Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, relates the tale of a utopian society in which everyone is supposed to be happy, but when we read the novel, none of us can imagine being happy if they were in these shoes. Or, that’s at least how I feel. When I write about this novel I want to discuss how despite that everyone on the planet wants to live in a perfect world where there is no unhappiness, that being a utopian society, and constantly implores the government to achieve universal happiness, we don’t actually want that because we would end up in a society like that in Brave New World in which the happiness is artificial.
Of course I will have outside sources to back this up. The two on the class forum that I have found that really speak to me are the Naomi Klein piece and the Frederick Winslow Taylor piece. I’m attracted to the Taylor piece because I feel like I can use it to prove the point that when we move towards a “better” society such as in this piece and in Brave New World the focuses get warped to something that, from my perspective, is far from the happiness that people actually want. For example, consider this quote from Taylor’s piece. “It is no single element, but rather this whole combination, that constitutes scientific management, which may be summarized as: Science, not rule of thumb. Harmony, not discord. Cooperation, not individualism. Maximum output, in place of restricted output. The development of each man to his greatest efficiency and prosperity.” This of course sounds very similar to many passages within the novel itself, most especially the last sentence in which man’s “greatest efficiency and prosperity” is discussed. People are looking for true happiness. They want to live life. Living life is not about efficiency, it’s about savoring the small stuff. This is where I believe utopian societies like the one in the novel are backwards. I would like to use the Klein piece because unlike the Taylor piece it doesn’t praise the process of moving towards an efficient society, but rather condemns it. From this author’s perspective this move towards universal happiness robs people of freedom. This is a prevalent theme throughout the novel itself.
Thus, I believe that these two articles will help me analyze the novel and present my view that utopian societies are the result of foolish and unrealistic desires for no unhappiness in the world.
