American Intellectualism In Brave New World

Catherine Liu, the author of American Idyll: Academic Antielitism as Cultural Critique argues that, “The very mission of universities has changed. We don’t educate people anymore. We train them to get jobs”(Anti-Intellectualism). Even if our society different from outside, in inside our world becoming more likely like Brave New World. Our society doesn’t care about learning but more care about their grades. Our society doesn’t care about how much they’re learning but how our learning will get us a job. It is the same to World State where they don’t care about learning because they already conditioned to just learn what they have to learn from the government. They are conditioned so they never want to do anything they shouldn’t done by the government.

The idea of education in World State are sacrificed so the people would not get any independent ideas, instead they received what they called happiness.

Ray Williams author of Anti-Intellectualism article stated that “people accept without questioning, believe without weighing the choices, join the pack because in a culture where convenience rules, real individualism is too hard work”(Anti-Intellectualism). In World State, their citizens are conditioned to do what the government wants them to do, they never asks why they did it, because they think that they will never go wrong with government decision. They are conditioned so that they never questioning about the government's decision. They received what they’re given without questioning. Our society today, becoming more like Brave New World where we just relied on internet to research something without questioning the legitimacy of the source.

In the World State where its citizen divided by different caste, also each caste were conditioned to do certain jobs to support the idea of stability. “We also predestine and conditions. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future Directors of Hatcheries”(13). In our society, everyone has their own responsibilities and that everyone needs to fulfill their role for things to work properly. But, each person has the right to education and choice to what they want to do with their life, whether it be in medical field, business field, or any field. We choose to go to work everyday to the job of our choice because we need to, not because government told us to. We received free will to decided what education level we’re trying to get without restriction.