At first, I didn’t really like Brave New World. Honestly, I found it overly sexual and hard to connect with and I couldn’t quite understand why this was Huxleys idea of a “futuristic/dystopian society”. But as I kept reading, I started to see how much of it reflects issues and actual topics in our own society and I couldn’t help but unsee the parallels made. The characters in BNW keep talking about the problems and stress caused by interpersonal relationships and families and even though I don’t agree with this negative view (because I believe that family, friends and love are necessary), I do think that personal relations cause many problems (fights, domestic violence, divorce, etc.). So it got me thinking: What if everybody belonged to everybody and there was no such thing as relationships between people? Would our world be more peaceful or would we all feel lonely? What is it even that we crave from relationships and love? Is it the feeling of being loved or just lust? Sometimes I found myself confused and almost scared by the possibilities of a certain future that Huxley describes. Even though everything that happens in BNW is made up, I believe that there is some truth to it.
A passage that really stood out to me was Mustapha Mond’s speech to the Savage towards the end of the book. It honestly made me rethink my first impression of Brave New World and left me with a lot to think about. The plot twist, that “the most important” world leader in the story is a rebel and actually opposed to the governement, truly surprised me. I had thought that nobody in the new world (especially not the leader) would acknowledge or even study different types of literature, governments, religions, societies and science, because they were all illicit or simply forgotten. And this conversation connected the society of the World State, which seems incredibly dystopian, with our ‘normal’ world and society, which made me question the impossibility of a society like the World State. What if we actually aren’t that far from collapsing into such a regime?
Mond’s speech about giving up science, art and freedom for stability hit me hard. Especially because he talks about his love and passion for science, which he decided to give up for the good of the World State. That idea felt hearbreaking to me. Science is supposed to be about curiosity and pushing bounderies, but in the World State, it’s just another thing they control to keep everyone “safe”. It made me think about how much of our individuality and creativity we might already be sacrificing for the sake of comfort today. Aren’t we all already victims of it? As small kids we learn how to suppress our creativity and ideas in order to follow a set of rules and this carries on with us through our lives.
As I have mentioned, what surprised me the most was how much of what Mond said felt true, not just in the book’s dystopia but in real life. The World State prioritises happiness over freedom and while I don’t completely agree with that, I could see the parallels to our modern society. So many people, myself included, sometimes choose distractions – like scrolling through social media or binge-watchng shows – over dealing with uncomfortable truths or emotions. We will always choose momentary happiness over long-term comfort and freedom. It’s scary to think how easy it is to fall into a version of that shallow and controlled happiness.