculties and stunted stature. After birth, the babies and children were conditioned (brainwashed? tortured?) to love their position in life for "that is the secret of happiness and virtue--liking what you've
got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny" (10). . ."Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too--all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides--made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are
our suggestions! Suggestions from the State!" (19).
Part of the conditioning included a propensity toward consumerism. Use and discard. Keep the factories busy. New is better. "Ending is better than mending" (33). "You can't consume much if you sit still and read books" (33) so children's behavior was modified to dislike books. They were also trained in how to view one another in the proper socio-economic roles, to be desensitized from death or caring about others dying, and to ruthlessly pursue the drugging of their minds and emotions through entertainment, sex, or drugs. They had no individuality, no need to think for themselves, and the State provided for them. "Stability. The primal and ultimate need" (28).
"Everybody's happy now" (50). They were brainwashed into believing it. There was no longer any guilt or shame or need for redemption. They thought they were independent of God and in the absence of law, there is no sin. "What you ought to do is on the whole so pleasant, so many of the natural impulses are allowed free play, that there really aren't any temptations to resist" (161). "Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your mortality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears--that's what
soma (their drug) is" (162).
Consumerism. . .sex. . .entertainment. . .God replaced by the worship of technology. . .all is acceptable. . .subsidization of drug research to sooth and pacify the masses (36). . .
Yet some were able to understand the difference between this State-controlled existence and living in freedom. "Can you say something about nothing?" (47) asked one writer. "You can't make tragedies without social instability. The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's
soma" (149).
"I'd rather be unhappy than have the sort of false, lying happiness you were having here" (120).
"What you need is something
with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here" (162).
"I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin" (163).
"I'm claiming the right to be unhappy" (163).
Brave New World really made me think and prompted me to take a hard look at our current society with its focus and values. Ironically, our book for May is
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed for his role in a plan to assassinate Hitler. In the last week, I've enjoyed listening to an audio biography of Bonhoeffer with my children and have been reading the new biography
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy in preparation for this christian classic. It's going to be a fun month of continuing education!
