Huxley’s Brave New World is definitely new and is something that is difficult
for a person living in a 90’s world to imagine for it is so very diverse
compared to our society and customs today. The odd world and lifestyle that was
prophesied by Aldous Huxley in the first half of the 20th century has much of
the same basis of customs but they are just performed different ritually in
these people’s everyday routines. If anyone from our time and our world were
ever to spend any given amount of time in Huxley’s world then they would be
confused, shunned by society and looked at almost as a savage like John for
having such different and "primitive" ways. This of course would
happen to anyone from Huxley’s world that infiltrated our world that we know.
It’s all in one’s opinion whether or not Huxley’s adjustments for a stable
environment are just are not but what can be done is to show a comparison
between a world subjected to Huxley’s ideas from Brave New World and our
reality today. One comparison that can be made and also the most obvious is how
people are brought into the world. In Huxley’s world there is a complicated
hatching process where embryos are monitored and adjusted. This occurs in the
Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center. There are many, many aspects to
this process and many different methods used to bring life into the world then
what we are accustomed to. Here embryos are kept in jars and processed in
several ways and conditioned in such a way that everything about the person can
be determined and altered. Once these children are born they are put through
several events from day one which help to suit them for the rest of their lives.
For example, a type of treatment would occur to a certain group of children with
a certain determined destiny and so that they enjoy their occupations and niche
in their world no matter what that role may be. The people who work to keep this
world stable would not want a child predestined to become a construction worker
to ever find curiosity in books and learning; that child would be conditioned to
stay away from books and learning by means of bad association with those certain
things. The child may be given a book and then shocked so they can affiliate bad
memories with studying. All persons produced by the center are subjected to many
other types of conditioning processes to fit them perfectly to perform their job
in the world such as hypnopaedia which is sleep-teaching. In today’s reality
two people mate and the woman conceives the child through birth. There is no
other method of creating a human being. In our world pregnancy is considered
natural and beautiful. Children are brought up very individually and in
different ways, usually by families and taught the basics of growing up.
Children are educated in school learning all subjects including history which is
another aspect of life that is shunned by Huxley’s society. The mating part in
the ritual of creating life is what brings us to our next comparison, sex. In
Huxley’s society sex is had hastily and through promiscuity, with many
partners. Love is something that is not even imagined in their world. But in
reality sex is something precious and is not had without thought and without
knowing the person well, actually, this is in most scenarios but it is sad to
say that promiscuity does exist to some extent in our world. Love is a very
serious thing in reality, even more precious than sex and love does occur often.
Both worlds use contreceptives which is wise to prevent disease transmissions
and unwanted births but in Huxley’s world the sole reason for protection
during sex is to not impregnate the woman and have society look down upon you.
Contraceptives are used more in Huxley’s world than in ours because there no
wants to have children so protection is always used, most likely nearing 100% of
the time but in our times, some have sexual intercourse hastily and don’t stop
to think to use safety precautions and also some couples choose not to use
protection so that they can have children. An aspect of sexual intercourse in
the brave new world is soma, a drug that was invented to create an artificial
happiness with no side affects. There is no such thing as this in the real
world, there is no drug with no affects on the human body, there aren’t any
legal pleasure drugs either. Huxley makes many parodies throughout the book in
reference to the real world. One that he makes is the first idea that you get
about the society’s religion. The time period is given as A.F. which stands
for "after Ford" instead of A.D. Also, instead of making a cross
resembling the cross that Jesus was put upon, a "T" is made standing
for Ford. Ford being the inventor of the simple model car that their world
worships. Also, instead of synagogues or churches they have orgy-porgy which is
a group of twelve people, six men and six women, who more or less say a little
chant to the tune of a nursery rhyme and then break into a massive dodeca-orgy,
this is introduced to the reader when Bernard Marx goes here to seek guidance in
his confuzed life. This orgy-porgy sounds a little out of hand and is obviously
far from our religious customs. There are no specific religious customs that
everyone has to follow, everyone is free to have their own religious beliefs and
what G-d if a G-d to believe in. Another aspect of freedom comes up with each
person’s determined occupation and place in the world. Each person is put in
one of five categories which almost stand as a grade of person, from smartest to
dumbest and best occupation to worst occupation. Regardless of what a person in
this society is, they are trained from birth to enjoy what they will do and do
it and not have jealousy of the higher grades of people. In our society of
reality each person’s occupation is determined by their determination and
ability to do that task well whatever it may be. Each person is also raised to
believe that they can be whatever they want to be, and that they have the
freedom to follow any ambitions or dreams that they may have.