Judgement: Brave New World

Title: Brave New World

Date: 1931

Nationality: United Kingdom

Creator: Aldous Huxley

Medium: Print

“But I don’t want comfort.  I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” 

“In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.”

“All right then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.”

“Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every king.” There was a long silence. 

“I claim them all,” said the Savage at last.

Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders.  “You’re welcome,” he said.

--Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (Strong and Davis 731).

The First World War was over and new regimes were growing through continental Europe—totalitarian powers such as Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany.  The “war to end all wars” had left Europe a smoldering ruin and its people in a state of depression and uncertainty.  In exchange for promises of security and succor, many were drawn to the allure of these growing empires—peace was perceived in strength.  Aldous Huxley, sensitive to the conditions of the world around him, discerned what was happening and brought to bear the ideas precipitating the new powers under his keen judgment.  He saw that ultimate ends industrial and scientific revolutions were transforming society into a machine focused on results and efficiency.  Huxley categorized this negatively—contrary to the opinions of many, he believed that a world of perfect stability and peace, a world where all wants are satisfied, a world without art or passion—he judged such a world to be meaningless.  And so, he struck “a blow against totalitarianism” and argued for the “value of art for the soul” within his work, Brave New World (Strong and Davis 721).

The story of Brave New World is set within a future dystopia where science has become the means to unassailable social stability.  Genetic selection and oxygen depletion are used to create a society of classes where each individual is capable of performing and enjoying his or her place within the greater whole of society.  Any discontent is systematically extinguished through drugs and instant sensual stimulation.  It is a world without conflict, and so, it is a world without worth, according to Huxley.  Throughout the book, Huxley repeatedly raises every argument for such a calculated society and then judges them to be utterly hollow. This kind of judgment is essential to learning—for it creates the grounds for whole concepts that will guide present and future action. 

Image taken from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World