Brave New World Vs. Modern Society Essay, Research Paper
Although the book Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, was written more than
60 old ages ago, its topic has become more popular since most of the
engineerings described in the book have, at least, partly, go a world.
Huxley & # 8217 ; s community of Utopia is a futuristic society designed by familial
technology, and controlled by nervous conditioning with mind-altering drugs and
a manipulative media system. Yet, despite the similarities, the reader besides finds
many contrasts between the two societies.
and Possibly the most outstanding contrast between Huxley s Utopia and our
modern society, trades with the issue of reproduction. The bulk of babes born
in our society today, are still the consequence of intercourse between a adult male and a
adult female. In many instances the birth of a kid is a memorable and joyous event for
the adult female. In Utopia, nevertheless, if a adult female is caught bearing progeny, she will
be punished by expatriate.
Offspring non produced the society s manner is a menace to the
society s being, in the eyes of the leaders. As today, gestation, in Utopia,
could be prevented utilizing a assortment of methods. Where our society uses male
and female birth control methods, Utopia has pregnancy replacement ( a process
in which Utopian adult female are given all the psychological benefits of childbearing
without undergoing it ) and Malthusian drill ( similar to today s birth control pills ) .
However, modern society and Huxley s Utopia both explore the advantages of
unreal reproduction, although Utopia has taken it to the extreme: The
Bokanovsky Process, is a method whereby a human egg s normal development
is arrested, so buds, bring forthing many indistinguishable eggs. My good
male child! & # 8230 ; Bokanovsky s Process is one of the major instruments of societal stableness!
( Huxley, 7 ) . Not merely did this method create 1000000s of automaton like citizens for
Utopia, but the leaders have supreme control over any menace of overpopulation.
Utopian predestinators decide the future map of each embryo, basically
delegating category position. In this manner, the leaders of Utopia are besides able to
maintain the societal categories balanced in the manner they felt benefited everyone.
Although the reader sees some dissipation of societal categories in modern
society, in Utopia, the category differentiations were tangible. A five-tiered caste
system is maintained which ranks Alphas and Betas on top followed by
Gammas, Deltas, and the semi-moronic, omnipresent Epsilons. The slogan
& # 8220 ; Community, Identity, Stability & # 8221 ; frames the Utopian societal construction. In Huxley s
& # 8220 ; community & # 8221 ; each grade has its intent in the society, from the Alphas who serve
as intellectuals to the common Epsilons who function as the pure humble
labourers. & # 8220 ; Identity & # 8221 ; is established in the Conditioning Centre through the
separation of the embryos into one of five categories and & # 8220 ; stableness & # 8221 ; is insured
through the restrictions placed on the intelligence of each group. Whereas in
today s society a individual s outer visual aspect and attire may non uncover his wealth
and position, in Utopian society, a individual s unifo
rm is the badge of his category.
& # 8230 ; eight-month-old babes, all precisely likewise ( a Bokanovsky group, it was apparent )
and all ( since their caste was Delta ) dressed in khaki. ( 20 ) . This really seeable
reduplication of one s position serves to farther status the grades to non-interaction,
something that modern society conceives of as a atavist to unenlightened
times. Beneath them lay the edifices of the Golf Club-the immense Lower Caste
barracks and, on the other side of a spliting wall, the smaller houses reserved
for Alpha and Beta members. ( 73 )
Indeed our public instruction system is a testimonial to a more enlightened
position of society. Free instruction is the agencies by which people of changing
backgrounds and position intermingle. It is besides the vehicle for guaranting unfastened
entree to the tools necessary to guarantee one s success in whatever your chosen
profession. The kids of Utopia do non bask such ideals of instruction. They
are conditioned, non in schools, but instead in State Conditioning Centres.
Here, daze therapy and hypnopaedia provide the educational procedure for a
whole coevals. In Chapter 2, for illustration, babes receive daze therapy
everytime they try to touch a book and/or flowers. They ll turn up with what
psychologists used to name natural hate of books and flowers. Reflexs
unchangeably conditioned. They will be safe from books and botany all their lives.
( 22 ) . The usage of hypnopaedia, learning during slumber, strengthens the
conditioning procedure, and underscores the insidious nature of the province s
educational system. Huxley relays the effectivity of the method by holding
his characters repeatedly quote & # 8220 ; hypnopaedic phrases, & # 8221 ; After all, every one
plants for everyone else. We can t make without any 1. Even Epsilons & # 8230 ; ( 91 ) .
Similar to subliminal messages used by psychologists, advertizements, and
telecasting in today s universe, hypnopaedia was designed as a method of mass
indoctrination including playing a tape to a group over and over, alternatively of
individualized acquisition. Utopia s kids are merely taught the measure and quality
of information needed to carry through their designated function in their society.
After the terminal of the Second World War, Huxley added a preface to
Brave New World, including drastic alterations that had occurred in the universe,
since the book s publication. Today it seems rather possible that the horror may
be upon us within a individual century. ( 268 ) . Is it possible that our society is
heading towards this way? Will it go Huxley s Utopia? Will our universe
finally have to trust on controlled reproduction and rigorous artificial
insemination processes to forestall overpopulation? Will businesss be
predecided based on our preprescribed and unnaturally induced capablenesss?
Will the construct of household go a black reminder of another unenlightened
clip in human history? Although the word Utopia has become synonymous with
what an model province should be, Huxley s Utopia is non a universe we should
strive to double, but instead, larn from to rectify our errors in the hereafter.
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