Brave New World's Religion

I don't fully understand Postmodernism for Beginners but it seems like Lyotard's explanation of science relying upon narrative pretty accurately describes the Ford based religion seen in Brave New World.

In Postmodernism Lyotard points out that sciences main problem is it, "cannot legitimize its own activity", it relies upon political and philosophical narratives to explain the need for science at all. This is seen in the enlightenment ideals that science will bring knowledge to each individual and with this knowledge and progress we will bring happiness, to them," happiness means political freedom." However our society changed these ideals in the 20th century when science brought us World War II and The Holocaust. This disillusioned most people to the wonders of science and forced science to legitimize itself with efficiency for efficiency's sake.

However in Brave New World they have devised a system which allows science to be legitimate all in itself with a religious narrative. Through their worship of Ford the society in BNW has a narrative which,"legitimizes [itself]... just in the telling and at the same time [it] legitimizes the society in which [it] is told" but can also be proven on the basis of fact. We only really first see this religion in chapter 5 when Bernard attends a Solidarity Group. The ceremony this group performs is extremely similar to most church ceremonies, except for the drugs and sex obviously. Looking past the soma and huge orgy this ceremony's main purpose is to make the group feel like they are a part of a larger being. As Bernard observed it was ,"twelve of them ready to be made one, waiting to come together, to be fused, to lose their twelve separate identities in a larger being". This is essentially the point of any mass at Church, to make the church goers feel as though they are a part of their god's creation and plan as well as the church's orthodoxy. The only difference in the BNW religion is that because it is based upon Ford and the assembly line it holds up to scientific progress and actually encourages it. Without this religion their society is similar to the postmodern condition described by Lyotard in which Science is only concerned with performativity, or efficiency for efficiency's sake.

It's basically just another way Huxley has come up with a horribly perfect way to keep the BNW society running, by combining Lyotard's concepts of myths and science.

Oh and I know i didnt really bring up grand narratives at all but i dont quite understand them fully yet and what i do understand i don't necessarily agree with.

Brave New World-The Perfect Society

Like it or not i think in Brave New World Aldous Huxley has come up with the perfect society. I think this is just hard to see because it is so backwards from our perception of what a "utopia" should be. Their morals seem almost the complete opposite of ours. But this is how they achieve the perfect society; Rather than following in our example of morals that better the individual they have structured their beliefs around bettering society as a whole.

For example, The caste system, and conditioning in BNW makes for the perfect stable society in which all its citizens are happy and content, albeit mindless drones of a machine. In our society we are not grown in bottles and conditioned, inhumanly, to like our surroundings. We have parents who love us and as we grow we decided whether we like our life or not. If we aren't satisfied with our way of living we can change it through several means. However this causes Alot of stress. For one, parents can be a huge source of stress, especially around our teen years. And yes we are also a constant source of stress for them for years and years. Second, being dissatisfied with our social position can lead to a life-long struggle for promotions and money. Our society keeps this because we believe the reward to the individual, loving relationships and higher earnings, is worth the social disorder.

Another example of this can be seen in how they spend their free time. No one is ever supposed to be alone. In fact they've been conditioned to absolutely hate any solidarity they find. This is different from our society which requires solidarity for several educational reasons. Aside from obvious people like philosophers and writers who benefit from alone time even high school students need quiet to get homework done so, basically the main benefit people derive from solidarity is time for reflection and learning. To a society like ours, which wants individuals to better themselves, this alone time is beneficial. But to a perfect society it can be deadly. Solidarity will lead to reflection which may cause some people to realize their unhappy and even soma can't stop that. So, for a perfect society to exist all it;s citizens must be kept in a constant state of happy, active bliss.

So as long as we keep placing the individual above society we will never achieve a peaceful, productive utopia such as the one found in Brave New World.