A Dystopian Future in Brave New World

4103 Words9 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Brave new world by aldous huxley essay

Brave New World is a remarkable journey into the future wherein mankind is dehumanized by the progress and misuse of technology to the point where society is a laboratory produced race of beings who are clones devoid of identity only able to worship the three things they have been preconditioned to love: "Henry Ford, their idol; Soma, a wonder drug; and sex" (Dusterhoof, Guynn, Patterson, Shaw, Wroten and Yuhasz 1). The misuse of perfected technologies, especially those allowing the manipulation of the human brain and genes, have created a pleasure-seeking world where there is no such thing as spiritual experience, just pleasures of the flesh. In the face of a transcendent religion, the inhabitants (genetically engineered to exist in one of five classes and condition to believe that the class within which they fall is the best one for them) lose their will to rebel against the capitalistic class-divisions of their society. Psychological mottoes and rigid class divisions have replaced traditional societal values such as family, religion and freedom. A wonder drug that removes all psychological pain, the pursuit of carnal pleasures, and the replacement of identity and soul with idol worship of a Henry Ford type savior serve to create a dystopia that is frightening as well as the path already being forged in society when he wrote the work in the early 1930s.

Yet when Huxley published the book in 1932, the concepts most frightening in the novel (babies conceived in the laboratory, gene splicing and reproduction, and pharmaceutical wonder drugs to relieve psychic pain) were not realities. With the successful cloning of farm animals, the development of invitro fertilization, and the rampant prescribing of countless wonder dru...

... middle of paper ...

...ew. Narr. Jenny Sawyer. 60secondRecap, 2010. Web 14 Apr. 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwCy56slJHw

Baker Siepmann, K. (ed.) Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia. (3rd edit.) Harper & Row, N.Y.: 1987.

Birnbaum, M. Aldous Huxley's Quest For Values. Univ. of Tennessee Press, TENN: 1971.

Dusterhoff, A., Guynn, R., Patterson, J., Shaw, L., Wroten, D. and Yuhasz, G. "Huxley's Brave New World: A Study Of Dehumanization." Web 11 Apr. 2015.

http://mural.uv.es/madelro/bnwstudyofdehumanization.html

Firchow, P. E. The End of Utopia. Associated Univ. Presses, Inc., N.J.: 1984.

Huxley, A. Brave New World. Harper & Bros., N.Y.: 1950.

Leary, T. and Gullichsen, E. "Huxley, Hesse And The Cybernetic Society." Web 24 Apr. 2015.

http://downlode.org/Etext/huxley_hesse_cybernetic.html

Watts, H. H. Aldous Huxley. Twayne Publishers, MASS: 1969.

Show More
Related

  • Brave New World

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alduos Huxley, in his science fiction novel Brave New World written in 1932, presents a horrifying view of a possible future in which comfort and happiness replace hard work and incentive as society's priorities. Mustapha Mond and John the Savage are the symbolic characters in the book with clashing views. Taking place in a London of the future, the people of Utopia mindlessly enjoy having no individuality. In Brave New World, Huxley's distortion of religion, human relationships and psychological training are very effective and contrast sharply with the literary realism found in the Savage Reservation. Huxley uses Brave New World to send out a message to the general public warning our society not to be so bent on the happiness and comfort that comes with scientific advancements.

    Read More

  • Misuse of Psychological Conditioning in Today’s Society: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    This book can be a warning to humanity, telling society that brainwashing can become common and destroy the modern day world. This book makes the people of the modern day world think about what could happen in the near future if society decides to go farther and more into scientific research. Misuses in science could contribute to the making of man into an animal, not a smart, adapted, emotional connected human being. In “Brave New World,” Huxley creates a world that is complete and utterly disturbing to what humanity could become. The people in the World State are controlled through psychological conditioning on a ground breaking scale.

    Read More

  • control in brave new world

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley illustrates ways in which government and advanced science control society. Through actual visualization of this Utopian society, the reader is able to see how this state affects Huxley’s characters. Throughout the book, the author deals with many different aspects of control. Whether it is of his subjects’ feelings and emotions or of the society’s restraint of population growth, Huxley depicts government’s and science’s role in the brave new world of tomorrow.

    Read More

  • Individual Freedom in Huxley's Brave New World

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    Within the first couple of chapters alone, Huxley describes the conditioning process and the abilities to manipulate the thinking, feeling, acting, and genetic makeup of all processed children within the World State, as well as expresses the ironic nature behind the World State’s motto: “Community, Identity, Stability” (Huxley 3). The emphasis behind the motto connects to the overarching idea of the importance of the group and the unimportance of the individuals; furthermore, the motto screams the inference of freedom, but contrasts due to the lack of community as a whole, lack of individuality, and lack of stability in one’s self. The continuity within the perpetual “lacks of” grasps hold of not just the World State, but America. Government holds restrictions on what classes students can take in schools, what lunches they are served, etc., connecting to the control within the World State as it determines the thought processes and education given to every child. The conditioning of the children and the lack of choice in present day society within education systems creates a lack of understanding within the idea of freedom and what it truly means to be

    Read More

  • Physician Assisted Suicide: A Compassionate Mean to End Suffering

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although physician assisted suicide may result in the fulfillment of another’s choice, be considered a compassionate mean to end suffering, or even be considered a right, I believe it is not morally acceptable. In the act of physician assisted suicide, a patient voluntarily requests his or her doctor to assist in providing the means needed for self killing. In most cases of physician assisted suicide, patients who request this type of assistance are terminally ill and mentally competent (i.e. have sufficient understanding of an individual’s own situation and purpose and consequences of any action). Those who have committed the action of physician assisted suicide or condone the act may believe that one has the right to end their own life, the right of autonomy (the right or condition of self governing), the right to a dignified death, believe that others have a duty to minimize suffering, or believe it (physician assisted suicide) to be a compassionate act, or a combination of these things. However, since this act violates the intrinsic value of human life, it is not morally acceptable.

    Read More

  • Locke And Machiavelli Research Paper

    1179 Words  | 3 Pages

    Locke’s viewpoint towards human nature is more optimistic and positive as it highlights the individual as he views humans as being rational and with reason. He believes that humans are bound by natural laws that keep each other from harming one another. Thus, no human is better or higher in status than another and are equal thus attaining perfect freedom as all men are created equally. Humans are by nature born free as Locke states that “man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom” and also with “an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature, equally with any other man” has the power to preserve his “property, life, liberty and estate” (Locke, Section 87). Locke believes in the state of nature that “has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions” (Lock...

    Read More

  • Exploring Equality in Hobbes' and Locke's State of Nature

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is uncontroversial to declare complete equality is a basic feature of most (if not all) accounts of the state of nature. Not only that, but that this complete equality is what the state of natural ultimately comes down to. Like Hobbes, Locke agrees with this point in his Second Treatise of Government:

    Read More

  • The Use of Technology to Control Society in Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

    1235 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Brave New World by Aldous Huxley : Barron's Notes." Brave New World by Aldous Huxley:

    Read More

  • Why Is Brave New World A Future Dystopia

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    Aldous Huxley is a visionary for his philosophy that we as humans will be destroyed if one must adhere to be just as the rest of society, and for creating a dystopia that echoes todays world in the United States. Brave New World is a novel by Aldous Huxley, which portrays life in a future dystopia, and the repercussions of removing intellectual challenges and morality from a society. Huxley’s goal in writing Brave New World may have been to stop a trend that has already begun: society shaming individuals for being different, as well as the mechanization of the modern world.

    Read More

  • Physician-Assisted Suicide

    1603 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 2007, the American Geriatrics Society defined Physician-Assisted Suicide as, “When a physician provides either equipment or medication, or informs the patient of the most efficacious use of already available means, for the purpose of assisting the patient to end his or her own life” (qtd. in Lachman 121). Physician-Assisted Suicide is what it says, suicide. In the United States the controversy of the “Right to die” is not new. According to Vicki D. Lachman a Clinical Associate Professor, after the Supreme Court decision in 1997, it was determined that there is not a constitutional right to die. The Supreme Court is allowing states to pass laws to legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide. Since then three states, Oregon, Washington, and Montana have made it legal to perform Phy...

    Read More

  • The State Of Nature Is Ineparable From The State Of War?

    1701 Words  | 4 Pages

    John Locke asserts that all men are equal and no one has power over another. According to John Locke everyone is born with the same capabilities. Someone only has authority over a person, if God bestowed that power onto them. Also in the state of nature, Locke asserts the law of reason is the law that governs over everyone. Reason is the law that teaches people that everyone is equal and no one should harm someone else’s liberty, life, or

    Read More

  • Arguments Against Physician Assisted Suicide

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    Physician assisted suicide or assisted death is when a terminally ill or disabled adult makes the free will choice of taking prescribed medication , after meeting certain legal requirements, that will end their life. The procedure is used in order to ease suffering when nothing else will and so it is considered a last resort means. The procedure although a last resort is very controversial and has sparked interest because of its appeal to support individual choice while at the same time detters compassion for others. Many people argue that while Assisted Suicide helps relieve the patients suffering human life is invaluable and because of that it should remain illegal, on the other side people argue that it is a matter of free choice and should be the patient's decision and not the government's.

    Read More

  • Physician-Assisted Suicide

    2762 Words  | 6 Pages

    To address these fears, many people attempt to control when and how they end their lives. Naturally, they turn to their physicians for assistance because the physicians know what amounts of drugs are lethal and how to administer such drugs to ensure death and prevent pain. However, in recent decades, when a patient feels that his or her life is no longer worth living for, they will commonly ask for their physicians’ assistance in suicide. Many people feel that it is the physician’s moral responsibility to end the suffering of the patient, while others feel that it is unethical to interfere with a natural process of death. Physicians exist to save the lives of patients. Assisted suicide puts them in the position of ending lives and naturally creates arguments of ethicality and legality.

    Read More

  • Satire in Brave New World

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even though the novel, Brave New World was written quite some time ago, Huxley still makes points that are relevant today. By using satire, he warns us on issues such as science, technology and religion. We should slow down our uses of science and technology, especially when using them for abusive purposes. We also need to be careful about letting the government get too involved in aspects of our everyday lives. If we start letting simple freedoms go, we could lose some major ones.

    Read More

  • Locke and Hume on Inequalities of Distribution

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    Locke is of the view that everything is held in common to begin with, and then when we add our labour to something we acquire ownership of that thing. For example, trees are held in common, however, if we build a chair out of the tree, we own the chair because we have put our labour into it. We have property in ourselves; therefore, what we create belongs to us. However, if we take something, we must leave enough and as good for others. In a state where everything is held in common, and where people create ownership by adding their labour inequalities can arise. They arise for a number of reasons, possibly because a person has been more productive and industrious than others have, or because they are more talented at doing useful things with the land and all that nature has given to us.

    Read More

More about A Dystopian Future in Brave New World

Open Document