Aldous Huxley Exposes the Flaws of Society Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World criticizes Huxley’s society while foreshadowing present-day society. Looking at today’s society, one could find the same issues as existed before: conditioning, soma, and a one world government at work. In Brave New World citizens undergo conditioning as children in order to never experience any emotional pain, to love the lives they live, and to want nothing less, nothing more, so that they are easier to control, forcing ideas like “The more stitches, the less riches” onto them (Huxley 51). Between Huxley’s time and now, conditioning, for the most part, remains the same. People are conditioned through the seemingly most trustworthy sources: their schools, the
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The characters of the novel are conditioned to use soma to escape reality when unhappy, unable to fix their problems as they are unconscious.
Substance abuse has plagued society for some time. Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 - shortly after Brave New World was published - and Malvern Institute, the oldest drug rehabilitation center in the United States, opened in 1948. In 2015, around 17.6 million Americans suffered from alcohol abuse or dependency. In 2013, an estimated 24.6 million Americans had used an illicit drug. These numbers are still on the rise, with just drug use increasing by 8.3 percent since 2002.
Drug or alcohol users abuse substances because they want to hide their emotions. In Brave New World, Benito observes, “You do look glum! What you need is a gramme of soma” (Huxley 60). People suffering from depression may begin to consume drugs or alcohol to avoid their problems. Also, drugs and alcohol are considered “cool” by young people, being consumed at social events for fun. In today’s society, obtaining these substances is easy as knowing someone who already possesses
The characters of the novel are conditioned to use soma to escape reality when unhappy, unable to fix their problems as they are unconscious.
Substance abuse has plagued society for some time. Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 - shortly after Brave New World was published - and Malvern Institute, the oldest drug rehabilitation center in the United States, opened in 1948. In 2015, around 17.6 million Americans suffered from alcohol abuse or dependency. In 2013, an estimated 24.6 million Americans had used an illicit drug. These numbers are still on the rise, with just drug use increasing by 8.3 percent since 2002.
Drug or alcohol users abuse substances because they want to hide their emotions. In Brave New World, Benito observes, “You do look glum! What you need is a gramme of soma” (Huxley 60). People suffering from depression may begin to consume drugs or alcohol to avoid their problems. Also, drugs and alcohol are considered “cool” by young people, being consumed at social events for fun. In today’s society, obtaining these substances is easy as knowing someone who already possesses