Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Are we the naive ones?
It is taking me a while to grasp all the different concepts presented in Brave New World. It is so strange to see them gasp at the prospect of families and homes and monogamy. I thought well it must be because they do not know any better. They are naïve and that is how they were raised or taught. But who is to say that we know better? They are obviously having a more successful society than us. Maybe not putting so much into relationships and not getting attached to anyone is the way to go. That is obviously one of the factors that got them where they are. Even today, compare Japan to the United States, Japan is having more success than we are, and incidentally they put less focus on marriage and families. Is that the only way a society will prosper? Although we scoff at how their society functions and believe the way we live today is correct, maybe we are the naïve ones.
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This is an interesting thought, we have a lot more feelings, romance movies,and romantic books than the "sucessful" future way of life. But why is their society successful? Because they have a lot more technology, perhaps? Or because everyone is happy and used to the world they live in? They seem successful, in the way of technology and routine, but what about sucess in happiness? they're people can hardly have a normal life without Soma, and they have a caste system. We today in the U.S. dont have a caste system and nobody needs medication for happiness. (With the exception of depression, but you know what i mean).So what IS a sucessful society?
ReplyDeleteAlejandra, if you knew how many mood altering drugs are prescribed to children, adolescents and adults, your head would spin all the way around twice. Medication for happiness is a billion dollar industry in this country.
ReplyDeleteI like this line of questioning, by the way. If you had to create a perfect society, how would you go about it?
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting, I mean how are we supposed to know what is right from wrong and what is weird from normal. How is it that romance movies display love? Is that even how real love is or is that really what our society has created it to be? Mrs. Fletcher a perfect society would have to have medication to suppress actual feelings because I believe, feelings and individualism is the reason society is the way it is. Without unique qualities, everyone would be equal, and equality seems the to be a way that a perfect society could be created, in my line of thinking at least?
ReplyDelete"Without unique qualities, everyone would be equal, and equality seems the to be a way that a perfect society could be created, in my line of thinking at least?" - Norma
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say equal...similar, perhaps? In Brave New World for example, Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons are technically not equal because they do not have the same mental capacities; therefore, their jobs and responsibilities are based on their caste and their capabilities.
As implied by Mustapha Mond in Chapter 16 of Brave New World, equality does not create a perfect society. In actuality, it creates an unstable society. Remember when Mustapha Mond was telling the story of how they once experimented with creating a society consisting of only Alphas? How did that turn out?
"The land wasn't properly worked; there were strikes in all the factories; the laws were set at naught, orders disobeyed; all the people detailed for a spell of low-grade work were perpetually intriguing for high-grade jobs, and all the people with high-grade jobs were counter intriguing at all costs to stay where they are. Within six years they were having a first-class civil war."
I guess inequality is inevitable. We have to accept the fact that in a world of inequalities, everyone cannot be equal. This is one of the reasons why the world Huxley has created in his book has a caste system in order to meet vital jobs and responsibilities that are not the same in difficulty or level of intelligence. As Mustapha Mond said, "The optimum population is modelled on the iceberg - eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above."
If equality is not the way to create a perfect society, then what is? This question is so easy to ask but so difficult to answer.
This question is really difficult to answer. All my life I have been raised with completely different morals from the ones in Brave New World. It is extremely strange to think that we are the naive ones when everyone has taught me otherwise. Perhaps if we did start worrying less about our relationships, family, and our emotions we can be more successful. Yet I can not imagine living life without certain emotions. I believe they make our lives beautiful and worth living.
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