Brave New World

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've read this several times, but I get something new from it each time.  I am amazed at how many of the things Huxley wrote about have developed.   In 1932 he could haven't have imagined cable television, iPods, computers, tablets and other constant entertainment devices and yet that was one of the cornerstones of his book.  More and more I see the kind of society he described.

The drugging with Soma has come true, although not quite in the form he predicted.  The controlled dosing of soma by the government is more efficient than the illegal drugs or pills popping we have today, but the result is the same in terms of coming to grips with a difficult or unfulfilled life.

Obviously, the real comparison is in life goals.  As people in this dystopia are genetically engineered to fit the the role that government gives them and then entertained to repress any discontent there seems to be no point to life.  There is no struggle, no emotional development, no reaching beyond oneself for the betterment of society...no point for existence.

As our society loses the ties to religion and a relationship with God,  there is a great vacuum.  All the stages of personal growth in Maslow's hierarchy of needs are striving for a better person and a better society that can only be achieved by struggle.  Today we are bombarded by even more advertisements that are meant to make us believe that things can fulfill us just like the placebos from Huxley's Brave New World.


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