Ford is the dominant practice and praised deity in the book, and it’s religion is organized in a way to preserve and comfort, as illustrated in the Solidarity Service in chapter 5, where “soma was passed hand to hand”, clearly mimiking the tradition of bucket offerings, a common practice in most sects of Christianity, and afterward devolving into “solidarity hymns” with the intention of “los[ing] their identities in one larger being”, in one big, literal sex orgy, to “melt” into the pleasure and ecstasy. Typically, in an organized religion that involves communal offerings, the underlying goal is to give thanks and praise to whoever or whatever that community recognizes as their almighty deity, to build a community through mostly pure and selfless intentions, and become more humbled and grounded. Huxley was born and raised a catholic, and was familiar with these kinds of traditions, but he purposely left out one stand out detail about community and offering. The practice of soma-taking and “orgy-porgy” was never meant for some bigger part of life or god, but mearly to encourage and rubber-stamp the ideas of mindless sex, hardcore drugs, and assimilation into the society they’ve been combed and trained to accept. Though this “religion” may be a bit far-reaching, it’s almost a direct mirror of suprisingly common practices in modern day society, which will be further discussed later. Huxley knew that in his time and in the distant future, religion would no longer be a sanction of peace, community and giving of one’s time and soul for the greater good of humanity, but an institution of control and manipulation. A pawn to lure in simple-minded (or brainwashed) individuals to strengthen the regime that a corrupt institution wants to have in place. Religion can be a very scary, sacrificing, and supremely time-consuming, so why not make it easier on everyone to just dumb it down to it’s core mechanic, to make everyone happy? And making everyone stupidly happy is what they do best, and will continue to best because it’s working, as exemplified in chapter 17. The World Leaders didn’t completely remove religion from the equation, but cherry picked the plumpest and juiciest parts, while discarding the mushy and rotten bits that nobody wants: sacrifice, repentance and remorse. In Mustapha Mond’s own words, “Christiantiy without tears”. But the religion they put as a place holder is merely a shell of what could be something meaningful, and it’s wasted potential and space. But it’s wasted potential and space in the PERFFECT time and space to be set in. The 30s was …show more content…
There are people out there in the world taking advantage of those who are desperate and weak, those who can’t decipher up from down, left from right, stuck so deep in a rut of misery, that those who practice institutionalization capitalize on that. This is where Televangelism comes to play. Televangelism is a dated but still booming mini-economy that plays on peoples hopes, similar to Fordism in Brave New World, and coaxes them into submission to sacrifice their money, privacy, and valuable time. And to make matters worse, it’s perfectly legal. If America is not careful, it could evolve into a super power much like what is seen in Brave New World, where religion is cast out all together, and all that remains is an empty shell with disease infecting the insides. That disease being institutionalization. Huxley was aware of this while writing this book, and even drew some inspiration from his brother from his writings titled “What Dare I Think?”, a social commentary book on the ease of institutionalization of modern religion, and how, when put to good use, can be