Possible Results: 3. Assignment

3) Discuss the relation between the World State and our society in Germany in the year 2009.

Aldous Huxley created with Brave New World an influencial utopian science fiction novel. He incorporated the drastic changes of the early 20^th century like the ongoing victory of industrialization, the dramatic political changes after the Great War and their influence on his contemporaries. The carnage of the trench-warfare in Belgium and France with its industrial means of killing disrupted the idea of mankind. Psychology was on the rise as man tried to find reason no longer in religion but within himself. Being troubled by these developments Huxley wrote his novel of ideas as a warning. Some may say that Huxley presented an alternative to the woes of the Modern Age. Some may say that he came up first with the idea John Lennon adopted in his song Imagine: “Nothing to kill and die for, a brotherhood of man.” In the following essay I will discuss the relation between the World State and today’s society in Germany. Accordingly I will scrutinize the role of religion, drugs, sexuality, and the class system in both societies.
Religion seems to play no role in the World State. The novel describes the whole life of an average denizen of the Apha-cast, Bernard Marx, without mentioning him visiting a temple or a church. The reader witnesses only during Bernard’s visit in the reservation something that ressembles brute religious rites. These rites remind the reader of native reiligions. On page 101 Lenina and Bernard witness such a ceremony, which is accompanied by “drums” and “flute-playing.” Later on the ceremony developes into a fierce ritual of flagelation and bloodshed, but there is a connection made that leads us to the religious life in the World State. The ceremony reminds Lenina of the “Solidarity Services and the Ford’s Day celebrations (p. 101).” Religion in the World State is replaced by pseudo-religious rites to please the people’s need for community. It is instrumentalized to stabilize the state.
In our society religion plays a different role. For the last 50 years the Catholic and Protestant churches constantly lost members. In many parts of the country the churches are empty even during Sunday’s service. The Catholic as well as the Protestant church has problems to recruit new priests. Nevertheless, our country witnessed a wave of appreciation when the German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became the new pope. Besides this sign of new interest all kinds of spiritual movements grow bigger and bigger. A spiritual need of the people is obvious.
Soma plays an important role in the ceremonies like the “Solidarity Service.” The drug is passed around and everybody participating in the ceremony takes it (c.f. p.72). But soma is not only used during the rites. It is part of the daily life and surpresses unpleasent emotions. The result is a state of constant pleasentness in the life of the denizens of the World State. Deprivation of the often used drugs reveals that one result of the constant use is a lack of capability to deal with negative experiences. When Lenina meets the first inhabitants of the reservation she realizes that she has lost her soma and gets depressed: “’Oh, I wish I had my soma.’(p.104)”
In our society drugs are used, as well. During the last decades our society has witnessed an increase in drug use. The use of alcohol did not rise but stay at a very high level. It seems like people can not stand to stay entirely sober. They use alcohol and drugs to entertain themselves, to forget problems or simply because they think they need it to open themselves to other people. The big difference is that our society addresses the problem of misuse and tries to advertise modest use. Still nobody thinks of an entire prohibition.
The first chapter of the novel introduces us to the “London Central Hatchery” (p.1). We learn that in the World State human life is created by the means of cloning. This science is by no means an experimental state but the only way of reproduction. Sexuality is no longer necessary for reproduction. Human beings are mass-produced on long conveyerbelts where they are altered for their later tasks in life. They are not only trained for their later job but produced: “’The lower the caste,’ said Mr Foster,’the shorter the oxygen.’(p.11)” This is done to assure that an Alpha is mentaly and physically superior to a Delta. Your skills do not determine which caste you belong to, but your caste determines which skills you will have. Nevertheless, sexuality plays an important role, though it aims only to please. Linda’s problems in the reservation can be traced back to her promiscuity. The World State has thaught her that “everybody belongs to everybody else” (p.109).
Today’s society in most western countries seems to be undecided how to deal with sexuality. Though most people at one point in their life live in monogamous relationships, they have sexual contacts with a variety of partners. It seems like there is an ambiguity in the moral values of our society. Stay with your wife and do not get caught if you do otherwise. The great number of divorced marriages seem to show that a lot of people do not match both aspects of this code of conduct.
As I have said before children are produced in the World State by the means of cloning. During the process the children are subdivided in different castes. As a result the society can affect the number of children belonging to a certain caste like they can controle the production of industril goods. In fact, humans are an industrial good. After the caste-decision is made on an embryo, the growing child is conditioned depending on his caste. Future Epsilons learn that they are glad to be Epsilons because it is far to difficult to be a Delta or a Gamma. There is no such thing like climbing up the ladder or rags to riches. The members of the cast are conditioned not to wish to be something else and produced not to have the abilities to be something else.
In our society there is, of course, no such thing like conditioning. Children are born by their mother, raised and then send to school, where they learn according to their skills. In theory it should not make a difference wheter a child was born in a doctor’s family or in a worker’s family. In reality social background quite often plays an important role. Studies prove that the likelyhood to visit university increases with the income of the family. New ways of financing the higher educational system like the entrance fees do not change but amplify this fact. Though social mobility is possible in Germany it seems like it is getting less likely.
There is a relation between today’s society in Germany and the World State in Brave New World. All the aspects of religion, drugs, sexuality and the class system found in Brave New World somehow apear in today’s society as well. The important difference is that in the novel they are introduced to controle the stability of the society and to prevent another war, while our society seems to produce them from within. I think that it is important to realize that the tendencies exist today like they existed in the 20’s of the last century when they influenced Huxley to write Brave New World.

(1225 words)

by Daniel Eiken