Brave New World By Aldous Huxley Section: English Essays
In Aldous Huxley’s "Brave New World" the setting is set many years into the future. This
future describes a world where science and technology have been allowed to progress unchecked. There are no moral or spiritual obligations and the good of society is placed above individuality and freedom. Lenina Crown is a perfect example of this society and all that it represents.
Lenina Crown is a model example of how unchecked technology can destroy humanity. If you allow every desire to be satisfied with no work or effort it teaches people that they are entitled to privileges and should not have to work for them. With only physical wants considered the moral, emotional, and spiritual aspects of society are eliminated, leaving only pleasure as a deciding factor. The lack of care for resources is shown with the hypnopaedic phrase of "Ending is better than mending." This along with, "Every one belongs to every one else" capture the spirit of the New World perfectly. There is nothing needed except pleasure and instant gratification to factor into a decision.
If you allow science and technology to be your god and savior it is proof of a decaying society. If progress becomes more important than spirituality you begin to lose your soul, the very part of you that makes you human. Lenina’s complete lack of knowledge of God, religion, and faith show that even though there is little suffering in the New World, there is no real joy or happiness. True happiness can only come from faith and without it there can only be a mediocre existence. Lenina can not understand John’s religion, the Indian’s beliefs or anything that resembles faith. This is because the New World discourages anything but the present and physical pleasure. This keeps the citizens happy only because they have never experience true emotion.
For all her beauty and brains, Lenina lacks one of the corner stones of a normal society, morals. She is not a bad person but does not have any set of guidelines to live by. The Solidaity
Services with "Orgy-Porgy" and the belief that, "Promiscuity is a citizen’s duty" are meant to promote group pleasure and social stability, sacrificing the individuals morals and personal beliefs. Without these beliefs people are not individuals but programmed robots who do what they are told is best for them.
To leave science and technology to progress without regulation is to open the door to the decline of humanity. Everything is done according to what is best for the entire society as dictated by the World Controllers. With no emotions, pain, joy, morals, or spirituality to say what is right or wrong technology continues on into areas where self-control and restraint are needed but none is used. With nothing to guide science, only chaos and death can come in the end.
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