Society In Brave New World

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley is a novel about a hidden dystopian society. Huxley describes a perfect dystopia where scientist breed people to be in a certain social class. This is accomplished through conditioning. There are many similarities in today's society that collide with the society in Brave New World. The society of the World State is similar to today’s society in these ways. First, technologies prevent us to think or feel real emotion, second the truth is hidden from us. Finally, objects and people distract us from real life.

When the people of the World State are upset, they turn to soma to give them a false sense of happiness. Soma is a technology that prevents people from feeling real emotions. They merely say, “You look glum! What you need is another gramme of soma” (60). If anything bad happens in our society, people tend to turn to drugs like antidepressants. People in the world state say “...if anything should go wrong, there's soma” (226). The society in Brave New World is similar to the society today in

the sense that people will do and use anything to make any negative energy go away.
Nobody in the World State realizes the dystopia they are living in. Many of them do not know what is real or fake around them, causing confusion about what they should believe. The rulers in Brave New World believe “that is [the] secret of happiness and virtue- liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny” (15). Today, we are hidden from the truth quite a lot. The Internet is a good example. There are websites that exist just so they can simply spread rumors about celebrities. With the web being substantial, no one could ever tell if the piece of information they are reading is real or not. Not knowing if the information is real or fake makes a person think and ask questions. The World State forces their citizens to listen to them, making a lot of information they receive innaccurate. The Director says, “the mind that judges and desires and decides [is] made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions… suggestions from the state” (28). In Brave New World and today's society, we are withheld from information to supposedly “keep peace” in the societies.
People in the World State are preoccupied by feelies, the orgy-porgy, the World State,and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.

In today's society, we are distracted by things like technology, people, and even sex. These distractions prevent us from “being” in the real world. Lenina tells John, “put your arms around me… Hug me till you drug me honey… kiss me till I’m in a coma. Hug me honey, snuggly…” (198). She is so focused on having sex, she will disregard her everyday life. People in today's society think sex is everything and let it take over their lives, but it is not the most important thing. John tells us “the happiest times were when [Linda] told him about the other place” (129). He disliked the real world and was so desperate to go to this so called “perfect” and “wonderful” place. John completely disregards the real world. Technology in today's society seems to have more of an influence and tends to distract people from the real

world.
Some would argue that today's society is nothing like the society in Brave New World. People argue that these technologies, like soma and antidepressants, are good and help. They help people get out of a slump they may tend to fall into every once in awhile. And yes, technology may help but the side effects can be awful. They can cause addiction, like in Brave New World, and death, like how Linda died. Others argue that this utopia is perfect and there is nothing wrong with it. They believe things should be hidden from their citizens, but that should not be the case. Hiding things from people causes distrust and which leads to chaos.
Brave New World is about a hidden dystopia with addiction, distrust, and distractions. These things are also relevant in today's society. The society in Brave New World is similar to today's society because of the technology that keeps us from thinking for ourselves, the truth is often being hidden from us, and things that distract us from the real world. Huxley portrays a dystopian society that is similar to today; with the advancement of technology, the side effects that come with it, and truth that is hidden from us. Is it possible we could be living in a not-so-hidden dystopia?