I’ve always been fond of science fiction and dystopian novels. After many years, I reopened “Brave New World” and discovered I had missed so much content before, having only read it as a story.
As I reread the book, I couldn’t help but unravel its thread and saw deeper meanings I’d missed when I read it 20 years ago.
What is the brave new world in 2024?
What is it that you truly want? vs. What is stimulating your brain and creating this artificial craving so that you have to follow the set rules?
I once thought staying home indefinitely, with food provided and the freedom to do what I liked, would be the epitome of happiness. That is until the pandemic hit, and I returned to Taiwan. I was identified as having been in close contact with an infected person and had to be quarantined. I was isolated in a hotel room without windows, but with a comfortable temperature, food, a phone, and Wi-Fi — just unable to go out.
The idyllic life I had once imagined had finally arrived, yet I found it wasn’t what we truly desired. Why do we feel fear, boredom, and even discomfort when the happiness and goodness we long for arrive?
In Brave New World, everything seems lovely — everyone is happy, no one is sad or angry, people belong to each other, and there’s no trouble that a bit of soma can’t solve. But is that really what we want?
The difference lies between active choice vs. passive acceptance.
We want the power to choose and the freedom to do what we want (legality aside). Although I’ve achieved this imagined comfortable and leisurely life, it’s not by my choice — it’s because I have to. I have to stay in the hotel. I have to be isolated from the world. I’ve lost my freedom, lost the power to choose.
I’ll split my discussion of this book into two parts.
- For those who haven’t read the book. I’ll start by introducing the rules of this world. I won’t delve too deeply into the content — if you read the story yourself, you might have different insights.
- I’ll select some content from the book to discuss freedom and individual will. I hope to spark a discussion about freedom and happiness by proposing a definition.
From there, I will expand to discuss our current education system, consumer culture, and the solidification of economic classes. - Then, I want to extend the topic to discuss the mentality of class solidification in every group. Whether private or public enterprises. As well as how most salaried individuals prefer to say what leaders want to hear rather than doing what’s difficult but right.
Huxley’s knowledge was extensive, and his thoughts were profound and insightful.
I see “Brave New World” as a prophetic sci-fi.
It was written in 1932, ninety-one years ago. Yet I see the world he depicted slowly taking shape in 2024.
So what kind of story does this book tell?
A World Led By Tech Giant
In the 1930s, Ford was the top tech company, gradually forming a monopoly. Hence, Henry Ford plays a significant symbolic role despite not being an actual character in the novel.
Here are the parts I saw Ford play in the book:
- Deification: In the World State, Ford is essentially deified. He’s revered as a messianic figure, replacing traditional religious icons. Ironically, I see some similarities in how a lot of people think of Elon Musk.
- Calendar: The novel’s dating system is based on A.F. (After Ford), with the story taking place in the year 632 A.F.
- Symbol of mass production: The mass production of humans through artificial wombs is directly by Ford’s industrial methods.
- Consumerism: Ford’s ideas about consumerism driving the economy are taken to an extreme in the World State, where constant consumption is encouraged and “ending is better than mending.”
- Others: Like the T shape (from Ford’s Model T car) replaces the Christian cross as a religious symbol; Fordson Community Singery… and so on.
It couldn’t be obvious enough that the “World State,” this future world, is led by tech giants… just like the one you and I live in.
Tittytainment, Hierarchy, and Totalitarianism
The Brave New World is highly organized and totalitarian in economics and politics. The three pillars ensuring its long-term stability are:
- Caste system
- Conditioning education
- Consumerist satisfaction or satisfaction from tittytainment (the only source of happiness)
You cannot claim having a full control of a society without any one of these three.
Caste System:
Through a massive genetic engineering and eugenics program, people in the book are mass-produced using advanced technology. Most people are coded to be docile and are useful participants in society. Humans are composed of five different castes or models, each carefully designed and trained to serve a specific social purpose:
- Alphas are the highest class,
- Epsilons are the lowest, but Epsilons’ genes and education prevent them from realizing their lowliness.
“If you’re an Epsilon, your conditioning will make you just as glad not to be a Beta or Alpha.”
Regardless of caste, after birth, people in the World State receive mental conditioning in the New Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms of the nurseries.
Conditioning Education and Social Influence:
In this new world, human birth has become planned parenthood, followed by cultivation.
Batch after batch, humans from various classes are introduced into society and engage in intellectual work.
Betas and Gammas (the middle class) assist in social operations, and Deltas and Epsilons (the lower class) are used as tools. No one from any class doubts or aspires to change because their behavior has been perfectly molded for social obedience during the cultivation process, where embryos are edited and then nurtured.
Managers exert precise control over society, showing an aversion to books and nature. From childhood, electric shocks and whips are used to make children avoid books, flowers, and natural beauty.
Center staff use rewards, punishments, electric shocks, and behavioral reinforcement to shape human behavior. Individuality and personal privacy are questioned.
In Brave New World, tool-people are to be used as the lowest class. Tool people have no right to knowledge, no right to enjoy nature. Hypnopaedia — or “brainwashing” in our terms — is called “the greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time.”
They are first confirmed of their social identity, then dedicate social value to the collective. Apart from the motto “Community, Identity, Stability,” the greatest feature of this society is “happiness” — if we define happiness as a state of constant pleasure. Society encourages citizens to engage in promiscuous, non-reproductive sex to make them feel smug about their current state.
People’s views on sex have also changed. The novel describes a scene where a girl suggests chatting for five minutes before making love, and the boy thinks she must be a pervert. In the Brave New World, no one maintains a relationship for more than a week. Everyone is busy. Fixed emotions are viewed as abnormal behavior during cultivation, and they all believe that having a fixed boyfriend or girlfriend is disgusting and despicable.
Due to the unified assembly line shaping children, concepts like sexual reproduction, monogamy, and parents are abhorred. Exclusive love is seen as an obstacle and resisted, “everyone belongs to everyone else.” This also prevents any form of emotional attachment between people.
Consumerist Satisfaction:
Advanced technology brings all kinds of wonderful enjoyment. People live happily, working orderly every day, then engaging in games, uninhibited sex, and entertainment.
The powerful genetic technology of the Brave New World also ensures that everyone’s body remains youthful and ageless. When they reach the end of their lifespan, or usage limit, people die without showing signs of aging. After death, they are used to demonstrate to children in cultivation centers, telling them that death is a normal thing to ensure there are no emotions, expectations, or attachments.
People are always surrounded by intense sensory stimuli, and the way men and women express love is to immediately act on it. Or for some atmosphere, they might watch an adult film together before acting.
In this world, everyone receives a rationed supply of soma — a drug that brings wonderful hallucinations and pleasure. I found it is possible that ‘Soma’ (सोम) originates from the ancient Indian god of wine. Some other opinions suggest that the Haoma juice still used by Iranian Zoroastrians might be the original soma. Soma has been considered a narcotic, stimulant, or possibly a hallucinogen.
The infantilization of the population is the government’s established policy. The aging of the body and the maturation of personality and intellect are blocked to keep the abilities and tastes of World State citizens forever in an adolescent state. Homogenized mass entertainment culture promotes social cohesion and stability.
Intense sensory stimuli in the form of “feelies” and popular sports encourage people to be played by their impulses and desires, unable to delay gratification, develop beliefs, feel deeply, or fully engage in any endeavor. Minds are filled with sensuality and pleasure, thinking is prevented, reflection is eliminated, and rule-breaking is prohibited through the inoculation of the magical hallucinogenic drug “soma.”
Soma reminds me of:
- Wages
- Social media
- Any existing policy or entertainment that makes your life comfortable
“Savage” Reservation
The Savage Reservation starkly contrasts with the World State.
Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne visit the Reservation, where they are shocked by the sight of naturally aging people and a mother breastfeeding — scenes unimaginable in their highly controlled society.
The Reservation is a place of dirt roads, primitive living conditions, and ancient human practices like religious rituals and marriage, which seem undignified to visitors from the World State. During a community celebration, they witness a brutal whipping ceremony, which horrifies Lenina.
Here, they meet John, a young man who speaks perfect English and reveals that his mother, Linda, came from the World State. Linda had been left behind on the Reservation after an accident during a visit with her lover, the Director, and subsequently gave birth to John — a scandalous event by World State standards.
John, raised with stories of the World State and the works of Shakespeare, feels out of place in both cultures. Bernard decides to bring John and Linda back to the World State.
However, John soon becomes disillusioned with the lack of family, love, faith, freedom, and authentic human experiences in the World State. John’s mother, Linda, succumbs to her addiction to soma and dies, further alienating John.
His grief and anger culminate in a public outburst against the dehumanizing practices of the World State. Ultimately, John struggles to reconcile his desire for a meaningful life with the oppressive reality of the society around him.
By covering the story in Savage Reservation, you’d see some taboos in the Brave New World, including:
- History: “History is bunk” is a wonderful motto. In the history of the Ford State, there was once a vigorous anti-history movement (this sounds a bit funny): closing museums, blowing up monuments, destroying books. Along with history, religions and literary works that had appeared in history were also wiped out. They are as useless as history because they are all old. Old things are of no use.
It’s exactly like the Cultural Revolution. - Religion: God is old, “God is dead,” because people no longer have incomprehensible philosophy, lonely moments, or the need to restrain themselves. God is incompatible with machines, scientific drugs, and universal happiness.
- Art and Science: “You can’t write tragedies without social turmoil.” This has a bit of a “poverty breeds creation” flavor. People who have only experienced happiness can’t experience the passion of art. Stability and happiness were sacrificed high art and replaced by sensory equipment and aroma equipment. Art is viewed by lyric poets as a natural outpouring of strong emotions, which are individual and private and thus inevitably conflict with the motto of community and stability. Science points to the pursuit of truth. Truth gives people thought and independent will, which also poses a threat to stability.
- “Freedom is inefficient and sad.” Assembly lines are efficient, and free will choices take time.
- Goals: Explaining goals means “losing faith in pleasure as the highest good, instead believing that the goal of life is higher than real life, believing that the goal of life is not to let pleasure continue, but to strengthen and sublimate consciousness, and the progress of knowledge.”
- Loneliness: Feeling lonely is a denial of the power and happiness of the community.
These taboos mostly point to the consolidation of individual values, which are built on human emotions, rationality, thoughts, free choice, life will, perception of individuals, and family relationships.
Correspondingly, what makes these taboos is identity, community, and stability. There is a conflict between the individual and the collective, freedom and stability, which is not inevitable but universally exists.
Later, John comes before the Controller of the New World.
Mond explains the rationale behind society’s pursuit of comfort and stability, emphasizing the elimination of suffering and the provision of happiness through artificial means. He argues that the World State’s approach ensures social stability and prevents the chaos associated with individual freedoms and the pursuit of personal desires. Specifically, Mond says:
“In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.”
‘All right then,’ said the Savage defiantly. I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.
‘Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.’
Now, back to you.
Which do you choose, knowing that it will be your choice for the rest of your life: Freedom or Happiness?
