Community, Identity, Stability

Community, Identity, Stability

vs.

Individual Freedom

Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley

World State Society

Community

Leisure Activities

Sex

Identity

Soma

• Everyone must work together in order to maximize the greatest happiness

• Feelies, solidarity services, special golf courses = prevent self-reflection

• Developed through leisure activities and views on sex

• Provides pleasure and distractions for citizens = so they can't think critically

-Solidarity Services: 12 people consuming soma together then participating in an orgy

-Feelies: allows citizens to feel extreme feelings (like in our world) but in a safe place

• Asides from work, these are the only options for entertainment

• Must attend these activities or take a Soma holiday

• Share same values

• Emphasizes idea of being a community

• Viewed as a social activity rather than the means of reproduction

• Confronted by the same cultural activities

• One is practically rewarded for promiscuity and lack of commitment

"Everyone belongs to everyone else" (pg. 29)

• Reinforced to encourage having sex with everyone

• Allows satisfaction for the individuals and prevents any development of strong feelings between people if everyone is sleeping with everyone

• Never have solitude

• Allows for deprivation of individuality

• Self reflection is forbidden

• Developing strong interactions with others is also forbidden

• Who they are as a person; defined by personality, values, beliefs, perceptions

• Identity is built through: the influences of their upbringing and emotions that inhibit their minds

• Controlling of their emotions serves to maintain happiness while depriving them of individual freedom

• Upbringing consists of genetic and behavioral engineering to achieve individuals that lack individuality

Upbringing

• Upbringing by ova from surgically removed ovaries that are fertilized and incubated in specially designed bottles

• Before one is decanted or "born", their life is already determined

• Born into castes and undergo special treatment

-Oxygen deprivation

-Alcohol treatment

• Ensures that lower castes (Gamma, Delta and Epsilons) are inferior and less intelligent than the Alpha and Beta individuals

Upbringing

• Lower Castes endure Bokhanovsky Process

• One egg to divide into 96 embryos with 72 being a good average

• Identical tasks at identical machines

• No choice in who they want to be but happiness remains

• Taught to love their caste and their work suited for their mental abilities through sleep lessons and classes

• The artificial process, says the Director, aims to make individuals accept and even like “their inescapable social destiny.” (pg. 16)

Controlling Emotions

• Hypnopaedia
• Shock Therapy
• Lessons

“Hypnopaedia is the greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time.” (pg. 28)

• Be happy with their identity
• Lost their uniqueness

-Can't think for themselves

-Can't come up with new ideas

-Can't question society's methods

• Danger

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Controlling Emotions

• Emotions controlled when they are death conditioned

• Death is a good thing

• No mourning over deaths

• Unable to care for someone because they only know what they are taught

Identity

• Identity is specially engineered genetically and behaviorally

• Every individual is restricted to their caste and its set of rules

-No chance of improving in improving their state

-No strong feelings

-Happy individuals without any questions, needs, wishes and hopes

• Happiness is maintained with their identity, but their freedom to be an individual is destroyed

Conclusion

• Allows citizen's happiness because they are taught to believe they are free

• Viewing this society from the outside looking in, we know that these individuals aren't indeed free

• They know nothing different than the World State society

• Motto maintains everyone's happiness but causes loss of freedom

• World State's motto: "Community, Identity, Stability"

• Reinforced to maintain happiness

• Individual freedom must be sacrificed

• Exploring the community of the World State, identities of the individuals and the stability of the society

"arguably the best tool the government has for controlling its population"

By: Kendra Ridley and Jihane Rahimi

• Sedate, calm, and distract a person from any strong or negative feelings

• It's artificial happiness that helps release an individual from reality and forget their troubles

• Maintains stability because civilians are encouraged to consume it regularly

• Distracted and incapable of any thoughts

• Consume soma when everything goes wrong

• Feelings of unhappiness consume them or reflect upon the system is not allowed

"A gramme is better than a damn."

Stability

• Stable economy

• Trained to consume

• Hypnopaedic lessons:

-Throw out old clothes instead of mending them

-Prefer complicated games that require lots of equipment

• Economic growth and prosperity

• Brainwashed to consume

"Community, Identity, Stability"

• Individual freedom is lost

• Citizens of the World State don't realize their individual freedom is sacrificed

• Only know what they are taught and nothing different from their society

• Believe they are free

"I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody's happy nowadays." (pg. 79)

Stability

• The result from the behavioral and genetic engineering of one's identity and the connected community

"There is no civilization without social stability. No social stability without individual stability" (pg. 28)

• Individual stability achieved through the alterations and decided identities and the tight knit community

• Soma and consumerism allows for stability

• Citizens are happy + society is stable = no individual freedom

Stability

• Unable to be isolated or think or reflect on topics other than they are allowed

• Dependent on Stability

• Never question social system as long as they are happy

• Stable caste system and no conflicts

• Distribution of soma

-Enforced consumption

-Aspect of unchangeable and predestined identity

-Close connected community help create stability within the society

• Stability results in happiness but suppresses their freedom

design by Dóri Sirály for Prezi