Technology In Brave New World

Technological advancements have always been an imperative part of civilized society. As we progress through the twenty first century there have been various technological breakthroughs, especially in the fields of neurology and psychology. Although these ameliorations have been beneficial, they come with great ethical dilemmas. The Brave New World shows a dystopian view on how the misuse of technology can lead to humanitarian enslavement. Through the avenues of hypnopaedia and engineered conditioning the qualities of community, Identity and Stability are successfully ingrained within society. Essentially, the fragile balance of these three qualities is what sustains the dystopian society.

Community has been placed at the forefront and is

integral to the effective functioning of the New World State. To the liberal thinker, the idea of emphasizing community is a moral one, however community takes a new context under Huxley’s dystopia. Huxley’s idea of community is to conjugate personal desires with the desires of society and to sardonically shape morals for the benefit of eternal happiness. Now, how is it possible to achieve such a paradoxical standard of community within a species as diverse as humanity? The answer is simple; emotional manipulation. Primarily, this is achieved through the excessive use of hypnopaedia; learning under the influence of hypnosis. The New World State has embedded countless morals which are beneficial to the community through the use of hypnopaedia. One of the more important hypnopaedic ideas is, “ Everyone belongs to everyone else, after all.”(Huxley 54). It is this idea of impersonality that allows society to function. Everyone belongs to the community and it is their responsibility to satisfy the needs of the community, be that economical, sexual or even spiritual. Through the lens of this quote, it becomes very easy to understand how the wheels of society can keep turning under such a selfless populous.

Moving along, in close unison with community comes the idea of identity and individuality.

Much like the idea of community, identity takes on a new meaning under Huxley’s context; it is no longer based on a personal pursuit, rather it is the responsibility of the New World State to assign a predetermined identity. In short, these identities are divided into five groups: Alphas, Betas, Gammas , Deltas and Epsilons, each one of these castes represents an identical demographic. At birth, each member of this society joins a caste and more or less an inescapable social position. But how can the idea of permanent roles perpetuate in any human society? Although this reality may be hard for today’s world to accept, in the New World State, this is an irrefutable reality. The theory is simple, by conditioning the masses to excel in their preordained roles, people will become loyal to their position in society. As Mustapha Mond puts it. “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 destiny.”(Huxley 26). The quote represents a cynical microcosm of our world today: we love to pursue endeavors of ease and assured success, however in the Brave New World these endeavors have been engineered in a macabre manner to maintain the status quo. In addition to loving their position, the public is also conditioned to hate the responsibilities and freedoms of the other castes. The combination of rigorous conditioning and prejudicial hate yields a ceasing loyalty towards one’s position in society as well as a responsibility to the greater

community.

As a result, with the intelligible tampering of community and identity, social stability has already been assured, leaving economic stability as the only entity being questioned.Economic stability, much like our world today, is fueled through the principles of consumerism. The only difference being consumerism is not encouraged through excessive media propagation, rather it is fueled through instinctive desires. To understand this dissertation, lets depict why lower class infants were conditioned to hate nature.Essentially, a hatred for nature was imbued so that an economic venture could be explored; the only reason lower caste members were allowed to love nature was so that they could consume transport and correspondingly support the economy, but, “the problem was to find an economically sounder reason for consuming transport than a mere affection for primroses and landscapes.”(Huxley 32). And so, the desire for nature was replaced with a desire to love country sports. Through their love for country sports, members of the lower caste would effectively consume transport as well as purchase the elaborate apparatus needed to play those sports, consequently proliferating the economy. In a larger picture, the manipulation of desires helps the New World State achieve perpetual economic stability.

To sum up, through the means of hypnopaedia and highly synthesized conditioning, the Brave New World was able to effectively achieve community, identity and stability. To the average person, these qualities may seem euphoric but under Huxley’s context each one takes on demonic ulterior motives. In essence, it is the delicately fragile balance between these three qualities that sustains the absurd realities of Huxley’s dystopia. If this delicate balance were to be shaken in anyway, the results would be detrimental to the stability of the New World State.