The Use of Technology to Control Society

Brave New World warns of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies. One illustration of this is the control of reproduction through technological and medical intervention, including the surgical removal of ovaries, the Bokanovsky Process, and hypnopaedic conditioning. Another is the creation of complicated entertainment machines that generate both harmless leisure and the high levels of consumption and production that are the basis of the World State’s stability. Soma is a third example of the kind of medical, biological, and psychological technologies that Brave New World criticizes most sharply. It is important to recognize the distinction between science and technology. Whereas the State talks about progress and science, what it really means is the bettering of technology, not increased scientific exploration and experimentation. The state uses science as a means to build technology that can create a seamless, happy, superficial world through things such as the “feelies.” 

Mustapha Mond Quote

"Mother, monogamy, romance. High spurts the fountain; fierce and foamy the wild jet. The urge has but a single outlet. My love, my baby. No wonder those poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world didn’t allow them to take things easily, didn’t allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy. What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with the temptations and the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and the poverty—they were forced to feel strongly. And feeling strongly (and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable?"

This passage is from Chapter 3, when Mustapha Mond is explaining the history of the World State to the group of boys touring the Hatchery. “Mother, monogamy, romance” can be seen as a summary of the issues with which John is most concerned. And “feeling strongly” is what John values most highly, and also what leads to his eventual insanity, and suicide. Mustapha is saying that by doing away with these things the World State has finally brought stability and peace to humanity. John’s critique of this position is that stability and peace are not worth throwing away everything that is worthwhile about life “mother, monogamy, romance” included. Another facet of World State philosophy that is shown in this quote is the idea of constructing a world in which human beings have only one way of behaving. The World State is an enormous system of production and consumption in which humans are turned into machines for further production and consumption. The world “allows” them to be happy by creating a system in which not being happy, by choosing truth over soma, is forbidden.

Is John freer than the world state members?

In a way John is freer, but now as completely free. The reason is because the members of the state in the Brave New World are consciously, methodically, and rationally conditioned. They are also shaped by hypnotic slogans and drugs, as well as peer pressure, and the results markedly limits their thought. John is conditioned by the same sort of forces that shape you and me. He's shaped by prior generations, by the context which he's born, the accident of family and literature. This leaves gapes for freedom. 

The relationships between science, religion, and political power in the World State.

In Brave New World science,religion, and political power take on different meanings that what we used today. In the World State, science is feared because it requires original ideas and independent thought, which enhances the stability that helps maintain the lifestyles of citizens. Science is also configured with religion that is embraced by the citizens. Mustapha Mond, the World Controller, thinks that belief in God and prayer is only necessary when old age and discomfort are effecting an individual. In the World State, things don't longer exists without scientific help. Soma provides all of the attributes that are good to make a good Christian, such as patience and kindness, Soma is taken in the Solidarity Services much like the communion is taken in Christian services. 

Personal Favorite Quote

Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn't do without Epsilons. Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one. . . .

This quote comes from Chapter 5, meaning that  all humans, regardless of caste, become equal after death. This quote shows the power of mind-numbing repetitiveness of the rules and beliefs that make the World State society. The message also highlights conditioning: its true that “every one works for every one else,” its also true that certain castes have a much better time of it than others.

Key Facts Before Reading

THEMES: The use of technology to control society, the incompatibility of happiness and truth, the dangers of an all-powerful state
mOTIFS: Alienation, sex, Shakespeare
SYMBOLS: The drug soma is a symbol of the use of instant gratification to control the World State’s populace. It is also a symbol of the powerful influence of science and technology on society.
SETTINGS (TIME): 2540 A.D., referred to in the novel as 632 years “After Ford,” meaning 632 years after the production of the first Model T car.
SETTINGS (PLACE): England, Savage Reservation in New Mexico

Relation between sexes in the World State

Women occupy positions of inferior power and status in the World State. When we learn that in order to keep the State’s control over reproduction, many of the female fetuses are sterilized, but none of the male fetuses are. The Malthusian belt, containing regulation contraceptives, is another example of the burden put on women to avoid pregnancies. Lenina and Fanny are Beta females, and the people in positions of power, Bernard, Helmholtz, and in the Hatchery the Director, Henry, and in the government Mustapha Mond, are all male. In the social part, the relations between the sexes are liberalized, but in the works and politics the power remains to men.