Stability has always been a key factor in creating a long-lasting society. However, it's not simple to create such stability. In Huxley's Brave New World, it is stated by Mustapha Mond that such can only be attained by controlling what the people see and hear. For example, the government in Brave New World refuses to show the people classical literature in order to prevent them from gaining new ideas and ultimately preventing any opposition to their current way of life. By controlling what the people absorb, they are able to create a stable world-- one in which people don't fight amongst each other.
I find that this path to stability is wrong. Although it did prove its results in the book, the people were, as John the Savage said, not free. Simply put, I think it is inhumane to find balance in imprisoning the people. I say "imprisoning" them because the people were only driven forward by drugs as an incentive. I think there is a better way of finding peace and stability: one that does not require controlling the people through hypnopædic methods.
What are your thoughts about the path to stability?
What are your thoughts about the path to stability?
I, for one, do not believe stability or peace can ever be achieved in a society simply because of human nature. In Brave New World, people were always happy under the influence of soma and were able to go on with their lives without knowing what was actually going on, thus making them harmless. However, in our world our emotions continue to control us and push lots of people to do crime or, on a much more global level, terrorize countries because they simply can't be controlled by a drug. There are always people who will disrupt peace because it's in our nature to do so when things don't go our way sometimes. And unlike Brave New World, setting our mood to happiness all the time or being unaware of the world around us won't stop all of us from being human. Bernard Marx is just one of the people who displays this. Sorry if I didn't make myself to clear, but any type of social stability just seems far too impossible to reach as of how the world is right now.
ReplyDeleteI thought the path to stability in the book was quite clever because they really analyzed cause and effect in regards to happiness. However, I would never wish for that type of social stability in our society. Although emotions other than happiness can bring some bad into society(like crime, as Kris stated), they can bring many more better things that make marks on the world. For example, art is driven by emotion. In the book, John and Helmholtz were able to find the beauty in poetry. From an outside perspective, a society like the one in Brave New World seems pretty boring since they are all raised to do the same thing (based on their social class). Like you said, they are all essentially "imprisoned", and I would never exchange my freedom for that type of social stability.
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