Thursday, February 26, 2009

Is the World State really that bad?

In Huxley's novel we're given two completely different worlds and cultures. There is the World State and the Savage Reservation. Essentially the World State has everything good about our world and the Savage Reservation got everything bad. In the Savage Reservation the people are subject to disease, sickness, pregnancy, age, depression, the list goes on and on. However in the World State none of these things exist. People stay young forever and never get sick. If your contraceptives fail, there's no problem because you can go and get an abortion at one of the many clinics around the city. There is no chance of people feeling sad because they can just take Soma. Anything that someone in our world might find wrong or strange is taken care of by conditioning. When I read this book, I'm constantly picking things out that I find stupid or down right insane. Then I start to think about the fact that no one questions it because they have all been conditioned to be happy with the circumstances they have been dealt.
I really don't think the World State is bad because if you're there, then you're going to be happy. I would love to live in a world where I'm constantly happy. I know exactly how crazy and impossible that sounds but that's the world they live in and they're happy. I feel bad for John because he can't appreciate anything about the World State due to the fact that he hasn't had any conditioning.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Huxley's Visions

In Brave New World the people are born from bottles and there can be thousands of babies made at a time. There is a drug called Soma that makes you extremely happy without any side affects. People fly everywhere instead of driving. There is no such thing as families or love. It is meant to be this perfect world where everything is planned out ahead of time and nothing can go wrong. When you're first "born", you have to go through conditioning centers that teach you what to think and what to do throughout your life. There are different classes with different intelligence levels and importance.
To think that back in the 30's someone could have predicted people could be born out of bottles, or in our case, test tubes is crazy. Huxley had no way of knowing that people would one day be able to be born that way or that people could take certain drugs (like, prescription drugs) that give them happiness. I think those are the most realistic two out of all his futuristic predictions. Some children today are born out of test tubes and given to their mothers. Not to mention the fact that we have pharmaceutical breakthroughs all the time...I wouldn't be surprised if something like Soma came out at some point. The most insane prediction he made in my opinion is the extermination of families and literature.
I'm not gonna lie though, it's kind of frightening that this world doesn't seem all that out of reach.