Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley reminds me of a more disturbing and extreme version of 1984. The 20^th Century novel is set in London in 2540 (in the book, known as 632 after Ford).  The world is stable; nobody ever suffers, the world is united, the people are happy and everyone is in a job that is satisfactory to them. However, this means controlling everything; the world has a stable population of 2 billion, children are ‘manufactured’ in labs, genetically modified to fit a caste and then educated – almost traumatized/terrorized – to fit into society. The lower castes (the majority of the population) are bred through a process in which one single egg produces up to 96 identical children. When Bernard and Lenina travel to the “Savage Reservation”, they are shocked at the difference between the two worlds. They end up encountering, John, a young man that was born from World State parents but born and raised in the Savage World. John is an outsider due to his appearance in the primitive village, and finds comfort in reading Shakespeare. Bernard decides to take John and his mother back to London. However, John finds the ‘civilized’ society appalling and is still feels as the outsider...

I do enjoy science-fiction novels, especially dystopian fiction, and I was quite enthralled by the book from the beginning. However, personally, this is one of the hardest books to classify it as good or bad, or if I liked it or disliked it. Like mentioned before, this is a much more disturbing version of 1984; it’s a very shocking book. This makes readers see the book as the savage would and gets Huxley’s ideas across; however, it sometimes a bit unsettling to read. The other reason why I don’t feel confident in declaring an interest is because the book does not present a possible answer to any problems stressed in this book. The savage’s world is too primitive and it values self-inflicted punishments as a way to repent. And on the other hand, the modern world offers no real pleasure, emotions or choice in life. It is like Huxley wrote in his 1946 foreword, “If I were now to rewrite the book, I would offer the Savage a third alternative. Between the utopian and the primitive horns of his dilemma would lie the possibility of sanity. . .” Not all books are to serve as answer, like Huxley, some books pose questions and problems. However, I always feel the need for a conclusion to a story, and it would help if Huxley had offered John sanity, if John had managed to learn, find a balance and start a revolution or a small sane town, or even if Huxley had just shown to the readers, the community of refugees in exile from the New World.

Brave New World shows the possible problems that could arise from a materialistic world run by money-hungry governments in a society that conditions people to conform. In order for the society and the economy to be stable, people must seek to consume as many goods and services as possible. This leaves a person with no room to be creative or inventive. It also means that everyone is employed. However, along the way, workers must be exploited so that others can buy the products and the exploited workers can keep their job. The answer that the New World found to this is the genetically modified caste system. Also, people are taught from the day they are born the values of the society. Because they are conditioned from a young age, it is rare from the population to stray from them, and it would be nearly impossible to change their views. This allows the community to remain stable as everyone believes in the same key values. However, this limits freedom as people are told what they can and can’t do. In some ways this can be seen in our world, as society always imposes unwritten laws, and anyone who strays is often ostracized. Through this book it is clear to see that it is hard to change someone’s beliefs as people take on some irrational values just because they were raised with them. This is why it the road to marriage, racial and gender equality is a long one and why the younger generation, growing up in a more open society, is often more accepting of differences.

It is completely abhorrent to think of this fictional society as a possible futuristic society. However, if it ever did happen, I do think that the population would be just as ignorant as the characters in Brave New World. It is sad the workers are being exploited but are conditioned to be happy within their position in the societal hierarchy and not to ever be ambitious or want to improve their living conditions. I do think that in some cases this is already true, as some of the poorest people in developing nations would be very happy just to get paid or to get a job, even if they are being taken advantage of by rich multi-national companies. Of course, I would like to hope that they have ambitions, however, for some, it is almost impossible to break the poverty cycle. Even in the developed nations, how can we ever be sure that one way is the correct way, that our governments are really striving for the best for the population or that our choices are ever our own? Just like all the characters in Brave New World, we could be living in ignorance. This is quite a pessimistic point of view and I do not think it is true for many people. However, it is important to always be researching and questioning things.

Brave New World, in my mind, is a controversial book. In some aspects it’s very interesting and very short. But in other respects, this book is disconcerting and has to be approached with a very open mind. I did enjoy reading it, but I don’t think it’s a book that I’d ever read again. It’s definitely been listed as one of the top books of the 20^th Century by many magazines and critics, but it’s not for everyone.