utilitarianism and its illustration in the Novel Brave New World

utilitarianism and its illustration in the Novel Brave New World

In this essay, I am going to focus on utilitarianism and its illustration in the Novel Brave New World. I will probably mention a few themes which are evident in this novel, for example, the death of God, death alienation, and authenticity. Utilitarianism focuses on how society benefits from the utilization of new ideas that are appropriately designed to increase their utility.

Huxley’s novel portrays a futuristic world where physical and emotional pain and suffering have been eliminated, and people live healthy lives until they die aged 60? (REF). Human loving relationships and connections are absent, the need for a family unit having been erased by science and the genetically engineered test-tube children. Pleasure is perpetual, instantly obtainable through soma. In this world, society is stable, and Huxley argues that in such a world, there is no need, no place for religion and God. There is no suffering, and as God is merely a response to human pain and distress, God ceases to be of any benefit. Mustapha Mond explains in his exchange with John the savage that God was not congruent with scientific medicine, machinery, and worldwide happiness. (REF pg…) From Mond’s perspective, humans created God to explain and relieve anguish and pain, and religion supplied answers for death hence lessening its fear. That through God, people were motivated to live better lives, to help stabilize society, so in a world where stability had been achieved, fear of dying has been removed, and happiness universally obtained. The community has the answers to all humankind’s questions the need for God becomes obsolete. (BNW p 173)

The novel predicts an extraordinary future that has advanced to a great extent. The future, according to Aldous Huxley, will be dominated by artificial reproduction, cloning, and psychological conditioning, thus controlling all spheres of social life. It is these proposed future practices that have led to heated debates eighty years since the book was first published. The society in which the novel is set is based on John mill’s utilitarian principle, as Mond demonstrates the utilitarian principle of minimizing pain while at the same time maximizing pleasure. According to the author, this will be achieved through the invention of new technologies, which will easily give a man a better environment to live. The psychological conditioning mentioned in the text teaches individuals how they should respond to pain and pleasure cues so that they may portray acceptable behavior in society. According to Mond, John’s denial is can be equated to claiming the right to unhappiness. The utilitarian ideology described in the Brave New World is depicted in the contemporary world. Mill perceives happiness to be as a result of tranquility and excitement. The BNW believe that happiness is achieved through soma, the artificial mass production of drug and consumerism. The book explores several themes that support utilitarian principles and applications in the current state.

The use of technology to control society

Brave New World cites the dangers which would arise if the state was given the power to regulate new and sophisticated technology. The book warns that this may yield negative results as opposed to the universal expectation of a better life. For instance, giving the state the power to control reproduction technologies, the invention of medicine, artificial removal of human ovaries, and the hypnopaedic conditioning. In addition to this is the creation of sophisticated entertainment equipment that produces both harmless and leisure and higher levels of production and consumption, which form the basis of World State stability. The brave new world heavily criticizes soma, which is a type of medical, psychological, and biological technologies.

First of all, it is essential to realize the difference between technology and science. When the state talks about the improvement in technology and science, it means there is an improvement in technology that is designed to improve individual lives without necessarily having to experiment with any possible dangers. The state only uses science as a means of developing new technologies. Because the state censors science and does not do proper experimentation on the impact of this technology, granting it the overall control will lead to problems.

The incompatibility of happiness and truth

The Brave New World contains characters who do all they can do so that they may avoid the truth about their situations. Soma covers the realities facing society and feeds the community with hallucinations, which is described as a tool for improving social stability. According to Mond, the world prioritizes happiness at the expense of the truth. Mond believes that if every piece of reality were exposed, there would be no happiness at all. In addition to this, he thinks the world would be a happier and better place without exposing these truths.

According to Mondi’s arguments, it seems human happiness is a result of gratification of the individuals’ desire for food, clothes, sex, drugs, among other consumables. When Mond talks of concealing the truth, he means hiding some underlying facts about human nature and behavior, which would make him less happy. From his discussion with John, it is evident that the world wants to eliminate two forms of truth. First, as Mond states, the world states controls and weakens all efforts put by citizens to gain access to scientific or the imperial fact. Secondly, the government attempts to destroy all human truths, such as personal connections, love, and friendship. The two forms of truths described here are quite distinct. Objective or scientific truths are defined on the basis of facts while human truths can only be explored, and cannot be established. The two forms are united in that man may have a desire to experience them. Mond was enraptured with the desire to make discoveries and inventions at a young age. His pursuit of truth seemed to involve a great deal of personal energy, which included strive and fight against the odds.

The Dangers of an All-Powerful State

The novel Brave New World depicts a dystopia whereby all the state powers control the individuals, actions, and behaviors to preserve its stability and power. This form of control differs from George Orwell’s 1984. In 1984, the command was exercised through constant surveillance, secret policing, and torture. Power in the Brave New World is maintained by technological interventions that last across their lifetime. The government controls individuals through ensuring the citizens are happy and are superficially filled to the extent of ignoring their own freedoms. The 1984 government attains control through force and intimidation. In Brave New World, the dangers of state control are the loss of humanity.

Individuality

The Brave New World requires us to consider the meaning of individual identity and determine its value. The state views individuality as incompatible with social stability and happiness because of its interference with the smooth operation of the society. The state does all it can to ensure that citizens do not develop individual identities. The citizens view themselves as part of a whole rather than seeing themselves as distinct identities. This is encouraged through chanting slogans and solidarity services. According to Bernard, John, and Helmholtz, rebelling against the controller involves identifying yourself as an individual. John and Helmholtz choose to suffer while Bernard perceives individuality as a curse.

Happiness and Agency

In the beginning, all the characters in the novel share similar ideas about the meaning of happiness. However, they sharply differ on the role of the agency towards living a happy life. Bernard believes in the concept of his agency by describing what he wants to feel, “as though I were more me.” When the state allows him to go and live in Iceland, Bernard begs to stay. This is because he is not ready to forgo his comfort for autonomy. Helmholtz expresses himself through poetry and believes it is only through suffering that he can achieve his agency. On the other hand, John seeks private agency through self-denial and suffering. His weaknesses make him miserable, forcing him to give in to pleasures and eventually kills himself.

The utopia in the Brave New World was built on the foundation of happiness of the citizens. Before the drug conditioning, people were said to reproduce naturally. This caused population influx, which forced people to live in poor conditions. Most of the people were living in dirty and unhygienic conditions and were emotionally unstable. After nine years of struggle, the people of utopia were fed up with economic struggles. The reformers of utopia eradicated monogamy, religion, and other personalized traits and stabilized the society through the establishment of the caste system and introduced the soma. This conforms to utilitarianism, which works towards happiness for the entire population. The reformers eliminated suffering and pain among the people. John, the savage believes humanity needs to be spiced with feelings of unhappiness. He argues that through the use of soma, people only take a “short holiday” away from their problems. He commented that the drug only shadows their view of the beauty of life.

In Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, the world is marked with prosperity and happiness. However, this comes at a cost. Every individual is governed by a single system that assigns the individuals to a social caste. The individual is thus allocated a role to play even before birth. People are configured to read from the same script through psychological modification. This is like lowering the intelligence of the low class to be comfortable with casual and menial jobs, through some programming, to make people happy even when they are suffering. The free availability of leisure drugs and social norms that advocate for promiscuous sex without any attachment has preoccupied individuals with mindless hedonism.

According to Huxley, the people of the Brave New World will live a life free from any form of suffering- poverty, disease, etcetera, and that the world will be a peaceful place. According to the novel, Huxley’s world is only achievable through censorship and preventing free inquiry. His world limits individuals to express themselves and enjoy their happiness. The book narrows down individual roles to those assigned according to their social classes. For instance, only scientists are given the authority to participate in research while writers are limited to writing content that will make the citizens happy. This limits writers to publish content they deem suitable and are forced to serve the interest of the state. The state also conditions students against reading material and any other forms of “unproductive” curiosity. The people of the Brave New World are therefore not happy because they are supposed to be, but because they have been programmed to believe there are no alternatives.

The citizens are psychologically conditioned (without consent) to resist and detest new ideas. They believe these ideas fall outside the boundaries that the controllers have chosen for them. In short, the citizens have been deprived of the right to think on their own and make their choices. Their happiness can be regarded as the happiness of ignorance. The citizens do not make any meaningful contributions to their joy. This is a severe problem in achieving Ultimate Utilitarianism (UU), which dictates that for ultimate happiness, individuals should have the ultimate freedom to make their own choices and make themselves happy.

By depriving the citizens of Huxley’s world, the right to choose from alternatives (although they are not aware of this), is a violation of their freedom of choice. If an individual was approached to be brainwashed and his interests replaced with others’, this individual would resist with the necessary force. However, in Huxley’s world, this is possible because it is done at a stage where minimal resistance is expected. All the aspects of life forbidden in Huxley’s world-aesthetic appreciation, self-expression, free will, and intellectual exploration – are quite essential to the condition of man and can be combined together to yield more happiness than the mindless deprivation of truth evident in the Brave New World.

The inauthenticity of happiness of citizens of the Brave New World would not last long. Human characters are known to evolve over some time. For instance, the heavy meals our grandparents were advised to eat currently cause diabetes among us. At some point, the citizens will evolve and question their happiness .they will discover truths that have been taken away from them over a long time. This will cause rebellion; thus, the Huxley’s world will turn to dystopia. His world seems too good to believe, and no individual would be easily deceived to believe in it.

The society presented in Huxley’s world resembles a kind of pleasure generating machine. The author and the controller believe that morality is achieved by maximizing happiness in any community. The argument between the controller and the savage brings about three strong points presented by the controller: firstly, other percieved forms of joy are mere responses to hardships that disappear without any loss in the face of abundance. Secondly, the controller argues that the character-building aspects of suffering are unnecessary when all life desires are provided. Finally, human needs might create a need for a negative feeling, but they can be programmed using chemical therapies. However, there is a feeling of fear among individuals to trust inauthentic happiness, as presented in the Brave New World.

In conclusion, Huxley’s utilitarianism in the novel Brave New World is achieved through the use of technology to create happiness while minimizing pain and suffering. This is achieved by hiding the truth from the citizens by convincing them to satisfaction. The fact that the citizens may be virtually happy (because they have been convinced it is the only option), it is possible that other favorable alternatives would make them even more content. His world limits individuals of fundamental truths which they would utilize better to make their lives more comfortable. This form of happiness can thus be equated to some sort of joy of stupor. Huxley, in his virtual world, deters the citizens from using their intellectual knowledge to choose what makes themselves happy. This is an equivalence of brainwashing and feeding the society with crafted lies that serve the interests of the controller. Through programing, the lowest in the nation are convinced to be happy with their status- doing menial jobs for little wages. This lowers creativity and takes away the need for personal growth from an individual, making them “happy slaves” of the state. Huxley world takes away the moral obligation of the citizens through deceiving them into promiscuous sex and pleasures of the flesh. The use of the soma to create a negative feeling as he believes may lead to intoxication, which may eventually portray an “expression of imbecile happiness” as Linda behaves when under the influence of soma. While happiness is the foundation of utilitarianism, the form of happiness presented by Huxley is hard to believe and trust.

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