Most think that we live in a place where we can think on our own and we are encouraged to believe whatever we want. We never think of some obvious things that are just norms in our society. We look at women and we know the difference between ugly and beautiful, because we have been taught this. Social norms come naturally because we have been taught then our whole life and then have been engrained into our heads, just like the alphabet and simple kindergarten skills. Humans can grow up and be conditioned to believe whatever we want them to, it is just a matter of making their brain accustom to a different world or set of beliefs. Brave New World utilizes this by going over the top in showing how most Americans think, close-mindedly. We are so used to thinking along the lines of what we have been taught growing up, socially and religiously, that we reject all forms of other society as wrong. This story really tells of the denial of the World State and their lives living in complete happiness with being lied to but it is what then have been taught from the very beginning.
Huxley uses the class system in the World State to show how the society of Brave New World uses conditioning to make people happy. this conditioning may be extreme but you can think of it in a way that relates to our society. Some people are born and raised in churches and grow up already established in a set of beliefs that them are going to follow unless they are proven wrong. A girl who grew up with a single mom is noting going to know how a real family works until she is shown something that is different. They are really made to be happy with what they are destined to be in life, just like in the World State. "All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny." People need to be show something that is against what they have been focusing on to truly understand the world. I truly believe the old saying, "a human believes everything they hear unless they have some reason not to." What makes something write in society? Your own concepts make something socially acceptable.
In Brave New World, Huxley focuses on the idea of the old (truth) or the new (lies). But more than this is a deeper meaning, do you want to be lied to and be unhappy with the world or live a lie and be completely at peace with your life. Just because you are told something does not make it right and the government is a perfect example in the story. "You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art." We have to choose if the price of happiness it worth losing your freedom to make choices and if things are really better in this world state. Even the people are lead to believe science is good but they do not really know what that is, they are constantly being lied to.
Stability is something that is always being strived for in modern society. What would happen if this society was to be put in place now? Would the world accept conformity and stability over individuality and the truth? I would be the first one to shoot down this idea, saying that we will never be truly happy no matter what the government may try to do. We will always wonder about the price of happiness but it will never be real enough to our closed-minded society to wrap their minds around. It wish we could all be happy but we will have to settle for searching for the truth and waging wars to pursue what we could have by sacrificing our own will.
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