The year 632 AF
is no longer as we know it. No longer is
there freedom, individuality, family or instability. The brave new world fashioned by author
Ardous Huxley is a “benevolent dictatorship: a
static, efficient, totalitarian welfare-state where society is stratified by a
genetically pre-destined cast”.
Written
in the early 20th century as a warning to future generations, Huxley
predicts a future with a morally corrupt society that has fallen into the grips
of genetic engineering, social conditioning and the use of mind altering drugs to achieve social stability and progress. However is this dystopia really different from our current society?
GENETIC ENGINEERING
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| Genetic Modification |
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| Social Hierarchy of Brave New World |
Perhaps the biggest shock to the
readers of Brave New world is the imminent use of genetic engineering and
highly advanced biotechnology in Huxley’s predicated future. In this “Fordian” society genetic engineering
is used to control reproduction to achieve biological social stratification. No
longer are babies conceived viviparously. Instead embryos are grown in laboratories
(Hatchery) where they are genetically modified in order to be put into five
main classes – Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. Huxley vividly describes
how the “Alphas” and “Betas” are supplied with ample nutrients & hormones
whereas the lower classes of gamma, delta and epsilon are deprived of these
developmental necessities. Not only this, these lower cast embryos are also
deprived of their identity. In the social classes of Gamma, Delta and Epsilon sexual
reproduction is replaced by Bokanovsky process where one embryo which would
normally develop to one adult is enhanced to produce 96 identical twins. The upper
classes of this society are given jobs that involve “intellect” whereas the
others are assigned menial jobs and thus do not need an identity or intelligence.
The use of genetic engineering in this
society is a means of regulating over population and ensuring social stability
through a pre-destined cast system.
COMPARISON
TO TODAY’S SOCIETY
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| IVF PROCESS |
Huxley’s
predictions may seem terrifying to readers yet when we compare his predictions
to our current society there exists many parallels. The rapid expansion in scientific research
means that many of Huxley’s prophecies are already being carried out today. Although
children are still conceived “viviparously”, the use of technologies such as
IVF today enables us to fertilise an embryo outside a mother’s womb which is akin
to the process carried out in the Hatchery. Furthermore in the novel there is profound
use of eugenics to control society. Although we currently do not modify
children prenatally there exists a variety of diagnostic methods that enable us
to terminate pregnancy if a child is found to have abnormalities. For example
parents suffering from Achondraplasia (dwarfism) are given the decision to end a
pregnancy if their child is not an achodrplasiac like. Mothers who find out their
child has a genetic disorder have the right to an abortion. furthermore , the exponential growth in stem
cell research also alludes to a future where cloning may be a possibility Although
these examples are not as extreme as Huxley’s predictions they are not too
different to the eugenic and dysgenic practices performed in the Fordian society
in Brave new world
SOCIAL
CONDITIONING
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| Hypnpaedia ocuring in epsilons |
Another strong theme in Huxley’s
future seems to be the use of conditioning to control society. Social conditioning
is carried out through hypnopaedia and Pavlovian shock conditioning. To ensure the
genetic engineering carried out on embryos is effective children are
classically conditioned. Readers are told how in the future the lower classes are
deprived of high intellectual activities such as reading and in order to ensure
this, gamma, delta and epsilon new borns are conditioned to hate books. .
Huxley describes a scene in which babies of lower class are put in a
room with books and flowers. When the babies move towards
the books and flowers there is a tremendously loud noise and
the floor electrified ensuring “they will grow up with what the psychologists
used to call an ‘instinctive’ hatred of books and flowers”. The society is also manipulated and
conditioned using hypnopaedia. Hypnopaedia or sleep teaching seems to be the
way this futuristic society ensures people remain docile. Hypnotic messages penetrate
the subconscious of developing children during their sleep manipulating them to
follow key social rules and remain satisfied with their pre-destined cast.
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| Propaganda used in Nazi Germany |
COMPARISON TO TODAY’S SOCIETY
Propaganda and social conditioning have always been a means
to control society. In Brave New world hypno
paedia is used to ensure members of
higher caste find lower castes unappealing considering themselves “lucky they
are not Gamma”. This is no different to powerful propaganda used by Nazi Germany
who used posters and other forms of media to portray Jews as greedy and
undesirable. In the modern society this social conditioning is more subtle but
it is still prevalent. Media are constantly manipulating our opinions and the
views we entail towards specific races or people with abnormalities is a strong
testament to this mass conditioning.
OPIATE DRUGS
Along with
powerful social conditioning and genetic engineering the futuristic society predicted
by Huxley has also succumbed to the use of drugs to escape feelings of depression,
sorrow and unease. The citizens consume
soma, “half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes
for a trip to the gorgeous East,” Soma ensures that citizens do not question the
rules and regulations created by the World Controllers and thus social stability
is attained in this dystopia
COMPARED TO TODAY’S SOCIETY
Although written in the early 20th century,
Huxley’s predications about drug dependency
.jpeg) |
| Wide variety of drugs used in society today |
OTHER ASPECTS OF THE BRAVE NEW WORLD
Aside from the prevalent use of genetic engineering, drugs
and social condition Huxley also suggests that the future society will lack individual
autonomy and a sense of identity and belonging. Children created in
laboratories are raised in conditioning centres rather than “homes”. The thought
of families and parents is considered undesirable and thus any chance of
individuals acquiring a self-identity is eliminated. Even as adults they are constantly
told “everybody belongs to everybody”. the inhabitants are encouraged to have uncontrolled sexual
relationships in order to forget ideas of marriage, family or love that are
threatening “to the stability of the community” where staying four months with
one partner is regarded as “intense or long-drawn out.
