Last week I have finished Brave New World, and I am currently working on my last essay out of the three. While reading this book, I left many small notes on Post-it strips so I can go back to them just in case it would help me on my essays or help me come up with a topic to blog about. (Trust me it helps!!) I came across this quote in the first chapter:
“[...] that is the secret of happiness and virtue—liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny,” (16).
The Director clarifies to his students about the different castes in their society (Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons) that are being conditioned to fulfill specific tasks regardless of what they are actually able to do. They are indoctrinated to know their place in the society and to love the work they are assigned to. The reason why they make them like their “inescapable social destiny” is that they believe in conformity, and without conformity, there would be no stability. Controlling them with the use of soma helps them achieve stability and artificial happiness without their citizenry to question their ruling. The society believes that they truly enjoy it because of the effects of their conditioning.
If we were to be conditioned to like our own inescapable social destiny, what do you think or hope your job would be? What is your intake on Huxley’s “inescapable social destiny?” Also, if we had a caste system, what do you think our titles would be, and how would it represent our society of today?
--- Nicole Burgos
--- Nicole Burgos
I would definitely like to be in an efficient level of society, (if we are referring to something such as a caste system) but if it were like Huxley's utopian society, I wouldn't be surprised if I was put into a lower class, for it wouldn't be my decision on where I want to be. It's this twisted type of government, but no one complains for being who they are. Soma helps to make sure no one objects to society, and this idea is broken when Bernard and Helmholtz are introduced. If we had a caste system, I'm sure someone would find a way to disagree, which would make it impossible to have a caste system. I don't think it could ever be possible to find a perfect government and society.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to be placed within a caste system, I personally would hope for a higher class similary to anyone else if they were asked. If we think about it we have a "caste-system" (working,middle,rich, etc) however, it isn't necessarily mentioned in our society nor is it usually talked about in a condescending way. If we were to have a demanding and controlling social system similar to Huxley's society, there eventually would be individuals who want freedom from the restrictions placed upon them. As Jaden commented earlier, soma was a drug that many people relied on. Possibly if our society were to uphold social classes they would use some type of incentive to allow people to become too oblivious to object unjustified laws. Depending on how systems are catergorized, trying to force and brainwash new generations will at one point have an achilles heel. New generations may stray from the major mentality of the population and cause havoc on the "social destiny".
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