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.
Chelsea your view of brave new world is amazing. The perspective that you brought up is very true in my opinion, Bernard is unhappy and see's the BNW as horrible because of his solidarity and his self reflection. Which brings up the question i feel like asking to all who see this as such a ludicrous society, Why wouldnt you want to live in this society? You'd be perfectly happy in your own caste, your job, and your sexual desires. The only reason you would see BNW as immoral is because we are viewing it from outside looking in. Awesome blog diggity :) hopefully we discuss this in class
ReplyDeleteWow, Chelsea. I know you wanted to cause some controversy, but you have argued your point so well, you made me question my own opinions of the book. You looked at it from a person who has an open mind, you considered the benefit of the society rather than the benefit of the individual, and to have an efficient society, I think that is the only way to do it. Anyways, I think you made a really good argument so kudos to you. I hope you get the argument you want, but I will not be the one to argue with you, I know better than that, hahaha. In the end, I am going to stick with my opinion that some of the things they do in the book is wrong, but I can see it from your perspective as well. I think I feel this way because this was they way I was raised, I don't think we should risk our individual emotions for the overall happiness of society because without the individuals there would be no society. The people of Brave New World would completely disagree with me, but that's fine because that is the way they were raised, and that's not really our fault. But that's just me, I thought you made some really good points though, so good job :)
ReplyDeleteHey Chelsea beeson. I kind of agree with you about the book. It does seem like the society is perfect in alot of ways, but I would mostly just say that it is different. There are still problems. People still worry and struggle to make the right decisions. Your right that they arent drones in a machine at all and they do seem to be perfectly happy. But Im not sure all of them are. Everyone seems worried about what they are doing.
ReplyDeleteI personally am a fan of solidarity and reflection, but without it maybe i wouldnt be. I dont think its bad to realize that you are unhappy, but you just have to choose to not be. But yea i like your perspective better than most people in the class who think its a horrible world, it actually seems pretty darn good to me.
super convincing chelsea bravo! if that was the world i was born into i would be super stress free because like you said i wouldn't have to worry about feeding my kids or how am i gonna get a job or even feeling tied down to someone because it is socially acceptable. how can you not be happy? however i have concerns. in theory being free who i want to be should make me happy, but i KNOW that if that many people are born i would HATE the fact i would have limited living space along witha whole bunch of other problems that follow overpopulation. other than that i respect your perspective
ReplyDeleteOoooo, a very interesting viewpoint, Chelsea! I enjoyed reading your argument (it was quite well done).
ReplyDeleteHowever, if you don't mind I have some questions for you, just to help clarify exactly what your stance is on a few issues I had with your argument. I hope you don't view this as a cop-out from a debate or some passive-aggressive attempt to poke holes in your argument, but yours is the first blog I've read that has taken this stance (granted, I haven't read everyone's yet) and I am genuinely curious as to what world view lead you to this conclusion. Wow, long sentence. Okay, here goes nothing:
It is my opinion that the society in Brave New World ignores many essential emotional and psychological needs. I don't think I have the room or the time to go through all of them, (I hope I do before this unit is done. Your blog has really got me thinking about these things!) however I will address one. I have surmised from both personal experience and interacting with others that we as humans have a fundamental need to define ourselves as individuals as well as members of a community. One of these fundamental needs is missing for everyone thus far in the novel (yes, including Bernard Max, although his friendship with Helmholtz Watson is an attempt to fulfill the latter need). As a result, they feel a sort of panic when confronted with the missing need and must retreat because they are incapable of handling negative emotions. Is such a lack of emotional maturity okay? Or as long as society keeps running smoothly, does personal development have any value at all? If not, then what is the point of even having an efficient society if unbalancing, brainwashing, & drugging-up people if is the only way for it to come about? Efficiency for efficiency sake? Once again, what makes efficiency so important that you are willing to emotionally handicap an entire population to bring it about? Or does it even matter that the population is handicapped as long as they feel "happy" all the time? Humans respond to, learn from, and grow because of hardship and pain. There's a lot of power in pain. Heck, even the state uses it properly train its citizens. As youth, citizens have to undergo extensive trauma in order to "weed out" unwanted behavior (especially for the lower castes). By the time they've reached adulthood nearly all have been fully indoctrinated and-- thanks to soma and hypnopaedia--have reconciled themselves to their past. But still, what justifies the electrocution of babies because they feel drawn to books and flowers designed to awake their instinctual attraction? The efficiency of society? Maintaining the power of the State? As I have said before, what is the point of either of these things when the people, despite being in a perpetual state of "happy", are so screwed up inside? Are the motives of the powers that be pure? What motivates them? Is it the good of society for society's sake, which I believe I've made clear seems pointless on its own?
Okay, sorry, but one more question: do you believe that the emotional and psychological balance (and therefore health) of people is important at all, or is feeling healthy and balanced all that matters?
Once again, Chelsea, thank you for a very engaging and thought provoking read. :) Sry for any typos.