Blog #4

Huxley's view of the future is indeed horrifying, and it is indeed difficult to put a finger on exactly why, seeing as everyone is perpetually content and happy. However, it is a false happiness. People are homogenous, they seem to lack a real understanding at what is going on. They spit back information without fully grasping it. Even the most intelligent ones- the Alphas- are very brainwashed. People have no ability to have a personality. Though they are constantly under an illusion of happiness, they in fact are not truly happy because they have no appreciation of happiness. One must experience suffering and pain in order to know that happiness is something to treasure. Therefore they are in a constant state of dumb bliss that is unfounded and illogical. They are like robots, too brainwashed to break out of the mold. To people in our society now, a society that encourages individuality, this loss of individuality is horrifying. True, for one inside the society it may not seem too bad, but once one has had a real taste of what it is like to truly experience life, I'd imagine that people that are not too terribly brainwashed would never turn back.

Blog #3

The argument essentially is arguing for freedom. Yes, the society has comfort and "happiness", or at least, lack of sadness, anger, shock- "negative emotions"... but for this, the humans are like children. They have known no suffering. Mustapha Mond's argument is that this is better, to know no suffering, and have no freedom to know suffering. The savage, John, however, believes that the world is better with suffering... because when one has the freedom to suffer, one knows what happiness truly is, and one appreciates it. The people in the society do not appreciate anything because everything is handed to them. The savage is making the argument that he would much rather feel the pain and appreciate the happiness, because he has the experience of feeling the pain, and the freedom to experience it. His argument is that the freedom to be happy and sad and to live one's life the desired way is many times better than a controlled state of constant contentment.

Brave New World blog 2

The idea of constantly giving pleasure is a major theme in the book. The society uses things like sex, games, soma, and their "catch phrases" to illustrate this. When people constantly receive pleasure, sexual or otherwise, they will not complain. Because sex is such a staple in the society, people do not fall in love, as they can "have" whoever they want and are expected to keep doing so. This eliminates attachments of humans to other humans, which in turn builds the attachment to the central society. This extends to the games as well... it is the idea of everyone constantly being in the company of everyone else, because therefore people will be conditioned to fear solitude and not want to be alone- hence adhering even more to the society. Soma is obvious- it keeps people on a surface level of happiness.. under an illusion that they are happy. Finally, phrases like "ending is better than mending" is once again to prevent people from forming attachments... the phrase, referring to clothing, keeps an infusion of "newness" in their life- the excitement and pleasure of forming something new, and discouragement of forming any sort of attachment with an article of clothing that will keep them from throwing it away. This phrase, however, coupled with the availability of sex, once again keeps an infusion of newness- this time in the form of people- in their lives, once again so that they will never form attachments and turn away from the society.

Brave New World post 1

Though on the surface, Huxley's "Brave New World" seems to be a very far-fetched interpretation of the "future", there are certainly aspects of it that are reflected in todays society. For example, the use of helicopters to travel is very much mirrored by our modern use of cars. Children, also, are in a way "conditioned".... something that has been going on in religious education for centuries, but modern children must learn a certain amount in a certain amount of years, using standardized testing to regulate the levels. Things are thought of as "first grade" level, "second grade" level.... very much regimented, such as the conditioning that the kids in 'Brave New World" go through. Also, the idea of pampering is an overtone in our society, just as it is essential to their society. With our celebrity role models that live very pampered lives, the advertisement of a need for material items, etc., our society very much revolves around materialism and need for a constant state of "happiness", just like in Brace New World.

There are some things that are different though. For example, people have their various "places" in the book, and stay in their places. They are happy in their places. This is seemingly the opposite of the foundation of the United States, whose ideology states that people should and do have the ability to raise and lower their social status with education and type of profession. America is founded on the idea of being a "free country"--- how free it actually is is debatable, but in Brave New World, the society is very much NOT free.