Vectorbeam Doom
1 hour ago
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
a real Brave New World?
I've started to read Brave New World and it has me wondering, could a world like that actually come to pass? The humans are made in a factory and even before they are born, are predestined for certain jobs and life styles. The government keeps the people stupid and happy by repressing history and giving away soma. Could this actually happen?
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No, I don’t believe that there could truly be a “brave new world” as it is in the book because there will always be those free-thinkers, non-conformists, those who would not allow such events to happen. Books such as these showing a state of apparent utopia, is not meant to show what could happen in society, rather it shows what is CURRENTLY happening. It is a literal expression in a rather extreme sense, of what goes on today.
Examples in the book are representations of how people are losing their sense of individualism, conforming to what society has told them to be, stereotyping that certain “kinds” of people can only amount to so much in their lifetimes.
Soma, although represented as a drug, and probably has several real world equivalents, may actually symbolize in broader terms, people’s desire for pleasure, their keen desire for “happiness” therefore causes them to turn to items, material objects, or ideologies that turns them away from reality giving them a false sense of bliss.
In order to create a society as such, it would be necessary to take away qualities that makes us “human”: our ability to feel emotions, to make choices of our own, and to be able to make mistakes. Created in factories, they even lose their sense of need for others in their lives. They live without a father or a mother, much less a family, hence having no sense of connection with one another. Those who live in the society of Brave New World have given up these characteristics that separates or distinguishes us as individuals, as well as taking away their sense of belonging. As a result, they live as puppets in lives that they cannot call their own.
So I've decided to finally stop lurking. Haha.
Anyways, I agree with Trisha that the book isn't truly meant to be taken at face value. However, if a society such as the one in Brave New World were to be created the current status quo of our society would have to be changed rather dramatically.
I believe the process would have to be either really slow and secretive or explosive and happen in an incredibly short amount of time. There are both flaws within these seeing the "free-thinks and non-conformist" would probably have attempted to end the process before it had achieved anything.
Human emotions are also huge factor that wouldn't allow this to be possible. Love, happiness, and that goody-feely stuff I don't believe will be what stand in the way to forming a "Brave New World" since they can be easily created to produce a false sense of security and joy. The perfect example would be soma. The feelings of envy, anger, and empty feeing of being alone I believe are what make this society nearly impossible to create because even with the harsh conditioning there will always be someone who doesn't quite fit in, such as Bernard and Helmholtz.
All in all, I do not believe it to be possible because no matter what methods you use, conditioning, x-rays, alcohol injections, there is no way to fully eradicate the qualities that make people human without eradicating humanity.
-- Elizabeth Ly
As mentioned in the book it took a massive war for the transformation to be possible. Without such chaos or catastrophe to give rise to opportunity or create a blank slate such dramatic change is impossible.
Such a devastating event can't occur in modern times or the foreseeable future without being too devastating. Modern weaponry is simply too powerful for an all-out, global conflict to occur without the danger of it being a civilization ending event.
-Matthew Manabat
When I was reading this book it made me seem like the society in the book is based as a utopia, because I think there will not be a society in the future like "Brave New World".If there will be a society in future as "Brave New World" then I think the community will not be able to maintain its motto "Community, Identity, Stability." Especially not "Stability" because as Trisha wrote "there will always be free-thinkers, non conformists, those who would not allow such events to happen" and I agree what Trisha wrote, there will be always people who don't agree with things and are willing to stand up for changes. Also, the book is not based on a utopia but a "dystopia."
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