Brave New World Project: Aldous Huxley\'s Visions of Heaven and Hell PDF

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This a side project - its purpose is to analyze discrepancies and similarities between Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Island....

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Author: Vitor Tonioli

In this essay I will analyze and compare themes explored in two novels written by the eminent British novelist Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932) and Island (1962). Topics to be covered include social organization, education, family planning, leisure, psychopharmacology, religion and philosophy. Furthermore, I postulate that although some people interpret Huxley’s view on the future as pessimistic, it is possible to infer the contrary from his writings: humans will always have the innate capacity to achieve individual enlightenment, no matter how shattered the society surrounding us may be. In Brave New World, Huxley portrays a dystopian civilization characterized by industrial mass production and cloning of human beings, direct physiological and psychological conditioning and a powerful World State controlling a society divided in castes and promoting drug abuse, promiscuity and mass consumption. In stark contrast, Island, written thirty years after Brave New World, brings Huxley’s utopic dreams to life through the Pacific island of Pala, where a decentralized political economy based on mutual support and voluntary cooperation strives to keep its people untouched by the hands of megalomaniac dictators and ruthless oil magnates. Pala is marked by its ecological and pacifist practices, selective industrialization, birth control and a holistic and logical approach to health and education. Social organization Society in Brave New World is organized in a caste system. The separation begins prior to birth: fertilization technicians assess the quality of an artificially-produced ovum’s heredity and decide whether it should undergo bokanovskification. The Bokanovsky Proccess is a fictional fertilization method which consists in subjecting human ova to a set of stressors such as X-rays, acid and alcohol, resulting in multiplication of the eggs and loss of quality; in other words, producing dozens of mentally-handicapped identical twins. These individuals compose the Lower Caste, ranging from Gammas and Deltas to Epsilons, according to their mental capacities. However, the ova identified as being of a higher quality are individually fertilized and specially conditioned, constituting the Upper Caste of Alphas and Betas. They perform all of the intellectual work as scientists, technicians, professors and so forth. Members of the Lower Caste engage in simple menial tasks: lifting boxes, pressing buttons, pushing levers. Essential jobs such as cultivating the land and raising stock are automated by highly advanced machines. The Kingdom of Pala is a fictional island isolated from mainland access. This isolation, as proposed by Jerome Meckier (2016), is one of the necessary factors to achieve utopia in the modern world; without external influence, an isolated society is free to develop on its own way. 1 Palanese culture is based on a combination of Eastern philosophy (especially Mahayana Buddhism) and Western science, applying the best of both worlds to its inhabitants’ benefit. In its 120 years of existence, Pala has refused to submit to modern industrialization, rather choosing to live in balance with Nature, applying modern science only as long as Nature is not compromised during the process. There is no violence in the Island of Pala because rational and pragmatic decisions towards pacifism have been made; Palanese ethics are reflected by their ecological perspective “Do as you would be done by”, transposed from the conservation of Nature to the conservation of society. Also, citizens of Pala have solved the problem of overabundance of power turned

Author: Vitor Tonioli

into aggressive behaviour: through mindfulness and physical exercises, they are able to channel their energy into something useful instead of causing harm to others or themselves. “[Underdeveloped countries] are still free to take the road we’ve taken – the road of applied biology, the road of fertility control and the limited production and selective industrialization which fertility control makes possible, the road that leads towards happiness from the inside out, through health, through awareness, through a change in one’s attitude towards the world; not towards the mirage of happiness from the outside in, through toys and pills and nonstop distractions.” (I 260) Education Conditioning, both physiological and psychological, plays a large role in the education of the Brave New World’s citizens. Predestination takes physical form through countless conditioning processes which are employed during conception to assure maximum efficiency of future workers. More interesting, though, are the methods the World State has implemented to condition and control humans at a psychological level. The first is denominated Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning and, as the name suggests, is based on the breakthrough discoveries made by the psychologist Dr. Ivan Pavlov, specifically the phenomenon of association. In the Brave New World, this discovery is taken to a new dimension by being applied onto human babies. For example, Lower Caste children learn to associate books and flowers to electric shocks and explosions in order to prevent them from reading and contemplating nature. (BNW 22) The second and most effective method of psychological conditioning used is Hypnopedia, or sleep-teaching. Moral education is taught through innumerable repetitions to every child and adolescent during their sleep; proven to be very efficacious, Hypnopedia is a major component of social order. Furthermore, members of the Upper Caste have the privilege of formal education. Classes are caste-specific and strictly focused on scientific specialization, while historical, philosophical and psychological education is limited to a few people, because “particulars, as everyone knows, makes for virtue and happiness; generalities are intellectually necessary evils.” (BNW 4) The educational system in Pala, takes a holistic approach with a combined focus on hands-on, experiential training and formal instruction with emphasis on the biological sciences. Aside from the standard symbolic approach to education through language, mathematics, arts and science, Palanese students are also educated on how to perceive reality directly without symbols. This can be seen during Will’s visit to the mountain temple, and later to New Rothamsted’s Elementary School. During the first, teenagers have to climb a mountain as an ordeal “that helps them realize the omnipresence of death, the precariousness of all existence.” (I 195) The religious ceremony held in the temple at the mountaintop has the purpose of providing the experience of spiritual enlightenment, to raise the awareness of their physical reality, tuning into a Higher Ground of Consciousness or the “Mind-at-large” (more on that shortly.) Huxley proposes a number of educational ideas during Chapter 13, when Will is brought to the schoolhouse and presented to Palanese educational guidelines; all of which stem from the principle of awareness. Palanese schools begin by assessing their students’ differences, physiological and psychological. Professors are intent on educating “children on the conceptual level without killing their capacity for intense nonverbal experience”. (I 250) Biological disposition (diet, breathing, posture) is highly taken into account when evaluating students’ ability to learn and develop their capacities. There is

Author: Vitor Tonioli

also a focus on each student’s unique innate talents. Complex subjects are easily taught to children through the implementation of methods such as telling animal parables with underlying social or moral principles, or teaching scientific subjects through games as coin flipping, dice, cards and board games. “—What we give the children is simultaneously a training in perceiving and imagining, a training in applied physiology and psychology, a training in practical ethics and practical religion, a training in the proper use of language, and a training in self-knowledge. In a word, a training of the whole mind-body in all its aspects.” (I 256) “– What are Palanese boys and girls for? Neither for mass consumption, nor for strengthening the state. – And what in fact are they for? – For actualization, for being turned into full-blown human beings.” (I 248) Family The concept of viviparous reproduction and nuclear family – father, mother and children living together – has not only been eradicated from the Brave New World, but also stigmatized. The negative Freudian influence of the family upon an infant’s psyche is eliminated by abolishing parenthood itself. Babies are raised inside bottles in a laboratory and “educated” through psychological conditioning. Society is their family and Ford (God) itself is their father and mother, represented by the World Controllers. Sexual education begins from an early age and promiscuity is socially encouraged; in fact, abstaining from casual sex is frowned upon by the population. Contraceptive methods are universally distributed and compulsory. Monogamy is also negatively seen by citizens of the Brave New World, who are conditioned to engage in meaningless polyamorous relationships. Although the Palanese may be exposed to the neuroses of family life, they are free to escape early in life: through MACs (Mutual Adoption Clubs), children can “take a vacation” from their families anytime they want. Consisting of fifteen to twenty-five families composed of newly-married couples, grandparents and great-grandparents, MACs provide an alternative to children otherwise stuck in dysfunctional, unbearable families. Meanwhile, troubled parents go through “tactful therapy from the other members of their Mutual Adoption Club” until they are ready to be with their children again. (I 110) Simply put, anytime a young person does not feel comfortable at home, or just wants to experience something different, she can be adopted by a deputy family from the Mutual Adoption Club for as long as needed, usually from one or two days to one month. This socio-familiar structure brings about “healthier relationships in more responsible groups, wider sympathies and deeper understandings.” (I 107) Leisure People living in the Brave New World enjoy plenty of leisure options; as a matter of fact, leisure time constitutes a large part of their lives (when playing golf is suggested, Bernard refuses as he considers it a waste of time. Lenina, astonished, asks: “Then what’s time for?”) (BNW 89) Everyone engages in sports such as Obstacle Golf, Riemann-surface tennis and Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, which require sophisticated apparatus, promoting mass consumption. (BNW 23) In addition, people regularly go to the Feelies, which

Author: Vitor Tonioli

is a kind of movie theater with not only visual and aural but also tactual stimulation. (BNW 168) Frequenting nightclubs and dancing to Synthetic Music is a common pastime. (BNW 76) Last but not least, the Ultimate Recreational Drug, Soma, is heaven in a pill: “One cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy sentiments.” (BNW 54) “One gramme in time saves nine.” (BNW 89) I will expand on the usage and effects of soma shortly. Leisure time in Pala comes in many shapes and flavors. Music, theater, poetry, landscape painting and all the highest forms of artistic expression are treasured in Pala. Poetic declamations on a public square accompanied by the sound of a lute are not unusual; neither are puppet theaters adapting Ancient Greek tragedies to Modern Pala. The philosophy of its inhabitants reflect some Eastern practices such as stressing the importance of meditation and applying this awareness onto the real world instead of seeking otherworldly transcendence. The idyllic nature of Palanese lifestyle seems to be one long leisure trip. In this way, even hard work can be considered leisure when one is well-adapted to see meaning in one’s actions. Work and leisure, physical and mental activity are very balanced in Palanese life. “You seem to imagine we do [toil] for ethical purposes […] I do muscular work, because I have muscles; and if I don’t use my muscles I shall become a bad-tempered sitting-addict.” (I 173) Psychopharmacology Soma is a psychoactive substance universally available to citizens of the Brave New World. It can be stimulant, narcotic or hallucinogenic, depending exclusively on the dosage and seems to have no harmful side effects. People of the Brave New World frequently take small doses of soma during the day as it makes them happy and more energetic. In case of an unpleasant event, one can always swallow two grams of soma and take a holiday from reality, floating in a dimly lit ocean of numbness. In addition, when someone feels too strongly or on special occasions, it is not uncommon to take very high doses of soma and enter in a deep trance-like state, “the warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of soma-holiday.” (BNW 77) At first it can be inferred that soma is a positive factor for social order, as it makes people more satisfied and blissful. However, its dystopian use is later revealed, especially during the conversation between Mustapha Mond and John. “And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears – that’s what soma is.” (BNW 237-238) At first glance, Soma may be seen as inductive happiness and satisfaction. This happiness, however, is not the kind of happiness brought by a sense of accomplishment or enlightenment; rather, it is a superficial kind of happiness which only lasts as long as the effect of the drug. Consequently, it is reasonable to assume people in the Brave New World are not happy, but merely numbed down and constantly trying to escape their reality. Moreover, Soma’s function as “opium for the masses” is clear and so is its employment in order to make people passive, submissive and obedient to the State.

Author: Vitor Tonioli

In the island of Pala, however, the function of psychopharmacological substances is radically different. The moksha-medicine is an entheogen used by Palanese on special occasions. It is derived from native toadstools (I 165). As pointed out by Schermer (2007), “Moksha literally means ‘liberation’ but the drug is also known as the ‘reality revealer’ or the ‘truth-and-beauty pill.’ It is used to sharpen and deepen consciousness and brings about a kind of mystical or spiritual experience. It is meant to teach people more about themselves and their place in the universe.” 2 The first encounter Palanese have with the moksha-medicine is during the coming-of-age ritual at the mountain temple. Young men and women gather together and take four-hundred milligrams of “truth and beauty” as a means of being “liberated from themselves.” (I 199) Through prayer and guided meditation, these young Palanese achieve liberation or, as Dr. Robert puts it, “the ending of sorrow, ceasing to be what you ignorantly think you are and becoming what you are in fact.” It is evident that the value of moksha-medicine could not be further away from Soma’s. Mystical experiences are taken very seriously in Pala and most people use the moksha-medicine only a couple times per year. Huxley stressed the importance of psychopharmacological substances as a way of achieving mystical experiences of the same degree as achieved through deep meditation and fasting, especially by making Will’s experience with the substance the final chapter and climax of the novel. Religion and Philosophy Religion in the Brave New World is a dead concept, considered old fantasies used to “overcompensate for human miseries.” Nevertheless, citizens of the Brave New World blindly follow the ideology of Fordism, in which the Divine Figure is considered to be Henry Ford and the assembly line, his miraculous gift to the world and humankind. The irony is almost palpable here as it is evident that Fordism is only a vehicle to convey the ideology of mass production and consumerism. Ford’s T-Model, also known as the Flivver, was the first automobile to be mass produced by an assembly line. Consequently, the date of its invention is used as a hallmark and beginning of the Brave New World’s calendar. Besides Fordism, the World State also establishes moral guidelines such as the abolishment and stigmatization of history, family, monogamy, romance and natural reproduction; division of society by castes, sorted by physical and intellectual aptitude; encouragement of carnal polyamorous relationships and psychotropic substance use, best exemplified by the Community Service passage, where twelve people gather together twice a month to be guided into a mystical experience of sorts, using a considerable amount of Soma to “see Ford” and engage in ritualistic group sex called Orgy-Porgy. The Brave New World itself is Huxley’s satire of utilitarianism, a school of thought stating that something’s value is determined by its efficiency and capacity of providing the “greater good” for the largest number of people. Taken to the extreme as a thought experiment, Huxley’s conception of utilitarianism is both a prophecy and a warning of what our society is becoming, given the latest scientific and technological advances and their consequences on civilization. It is worth noting that by the time Brave New World was written, the world was taken by excitement and ambition concerning the newest technologies; this was before the World War II, Nazi eugenics and the atomic bomb. Aldous’ brother himself, the famous biologist Julian Huxley, was very excited about eugenics. The role of genetic engineering as an imprisonment of human freedom is beautifully portrayed in the novel and served as argumentative foundation against eugenics since then. Most importantly, though, are the philosophical considerations of happiness and free will directly

Author: Vitor Tonioli

approached during the dialogue at Mustapha Mond’s office. A heated debate between a psychologically broken, fervent Christian raised among savages and a megalomaniac utilitarian genius explains the underlying philosophy of the Brave New World. Mustapha’s arguments in favour of utilitarianism are particularly striking: “— The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re not afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age […] they’re so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there’s soma. […] Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensation for misery.” (BNW 220-221) Whereas John, the Savage, defends himself by claiming that humans have a natural inclination to believe in the existence of God; that if God is real then he provides the reason for being noble, heroic, chaste and abstinent; for “bearing things patiently, for doing things with courage” (BNW 236). “– 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 [...] I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.” (BNW 240) The Brave New World sacrificed true happiness, freedom and humanity in exchange for stability and social order; for the right to be shallow ‘sheeple’, to live in comfort and convenience. All things considered, it is quite scary when we analyze our contemporary society and notice that, in many aspects, Huxley’s prophecies have been fulfilled. Almost virtually opposite from the Brave New World’s philosophical stance, the Island also focus heavily on the themes of happiness and freedom, but from a humanist, quite existentialist perspective. In the Kingdom of Pala, every action and decision is made not only towards the collective benefit, but the individual benefit which prompts good behaviour. Pala wou...