Brave new world is a commentary on the fakeness and self-absorption of society, and in the new era of technology is now more poignant than ever. In the society of the future London in Aldous Huxley's novel, everything is manufactured, controlled up to the atomic level, and completely synthetic. From the food that is eaten, to the Bokanovsky groups,to the clothes that the populace wears, to the blood-surrogate that is fed to the children who are manufactured in the hatcheries, everything is a substitute for something real. The worst part is that no one seems to care, they even prefer the fakeness. When John the Savage, in his quest to escape from this society, tries to buy normal seeds, he is met with great resistance, as the store owners barely have any, choosing to peddle what boil down to being GMO seeds instead. This material uniformity, along with hypnopaedic "lessons:", which amount to brainwashing, reinforce a level of social and personal fakeness. Everyone is taught to be happy with their class in the hierarchical society that now exists, as well as to look down on those below you. Those in the lower classes are, of course, taught to unquestioningly serve. This is reinforced, in turn with brainwashing, and all exists to justify practices such as the deprivation of oxygen for the lower class fetuses so that they develop less. Along with this, everyone is cajoled into participating in the exact same set of recreational activities, again with hypnopaedic training, leading to any sort of deviance from these routines to be perceived as odd. |
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