Critical Analysis of Brave New World

Critical Analysis of Brave New World In Aldous Huxley’s satirical novel, Brave New World, the government of a futuristic, utopian civilization censors the citizens from anything they do not agree with. Meanwhile “savages” whom are banned from “civilization”, are free to keep their personal morals and values. Huxley is critical of governments deceiving their citizens, consumerism and mankind’s lust affair with selfishness. Governments exist to manipulate and control the people they rule over. The best way to control someone is to manipulate their thoughts from the very beginning; to not show them any option other than yours. From the moment each citizen of the World State is produced, they are conditioned to have the same beliefs and thoughts as everyone else. The citizens are not given an opportunity to form their own opinions because the World State would be questioned and lose control. “Happiness is hard to master -- particularly other people’s happiness. A much harder master, if one isn’t conditioned to accept it unquestioningly, than truth”(204). The ultimate controller, Mustapha Mond, explains that to continue being unquestioned and in control, you must keep the people you are manipulating happy. Mustapha also implies that by conditioning them, you know how to control their happiness; if all else fails they have soma. Soma is a drug that the World State distributes to its citizens because of its positive, calming effects. Huxley is bringing our attention to our modern governments that control us by making us believe that our individual happiness derives on our ability to satisfy needs. Huxley criticizes consumer society. In Brave New World, the citizens are conditioned to think “ending is better than mending”(55). The World State promotes consumerism by scheming everyone into believing that it is easier to buy something new, than to fix it. As a by-product the citizens become lazy and don’t deal with issues of any kind. Governments are classified as successful if they have economic growth. The World State tells their citizens, “The more stitches, the less riches”(57). Wealth for the government is made into an immediate goal for each citizen. Instead of appreciating their individual, hard-earned money, the citizens are more than happy to contribute to economic prosperity. Instead of basing being successful off of money, governments should weigh their citizens needs into account. Huxley is critical of humans’ greed and self-regard. In his conversation with The Savage, Mustapha claims, “civilization has absolutely no need of nobility and heroism”(213). Mustapha is expressing the importance of lack of religion. Mustapha’s simple argument is for there to be a need to have a hero, it would be essential for their to be unstable conditions. Huxley has thus created this immaculate and logical scenario where, if granted, we were placed into Mustapha’s shoes, we would decide to keep religion out of the picture as well. We would ban religion because we infer that it, along with everything else, revolves around our needs, and our needs only. Part of being human is to feel strong emotions such as rage and anger. The World State removes these emotions from everyday life by giving V.P.S. treatments to the citizens. V.P.S. denotes Violent Passion Surrogate. V.P.S. is just a convenient way to have strong emotions that does not interfere with the conditioned lives of the citizens. Huxley is mocking the way humans center everything around themselves because it is a convenience to them. Humans are self-centered and do not think twice about their actions as long as there is no negative effects towards themselves. Despite the efforts of a couple of civilized people and a savage, the rest of civilization remains blind to the governments form of censorship and continue to abandon morals. Although Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931, what he expressed about human nature and technology continues to be genuine. Governments regulate and supervise what they believe citizens should view and consider. Governments take ahold of such power by commanding the media; the media presents viewers with particular ideals about themselves and the world around them. Governments brainwash society into believing that old ideals are no longer important and that if something is no longer of help to us, it is no longer useful to anyone. The only way to contribute to the change of society’s views is to individually change.