Our Brave New World

George Orwell’s 1984 enjoys a status in our culture as the dystopian novel. The term Orwellian is often employed whenever there is talk about censorship or misinformation, particularly in regards to social media. As relevant as Orwell’s book is, its implications are limited to the sphere of speech. For gaining a more complete, and unsettling, vision of our dystopian present and future, no book is better than Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

1984 presents a world where the government rules through oppression and fear, but what if a government ruled by giving the population everything it wants? This is the future that Huxley envisions. In Brave New World, the government does not need to have an elaborate system of censorship and surveillance like 1984’s Big Brother because the people do not care about the truth. Society has become enslaved to its pleasures, engaging in orgiastic celebrations and spending all their time under the influence of soma, essentially happy pills. All that matters is maximizing social happiness, abandoning all high art, culture, and traditional features of civilization in favor of more utilitarian practices.

The book begins in a baby factory. That is, a laboratory where they grow and raise children. Sex has been totally divorced from reproduction; children are produced by the state and then raised in strict accordance to their future job in society. The idea of being a parent is utterly rejected; the Director of the laboratory resigns after it is publicly revealed that he is the father of one of the principal characters of the novel, John. Sexual morality is inverted. Promiscuity is encouraged, pregnancy is basically nonexistent, and the family is viewed with contempt.

This aspect of the book aligns with views of modern society to an alarming degree. There has never been a point in history when the essential relationship between men and women has been so severely disordered. Divorce rates are astronomical, most women are on birth control, hookup culture predominates, and abortion is mostly unrestricted. The birth rate in basically all developed countries is below replacement rate, with the average woman giving birth to fewer than two children. There will be unprecedented numbers of women that never have children — and no one seems to care. 

Why does no one care in Brave New World either? For one, everyone in the book is hopped up on soma. This drug drives away the intrusive emotions that might wake people from their stupor, allowing them to recognize the emptiness of their own lives and do something about it. In our society, drug use continues to grow, both recreational and prescribed. An alarming number of people are on antidepressants. Unfortunately for us, there is no drug so effective as soma. Suicide rates continue to increase.

Huxley suggests, correctly, a link between sex without a procreative purpose, and a deep seated dissatisfaction with life. A society that is so disoriented pertaining to the way that human beings should live, not just in practice but also in fundamental attitudes, it becomes necessary to find coping mechanisms just to get by.

What, then, is to be done? The answer is simple, but hard: get married, stay married, and have kids.

Featured image courtesy of John Keogh via Flickr