O, wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! / O brave new world
- From The Tempest, by William Shakespeare
Brave new world, by Aldous Huxley, is a dystopian fiction centred around a totalitarian society that consists of several social castes (alphas, betas, deltas, gammas, epsilons) that are made biologically different, by stunting the growth, and enhancing embryos during development. Therefore, children are not born, but are rather grown in a lab, and subsequently conditioned as children to conform, contribute, and to be content with their role in society.
The quote by Shakespeare at the beginning of this document is spoken by John the savage in response to seeing “civilization” (in this case London), which is the first and only society he has seen outside of his native reservation (where humans are still born, marry, and participate in religion. In “civilization”, people are made to be repulsed by these things for the good of a cohesive society).
I had a co-worker say that he heard that “The world used to be like 1984 but is moving in the direction of brave new world”. In the past, fear and expressions of power were used to achieve control, whereas in the present day, if society is designed in such a way that much time can be devoted to the pursuit of pleasure, then persuasion and conditioning are sufficient to exert extreme control.
This is the point of brave new world. Both of these novels are about the control of society through totalitarianism. The main difference is that Orwell wrote 1984 against the totalitarian regimes of his time, like Nazi Germany, where control was held through civil fear and the Panopticon of the governing (almost deified) big brother and inner circle. Contrastingly, brave new world achieves totalitarianism through genetic engineering and childhood indoctrination, making participants of society not only willing, but happy to accept their appointed lives and conditions because of the hedonistic philosophy by which everyone lives, and so long as their appetite for consumption and pleasure are fulfilled, they are content with overlooking their servitude. There are plenty of quotes to support this: “all conditioning aims at […] making people like their un-escapable social destiny” which is almost Shakespearean in an implied world order sense.
Orwell feared those who would ban books, Huxley feared that there would be no need to ban books, as there were no longer anyone who wanted to read. 1984 inflicted pain and brave new world inflicts pleasure.
This book raises a couple other interesting points. One of which is about Religion.
You can only be independent of God while you’ve got youth and prosperity, independence won’t take you safely to the end. Well we’ve not got youth and prosperity right up to the end. What follows? Evidently, that we can be independent of God.
This is a commentary about religious reliance, and how during times where one is especially aware of their mortality, they turn to God for comfort. Is this because of a fear of what comes after death? Is this because nearing death makes one realize their own insignificance? Whose to say. The point Brave new world makes here, is that since everyone is vital until their sudden death, everyone is independent of God and there is no longer a need for religion as there are no longer any ailments for which one would need to turn to religion for comfort. Instead, at any minor inconvenience, one can take soma with no consequences.
Huxley also interestingly says:
One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies.
Maybe in part of this collectivist society, where everyone belongs to everyone else, so is the pain inflicted shared among friends as well as enemies.