I
have read and understand the sections in the Student Handbook regarding Mason
High School's Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title
page of my paper, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the
process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or
plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the
possible consequences of the act, which could include a "0" on the
paper, as well as an "F" as a final grade in the course.
Signed:
_______________________
Peter
Kociba
English
IV
Ms.
Nichole Wilson
Peter Kociba
Ms. Nichole Wilson
English IV
April 2015
New
World, New Rules
If we had
a chance to live the future, today, but had to give up our humanity to do so,
what would be our choice? Everyday people are given a choice – a choice to
reach for their goals or do what makes them happy. In a perfect world, these
would be one in the same. Aldous Huxley presents this utopian world in his
book Brave New World, where the people are governed and trained in a
totalitarian regime that not only ensures that people are happy, but also is
able to control the behavior of each individual and keep society stable. Upon
closer inspection of Today’s society, we are not any closer to this type of
government.
First,
the government controls how the people in the World State are born and are
treated like products that need to go through a series of tests before being
‘shipped out’. Instead of being naturally
born, the World State uses a form of artificial birth to determine which child
will be in what category of the caste system. Huxley generates "community" by
dividing the population into segments, where the Alphas serve as intellectual
superiors and Epsilons function as pure menial labor. In Brave New World,
“[they] decant [their] babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or
Epsilons" (Huxley 13). Children are taught throughout their life to be
happy with their caste so they have no desire to change. The basic ideas of
society are also "wedded indissolubly before the child can speak. But
wordless conditioning is crude and wholesale [...] for that there must be
words, but words without reason" (Huxley 28).
Next, the
government for the World State controls what Caste the baby will be born in and
what its future job will be for the World State. In an experiment at the
beginning of Chapter Two, one can notice how Delta babies are forced to learn
“…what the psychologists used to call an 'instinctive' hatred of books and
flowers” (Huxley 22). Their love for books and flowers may influence the
efficiency of the lives The Controllers want humans to live. Deltas are trained
to avoid roses and books by giving them electric shocks when they touch those
items. Before they even know it, their freedom of choice and belief is
eliminated. Psychologically, this conditioning also lowers these classes to the
status of animals. They are trained to hate books in case they read something
that might undesirably decondition one of their reflexes. They are taught to
hate flowers, so that they will not spend too much time in the countryside,
away from work and responsibilities. This again applies to the efficiency of
the society. Alphas are given challenging jobs and Epsilons are given grunt
work that would be boring for higher caste members. “Alphas are so conditioned
that they do not have to be infantile in their emotional behavior. But that is
all the more reason for their making a special effort to conform. It is their
duty to be infantile, even against their inclination” (Huxley 98)."Stability"
in their society is ensured through the limitations placed on the intelligence
of each group.
In Brave
New World, their happiness is only as limited as what they are told and the
use of a special drug used to forget these emotions. The drug in question here is soma, a
hallucinogen used by those in power to subdue the citizens in their society’s futuristic,
totalitarian setting. It is described as "the perfect drug," with all
the benefits with no drawbacks. The citizens of the "World State"
have been conditioned to love the drug, and they use it to escape any momentary
bouts of dissatisfaction. The problem, as The Savage identifies, is that the
citizens are essentially enslaved by the drug and turned into mindless drones
and are still prisoners of their own freedom. The hypnopædic platitude
"Every one belongs to everyone else"(Huxley 47) is a great example of
the sort of confinement we see in Brave New World. No one can be free
because everyone is subject to the desires and urges of every other person
through the conditioning and soma. How can we have freedom when we are
considered property?
The society
Huxley presents is based on many things, one of which is the desire to consume.
The people have been conditioned in this manner. From the economic standpoint
of the society, if people consume readily as they do, there will always be a
need for jobs thus completing the supply and demand cycle. Huxley’s world was
intended to be a future utopian society, but is in reality a dystopia. This
reality to any human would be devastation for everything that people have
worked for. People want to be free and the chance to feel. As the Savage put
it, "I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger,
I want freedom, [and] I want goodness. I want sin" (Huxley 240).
In today’s
society, nobody has a right to limit anyone’s intelligence. Those who are
intelligent enough will become what they desire, and their knowledge will be
contributing towards the whole world. By conditioning the population to tell
them to respect each other’s caste, and to be happy with their identity and the
community they form, where the only reason for living is to benefit others,
those freedoms are eliminated and no one is given a chance to choose, think, or
change. They have stripped themselves to choose freely and give up a part of
humanity by being created in a tube and look like everyone else instead of
being born and really living.
As we grow
up into adulthood, we would think that being able tell whether or not we are
happy would be easier, but, judging our own happiness can be difficult. There is often a disconnection between what
our brains tell us and what we actually feel. In “How to Intentionally Design a Happier Life”
by Elizabeth Segran wrote Paul Dolan, a professor
at the London School of Economics, a government policy advisor and one of the
world’s leading happiness scholars, says "We tell stories about the things
we think should make us happy, but sometimes, when we look a bit closer, we are
not really that happy at all"(Segran). He explains that landing the dream job or
getting engaged can make us feel happy, but in reality, the negatives may not
register to someone such as the co-workers are mean or anxious about tying the
knot. It takes a lot of energy to be constantly thinking about whether or not
we are happy ourselves, which is why
most of us adopt a philosophy about what goes into meaningful life—such as
finding satisfying work, getting married, having kids—then we stop wondering
whether we are happy. Dolan concluded that “thoughtful, driven people spend so
long reflecting about what makes a meaningful life, they sometimes lose sight
of what actually feels good to them on a daily basis” (Segran). To be happy, we
make mistakes and learn from them such as making mistakes as a child. For
example, children learn not to play with fire if they burn themselves once. One
should not be taught to hate things that are not dangerous for their own
health, otherwise these individuals are considered narrow minded and ignorant.
Arthur
Brooks, author of “Free People are Happy People”, suggests that in order for us
to be happy, we have to be free in our own society. Therefore freedom and
happiness are connected. In 1976, an experiment was conducted to explain how freedom
causes happiness, “Psychologists in Connecticut gave residents on one floor of
a nursing home the freedom to decide which night of the week would be “movie
night,” as well as the freedom to choose and care for the plants on their
floor. On another floor of the same nursing home, residents did not receive
these choices and responsibilities” (Brooks). The first group, which were no
healthier or happier than the second when the experiment began, quickly showed
more activity, greater awareness, and better moods.
As man has
progressed through the ages, there has been, essentially, one purpose – to
arrive at a utopian society. A society where everyone is happy, disease is
nonexistent, and strife, anger, and sadness are unknown. Only happiness exists.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley counters this by showing that these
items are not what the human soul really craves. In a utopian society, the
individual is lost in the melting pot of semblance and world of disinterest.
Huxley uses his knowledge of science along with his imagination to show how a utopian
society would be pictured. In Brave New World, he removes individuality
and has made happiness and the enjoyment of life into an artificial feeling
with the constant presence of soma. Freedom is what makes people human and in a
world where freedom the freedom of choice is taken away, feelings then
disappear.
In the
society of Brave New World, the population only know how to be
conditionally happy and oblivious to the fact that their world is not a slice
of heaven. According to Biswas-Diener and Kashdan, the secret of happiness is a
concern of growing importance in the modern era. “We are no longer
hunter-gatherers, so to speak, concerned with where to find the next kill, but
in truth, we worry instead about how to live our best lives” (Biswas-Diener and
Kashdan ). The fever to search for our happiness is encouraged by a growing
body of research suggesting that “happiness does not just feel good but is good
for you—it's been linked to all sorts of benefits, from higher earnings and
better immune-system functioning to boosts in creativity” (Biswas-Diener and
Kashdan ). The citizens of Brave New World's futuristic
society are in a constant state of imprisonment. But because they have been
conditioned to love their servitude, no one seems to have any problem with
this.
Now we
bring ourselves to the final question, “If we could live the future today, but
in return had to give up our humanity and happiness to do so, what would be our
choice?” Our thoughts would not be our own, nor would our actions. The people would
be governed and trained in a totalitarian regime that not only ensures our
happiness, but along with being able to control our behavior of each individual
and keep society stable. We would be under the influence of false facts and
drugs to a point where we are treated like animals. In today’s society, we
choose what we do and what we think, which is what makes us human. Everyday people are given a choice – a choice
to reach for their goals or do what makes them happy.
Works Cited
Biswas-Diener, Robert, and Todd
B. Kashdan. "What Happy People Do Differently." Psychology Today. N.p., 19 June
2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2015.
Brooks, Arthur C. "Free People Are
Happy People." City Journal. N.p., Spring 2008. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1932.
Keyes, Alan. "Freedom Means
Having The Choice, Liberty Means Using It To Do Right." The Daily Caller. N.p., 26 Feb. 2015.
Web. 27 Mar. 2015.
Landau,
Elizabeth. "Why Happiness Is Healthy - CNN.com." CNN. Cable
News Network, 25 Dec. 2014. Web. 26
Mar. 2015.
Segran,
Elizabeth. "How To Intentionally Design A Happier Life." Fast
Company. Fast Company & Inc, 12
Feb. 2015. Web.
