Friday, April 17, 2015

What point is Huxley making about human nature and the nature of human communities?

In Brave New World, Huxley is
satirizing how an extreme governmental and technological "community" has destroyed human
individuality, the family, education, religion, and human correspondence with nature
through the following ways:


The government
controls technology to control us.
Humans are no longer born in
Brave New World; they are decanted.  Science and technology have
been used by the state to replace natural reproduction.  Birth control is mandatory.
 Drugs are part of religious observance.  In these ways, technology controls humans, not
humans controlling technology.  Huxley warns us of an over-reliance and faith in science
at the cost of human values, especially in the areas of human reproduction and family
planning.


Communist government and doctrine
control and destroy the individual.
There is one world state in the
novel, and the World Controller preaches the mottoes of communism and socialism
("identity, community, stability"), eerily reminiscent of Soviet Union doctrine.  John,
the symbol for individuality, kills himself at the end because he has no more fixed
identity; he has become "we," a slave to the group.  Huxely warns that a community must
make room for the individual, especially a rebel (like
John).


We have become a nation of
pleasure-seekers.
The citizens of the Brave New World have no private
shame or monogamous values; instead, they are encourage to share their bodies openly
with multiple partners, to engage in "orgy-porgy," to watch "feelies" incessantly, and
to equate religious observance with drugs and free love.  In this way, Huxley presages
our addiction to mass media (TV, movies, Internet) carnality at the sake of religious
and family values and tradition.  We have become a "me-first" nation that is ruled by
pagan idolatry, whether it be shopping, porn, reality TV, or food.  We must have it all
to excess.

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