When comparing Brave New World to Utopia it becomes obvious that BNW is in many a dark mirror to Utopia where the dark side of a Utopia ideal are explored and twisted into a perverse clockwork of inhumanity and complacency. The most obvious similarity is between Utopia and BNW is the uniformity; everyone in both culture is required to ware certain clothing based on personal variables (gender and marriage in Utopia, caste in BNW). The other important similarity, and the reason for the previous example, is the emphasis on the social organism rather than the individual. Both of these societies expect their citizen's to focus their entire lives around the good of the society, the expense of the individual's freedom.
One good thing about BNW, and the only good thing for that matter, if the elimination of disease. This is fairly self explanatory, disease is bad, no one wants a disease. The dark side of this is of course, the fact that disease eradication is only possible by severe genetic manipulations and if a disease did appear in this society which they were unprepared for, the homogeneous gene pool would spell near doom if not acted upon quickly.
Of all the things I dislike about brave new world, condition was by far the most disturbing. Not only were the methods atrocious (Zapping babies was a little much) but the implications of it all were even worse. To think that you have been programed to behave in a certain way, robbing yourself of all mental autonomy is a horrifying thought, and is near tantamount to the destruction of the human spirit.
3 comments:
Good work.
Indeed, both stories focus on the uniformity of the society. Indiviuality is a great asset within a society like our own, and the society each describes reject that theory. It's seen in BNW that John and Bernard are outcast because they are different from everyone else. Their differences should be embraced rather than thrown away.
Your discussion of disease being the only great thing in BNW is true, and I love that it could also be a factor of sheer destruction. The most horrible thing in BNW would have to be the conditioning methods; treating babies like this is cruel and unjust. What the fuck are they thinking?... That's just it, they aren't.
Good work Nick. I hope to hear more amazing philosophical shit from you soon. Keep it up.
This was pretty much what I agreed with in the book too. I said the shock therapy and conditioning is cruel. And it is not moral either. Also, I thought the no-disease was good too. However, I do not think this is the ONLY good thing in the book. What about people being happy doing their jobs? Sure, they may be of different classes, but at least they're happy.
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