So far I believe Brave New World is a better novel than Amusing Ourselves To Death. I have read 2 chapters of Brave New World and i was confused at first, but i think i am starting to get it. Our world MAY turn like how it is in Brave New World and we just don't know it. It is different and unique to me how they are creating people and what they are doing to their minds. To me the characters stand for something beyond there true appearance. It seems like the Director and Mr. Foster are like the presidents and the students represents people they are merely trying to convince. The Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons seem to resemble the different kinds of people we have in the world today, for ex., rich people, poor people, conceited people, humble people and etc... I surely hope the world does not become like this because i believe it is very wrong of everyone that works in the factory of what they are doing to kids. I mean come on, why would you want kids to hate books and flowers? For them to learn they would need to learn out of books. I do not understand why they want everyone to look the same and so forth it makes no sense because if everyone looked the same and acted the same the world would be completely boring cause everyone would have the same personality and looks.
-Alex Martin
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i agree but i don't really think the world could really become that messed up and try to create practically a robot. it's quite inhuman to be honest. but i guess it really goes back to that whole utopian idea. if everyone is the same then no one can be better or worse. if we can change how someone looks before they're even born or make them immuned to diseases are a really great discovery. but sometimes people take it WAY too far. i think the illusion of having this perfect world blinds us all and even though it sounds great, it really is impossible. not that i wouldn't want it but i think we need to start by fixing the small things like hunger in third world countries and then try focusing on bigger things like world peace. i don't think this will happen because there are people in this world who know when something just isn't right. for example, making a bunch of clones in a factory and making them into the kind of person they want them to be. besides, even if we all look the same, we would find something that would make us superior to someone else. it's a never ending cycle of proving you're the best.
I agree with Alex, at first I did not understand why the people like Mr. Foster and the Director would want to have everyone in society to look and act the same way as everyone else. But as I kept reading and talked about it to some other people who have also read this book, I finally understood that to the people like Mr. Foster and the Director, that is how society should be if it is to be a true Utopian society. To them, if everyone is the same in every way, society would be balanced. To them, it is not boring. As you keep reading the book, you can see that even though what the people do to these children is not HUGELY insane as it used to be because this is how they believe a Utopian society should be.
I also agree with Gellissa, that instead of doing these experiments to find great discoveries, we should start fixing the world first. Like worrying about hunger around the world and poor economies. How are we to have a Utopian society if we can not find world peace within nations, countries, societies?
I believe Gellissa made a good point and I would just like to add on to it. In a Utopia in which people act and think the same there wouldn't be any wars, ideally. Why do you think wars start? There's the religious point in which one religion has conflicts with another because of their religious standpoint. Conflicts also start with disagreements on certain ideas or views on a particular subject, so having a Utopian society like that isn't so bad. Those examples are, unfortunately, also why we can never have world peace because there will always be two sides arguing.
Oh, just a little side note.
I read some where that if the multimillionaires just gave like a really small fraction of their money.( sorry i forgot the percentage), world hunger can be solved 3 times.
I agree that our world is becoming like this "utopia", but the difference is that we aren't just coming out and saying it. We try to cover up the bad with new technology and improvements, but are we really making the world better? This "utopia" is creeping in. Huxley just decsribed what is over the hill. We are still climbing, so we can't really see it yet. I'm not saying we are becoming that messed up to corrupt childern, i'm just saying we aren't realizing the small things that could lead to some of the same results.
rachel fisher
Yeah, thats what I was basically thinking at first also. But if that is how they grow up: all learning to be a specific person, then that is all they know. To them, the society can not be boring because how they go on with everything, is the only way they know. And really, even though in our eyes their society is insane and immoral, it is going pretty well for them I think (atleast for the beginning) and they are happy, so it pretty much is a utopia. And that is the reason for them believing everything is ok, and they should continue what they are doing. (Even though we both know there's no way it could work out in the end, and it doesn't.)
I am only halfway through the novel, Brave New World and I agree with Alex when he mentioned that the book was a bit confusing at first and how it picks up and starts to get interesting. I believe that within the utopian future that Aldous Huxley has created, things such as conditioning the children that are produced and keeping the adults oblivious of things around them by providing them things such as soma are necessary if they want to continue a world in which the higher ups such as the controller Mustapha Mond, be able to do what they want with the world they have created. Don't get me wrong, I am completely against our world turning out this way. Yes, the world will become boring if the people all looked the same and acted the same, as Alex has said, but the people within that utopian future will not be able to care because they are kept happy and completely oblivious by the government. I agree with Gelissa when she said that the utopian future that was created in the novel was taken way too far by one's illusion of what the world should be. Everyone has their own ideal or illusion about how the world should run but technically it is only those with power that can create such a radical change. As Rachel has said, things such as technologies improving just become a cover up as we head into a utopian future that Huxley predicts that we are heading to. Ultimately , I believe that our world will become a utopian future like in the novel if people become caught up with the superficial things that keep people away from important issues.
I do not believe that a utopian society is possible outside the pages of a book.
I did research on the word "utopia" at the site http://www.etymonline.com. The word "utopia" has its origins in Sir Thomas More's book Utopia written in 1516. The book is about an imaginary island where there is a perfect legal, social and political structure.
The word is derived from the Greek roots "ou" which means not and "topos" which means place.
The original definition meant "having no known location." Some other early definitions of the word were "impossibly visionary" and "nowhere".
The book should just be taken as a hyperbolic warning.
In a very few aspects (media domination and appeasement of the people) our society is becoming more and more similar to Huxley's but our entire society is not transforming into Huxley's society.
In a response to the earlier comments, everyone in Huxley's society is not equal. The people are divided into castes, so there are still different classes of people in Huxley's world. The people have just been conditioned to accept their status and to be happy with a lower status. The society in Brave New World has seen the world problems and solved them in unconventional ways.
Also, not everyone acts the same. The people act as they are conditioned, but different levels of people are conditioned differently.
Thanks Alex. I was having a little trouble trying to understand what the characters represented. The Director is the totalitarian leader and the students are the class just below him, because they are the ones that are going to create society, and society is the class below the students. They are the ones who are to do as they are told and are raised and "manufactured" to like it. That's how life is with a totalitarian government, which is what Huxley says we are heading for. The thought of having everyone look the same and do the same is exactly what would go through the Director's head because having everyone do the same causes less problems for those who aren't clones. It's a sick thing for the government to do but it isn't when social stabilty is kept in mind and that's where science is applied which is the Director's job. He helps and grows people the way the governmment wants so society wont be a problem and they can go on with their lives as if making clones was not a heartless thing to do.
I too, thanks Alex for clearing up what the Alpha's, Beta's, and the other groups of people symbolizes. It is quite "sick" to me that, people like the Director and other leading characters are just creating a batch of genetically enhance babies which quite obviously look like one another, and although they are immune to infectious diseases and what not, they are born to be destined to a certain job and taught to think in a certain way. Babies don't have a chance to grow up right and use their full potential. Although this utopian sounds good, like the idea that every one has a place and food to eat, its quite impossible for our world to head towards that path. Our world will always have wars and violence to attract media coverage but possibly it could simmer down a bit. Also, in this utopian society, people can't experince the good feeling of being mothers and fathers. The fact that everyone has to share everyone is upsurd. Love can't be enjoyed and other emotionals as well. Our world today is like a rainbow (very diverse) with multiple colors, but if headed towards a Huxley type of world, Our rainbow will shrink into a single bland color, dried out of its uniqueness.
I agree with Alex on several different levels. If social levels in society can't work together then maybe we are destined to turn out like Brave New World. Mass producing children and teaching them what to like and what to hate is absurd and unfair to the children and their own learning process. The world would be nothing without it's diversity and I think if a society, whether it be ours or another country's, would fail under it's own creation.
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