Freedom in Brave New World Essay

Discuss the idea(s) developed by the text creator in your chosen text about the significance that freedom plays in determining the desirability of a society?

A WORLD TAKEN TO EXTREME

Huxleys Brave New World at first glance hardly seems to have any similarity to life as we know it. Though, as the saying goes, first impressions can be deceiving. The novel is seemingly based around a world foreign and completely alien. After this feeling has been overcome can one can recognize the root of Huxleys ideas. The roots are of those that compose the structure of modern society and the modern human. They have simply been mutated and disfigured to objects unfamiliar; taken to an extreme. Self-indulgence, material consumption and drugs are such examples. All fit under the umbrella objective of seeking fulfillment and happiness.

Consumption is a key part of an economy; whether it is a real society, or one ground in fiction. Goods and services are traded around and provide the economic structure. In the real world, economy is important and regulation is an involved aspect. The novel, however, involves the regulations taken to ridiculous levels. Maximum consumption is the requirement. Conditioning of youth is the means by which they will partake to reach their goals. Currently, advertising is the method for encouraging sales. It is propaganda that plays up to various emotions. Nevertheless, conditioning people from an early age is the version of marketing heightened to an extreme. While they sleep, or during development their bodies may be adjusted or ideas presented to encourage a specific consumption outcome. Negative conditioning, a Pavlov concept, is applied during the infancy years. A love of country-sports with elaborate apparatuses is conditioned. Simultaneously, a dislike of nature is encouraged to ensure enjoyment is only derived from manufactured goods. A novel quote that reflects the aims of conditioning, Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too-all his life long. The mind that judges and desire and decides-made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions... Suggestions from the State.

Drugs are a large aspect of real society. From the medications that save lives to the ordeals on the streets that snatch them. There are a bunch of recreational roles played by a wide variety of drugs. The common types for such a purpose include Marijuana and hallucinogenic. They are drugs that are taken for a pleasurable or reality warping experience. Generally, they have harmful side-affects and after-effects. Their legal status varies, but in several places they are outlawed. Managing drug trafficking and grow-ops is a perpetual police chore. In the novel, the main drug present is Soma. This drug is sanctioned, produced and distributed by the government. From a method to rebel and embark upon psychedelic voyages to a mass-produced pill for pleasure; drugs metamorphosed extremely in societal role. A way to hallucinate without the negatives that remain attached and the anchored stigma dropped. Soma assumes a large position in maintaining order amongst the masses. A quote regarding Soma, "All of the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects."

Pleasure and self-indulgence are motivating factors for real-world life. They drive humans to a goal. Greed, pleasure and fulfillment; these factors are what influences the dreams of people from youth to adults. Simplistic pursuit is looked upon as infantile. As well as lacking in moral value. These pursuits relate to consumption of goods and the recreational usage of drugs. Goods are consumed to an extent as a necessity, but to a sizeable extent based off consumer desires. As referred to earlier, advertising is what plants such wishes. Propaganda includes variants that invoke a need to feel belonging only reachable by a specific purchase. Others cater to a desire to display affluence. All together; it is meeting the human struggle to seek fulfillment through material possession. This is a philosophy that is considered empty and bearing no fruit on the road to happiness by many people currently. The novel takes this road to happiness through material consumption and self-indulgence to a, surprisingly enough, extreme extent. Material consumption is thoroughly ingrained within society. A quote matching this, "Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches." The complete sexual promiscuity is another example. Sex is encouraged to be as non-binding as possible. All people freely divulge in sexual urges. A quote reflecting an example character of free sexual tendencies attempting to impose them on another is, "Put your arms around me...Hug me till you drug me, honey...Kiss me till I'm in a coma. Hug me honey, snuggly..."

The novel is based off ideas and concepts present in current society. However, they have been taken to an extreme level. This radical change is emphasized in other aspects, such as birth. No longer is it womb-based, but completely independent of the womb. These changes further emphasize the radical nature of the society compared to contemporary times. Society to meet its expectations will even retard development of certain groups. These groups or castes are determined off of no criteria. No prior chance, minimal factors relate to whether one is a normal human or a mentally-deficient and dwarf-like figure. All these reflect base ideas and core factors of humanity. The roots have simply been mutated and disfigured into objects unfamiliar; taken