It's not that those things are bad, it's the way they are used by the society.
The drugs are used to avoid confrontation, emotional hurt, and to keep people content with the status quo.
Everybody is employed... Yes, but they are conditioned to be content with their class and job in society. You can't move up or down in class, you are born into your job.
Nobody is hungry because everyone gets enough to survive, but only because everybody is conditioned to enjoy their jobs and be content with their place in society.
Sex is treated in the exact opposite manner of what we have now, sex is only used for recreation and encouraged (even forced) from a young age.
I don't see how you can view any of these ideas as being "good." I would trade our fucked up world over what they have in Brave New World any time.
I would trade our fucked up world over what they have in Brave New World any time.
That's certainly a valid opinion. Still, I suspect it's easier to see BNW as an utter horrorshow if you've never known real hunger or oppression or torture or watched loved ones die of treatable diseases. I'm in the same boat myself. But there are many millions of people in our world who would be genuinely much better off in the Brave New World. It's hard to know what to think about that.
Everybody is employed... Yes, but they are conditioned to be content with their class and job in society.
I'm not sure that's a downside. The opposite is that people would only be content if they're at the top (CEO/rockstar/movie star/billionarie), creating a rat race. That's at least as harmful as BNW, if not more.
Basically, what kind of person has such a petty, nasty view of the human species that he honestly believes, if left to our own devices, we'll turn into that?
When you read Brave New World in high school it's a little difficult to recognize there's multiple layers of satire there.
Comments
It's not that those things are bad, it's the way they are used by the society.
The drugs are used to avoid confrontation, emotional hurt, and to keep people content with the status quo.
Everybody is employed... Yes, but they are conditioned to be content with their class and job in society. You can't move up or down in class, you are born into your job.
Nobody is hungry because everyone gets enough to survive, but only because everybody is conditioned to enjoy their jobs and be content with their place in society.
Sex is treated in the exact opposite manner of what we have now, sex is only used for recreation and encouraged (even forced) from a young age.
I don't see how you can view any of these ideas as being "good." I would trade our fucked up world over what they have in Brave New World any time.
That's certainly a valid opinion. Still, I suspect it's easier to see BNW as an utter horrorshow if you've never known real hunger or oppression or torture or watched loved ones die of treatable diseases. I'm in the same boat myself. But there are many millions of people in our world who would be genuinely much better off in the Brave New World. It's hard to know what to think about that.
I'm not sure that's a downside. The opposite is that people would only be content if they're at the top (CEO/rockstar/movie star/billionarie), creating a rat race. That's at least as harmful as BNW, if not more.
True, but also kind of missing the point.
Basically, what kind of person has such a petty, nasty view of the human species that he honestly believes, if left to our own devices, we'll turn into that?
When you read Brave New World in high school it's a little difficult to recognize there's multiple layers of satire there.