Wednesday, July 21, 2010
What would it take to change our priorities?
In the book Brave New world everyone's priorities are comfort and happiness, where as, in our world comfort and happiness are more like luxuries not priorities. We have been programmed to think that knowledge, truth, and beauty are great priorities and of great value. When the Controller discusses with the Savage about truth, knowledge, and beauty in chapter 16 he also talks about the Nine Years War. The Controller says to the Savage "People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were the sovereign goods. Right up to the time of the Nine Years War. That made them change their tune all right. What's the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you ?" War has always been feared and dreaded by everyone because of all the suffering, lose, and destruction that it brings. Yet, is it really possible that a war could be so traumatic to the human race to the point where everyone changes their priorities of knowledge, truth, and beauty to comfort and happiness because they are in such a desperate need of peace ?
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Well Erika, think about the September 11 attacks. While they may not be a war within themselves, they still brought together our whole nation. They sparked feelings of pride and unity in many Americans. If one event that took place on one day could change the attitudes of so many people then a war that took place over 9 years could especially establish new traits and ideas in people's brains, especially if a government was put in place to keep the new traits in order. I think the idea of the society adapting these new traits may be a little over exaggerated in the novel, but not too overly far off.
ReplyDeleteErika, I strongly believe that a war could change a country's or the world's priorities. I have never meet a person who enjoys being surrounded by bombs, death, horrified shouts, and suffering. After experiencing such a traumatic event I am sure that everyone would be in favor of changing their priorities, so that they can live a life of comfort and happiness. Although, these priorities sound delightful, I think it would take a great amount of suffering for them to actually take action but I definitely think it is possible.
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ReplyDeletePeople do desperate things when in pain. Nine years of war was all that the government needed to sweep in with a 'solution.' After that war, the people must have been begging for peace, begging for comfort and happiness. According to Huxley, the downfall of our society will be when we give the government complete control of our technology and our minds. Of course after what the people went through in this war, they no longer cared about the same things. Today we want individuality, love, and to work for what we want, but after that war, yes, the priorities changed. they wanted comfort and happiness to the point where they gave up everything. they were so blinded by the war's pain that they only thought about the present. Did the society know they would be stuck like that forever? Did they even care that there would be no more advances in their society? What happened to all those individuals with moral values and those with enough intelligence to know that this was not the right path? Did they not stick up for what they believed was right?
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