Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World features a future in which the individual has no power over his fate, and from conception is subject to the will of the World State. Over the past two hundred years, society has grown to resemble Huxley’s disturbing prediction, and the will of the individual has indeed become decreasingly significant with regard to his own life. The vast majority of the world’s population is subject to governments, corporations, and media over which it has no influence, and will likely continue to slowly be consumed by these faceless institutions until personage and rights are no more. Though the totalitarianism satirized in Huxley’s fictional World State provides the supposed benefits of utter intranational equality and social
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The Hammurabi Code is the first known explicit reduction of the common man’s ability to govern his own life, stating that citizens of Babylon must abide by a set of precepts conceived by the king (“Hammurabi”). The intent behind these laws was to impose a universal system of justice over the kingdom, so as to maintain order and protect individuals from each other. Hammurabi’s code was incredibly successful: the threat of severe punishment combined with the principles of fairness and justice throughout the code ensured that the majority of Babylonians would be comfortable with the imposition of such a revolutionary mode of government, and that the few who disobeyed would inarguably be dismissed as criminals. Ultimately, this set of ordinances was a successful restriction of the individual’s right to rule himself that benefitted society, serving as an exemplary stepping stone for every civilization to follow and build …show more content…
The unmatched control that this fictional government holds over the life of every citizen goes unnoticed by its presumably massive population. Every need is provided, every desire met. Discontent exhibits itself only in the outliers of society, whose nearly intangible insurgency (before the arrival of John the Savage, a man wholly separate from the World State) culminates merely in raised eyebrows. Media, because nothing of any significance occurs any longer, is reduced solely to entertainment. What could possibly be wrong with such a wonderfully organized civilization? The answer lies largely between the lines, defined primarily by what is not present in this society. Because the human being has been hacked and adjusted to meet the needs of the State, culture and art are lost. Art only appears when infants are electrocuted, music only to accompany pornography and sex, religion only among the outcast. Not a single member of the State, aside from the enlightened World Controller himself, can understand great literature. The defining characteristics of Mankind, in this “utopia,” are incomprehensible to the mechanical creatures that inhabit this brave new world. If, then, humans are separated from their greatest achievements and most defining traits, are they still fully human? Huxley heavily implies that, by achieving utopia, the human race
The Hammurabi Code is the first known explicit reduction of the common man’s ability to govern his own life, stating that citizens of Babylon must abide by a set of precepts conceived by the king (“Hammurabi”). The intent behind these laws was to impose a universal system of justice over the kingdom, so as to maintain order and protect individuals from each other. Hammurabi’s code was incredibly successful: the threat of severe punishment combined with the principles of fairness and justice throughout the code ensured that the majority of Babylonians would be comfortable with the imposition of such a revolutionary mode of government, and that the few who disobeyed would inarguably be dismissed as criminals. Ultimately, this set of ordinances was a successful restriction of the individual’s right to rule himself that benefitted society, serving as an exemplary stepping stone for every civilization to follow and build …show more content…
The unmatched control that this fictional government holds over the life of every citizen goes unnoticed by its presumably massive population. Every need is provided, every desire met. Discontent exhibits itself only in the outliers of society, whose nearly intangible insurgency (before the arrival of John the Savage, a man wholly separate from the World State) culminates merely in raised eyebrows. Media, because nothing of any significance occurs any longer, is reduced solely to entertainment. What could possibly be wrong with such a wonderfully organized civilization? The answer lies largely between the lines, defined primarily by what is not present in this society. Because the human being has been hacked and adjusted to meet the needs of the State, culture and art are lost. Art only appears when infants are electrocuted, music only to accompany pornography and sex, religion only among the outcast. Not a single member of the State, aside from the enlightened World Controller himself, can understand great literature. The defining characteristics of Mankind, in this “utopia,” are incomprehensible to the mechanical creatures that inhabit this brave new world. If, then, humans are separated from their greatest achievements and most defining traits, are they still fully human? Huxley heavily implies that, by achieving utopia, the human race