It cannot be denied that there are many negative forces at work in today’s society. We have court battles, battles on land belonging to neighboring countries, gang wars, crazy people walking into fast food places and shooting random machine guns, police brutality, overcrowding, starving people, AIDS, cancer, pollution, dwindling resources. Abusive and neglectful families, so many people trapped in material priorities, high from crack to Valium, from Ritalin to Prozac. We have destructive emotions such as selfishness, fear, misery, envy, depression, jealousy, mistrust, hatred, racism, and anger. Just thinking about all the negative influences around us is depressing. Pass the Prozac, please. It is easy to overlook the existence of positive elements in our society. We need to know both extremes to have something to base our standards on. There needs to be a balance. Yin and Yang must coexist. This is not to say that the scale can’t tip one way or the other, and in a world where the scale seems to tip over to the bad side, who wouldn’t want to add a little weight to the good?
There have been and still are visionaries among us. The definition of utopian is “ideal, impractical goal.” Utopia in A brave new world she boasted physical comfort and “happiness” guaranteed by genetic manipulation and postnatal conditioning. The inhabitants of this new world were essentially slaves, bound not by literal chains, but by mental chains.
On the subject of happiness, John tells Bernard, “Well, I’d rather be unhappy than have the kind of false, lying happiness you had here.” The happiness of the new world was not certain happiness since it was conditioned. Just as someone who has been hypnotized to walk cackling like a chicken may think he is a chicken, he is not actually a chicken. Similarly, a woman who is regularly abused by her partner, when told that she is “worthless” and “stupid,” eventually comes to believe it, whether it is true or not. He who is told that he is happy enough to believe that he is not really happy has only been brainwashed into believing it.
Based on his research, Abraham Maslow, a philosopher of humanistic psychology, formed the theory of “self-actualization.” He discovered that to obtain happiness, we must first satisfy the “needs” at the bottom rungs of the ladder in order to progress to the top.
Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” in ascending order: 1) Physiological needs (hunger, thirst, shelter, rest) 2) Safety needs (protected from disease, elements) 3) Love (receiving and giving love, affection, trust, acceptance, family, friends) 4) Esteem needs (esteem, respect for others and oneself) 5) Cognitive needs (knowledge, understanding, curiosity) 6) Aesthetic needs (art, nature, balance, order) 7) Self updating (successful development and use of personal talents and skills).
According to Maslow’s theory, Brave New Worlder does not have the potential to be happy. They couldn’t get much farther than the second rung of the ladder. They were denied love because of the “dire dangers of family life.” His cognitive needs were not met. They could be brainwashed, but they wouldn’t really learn anything. The example given was that of the boy who remembered from his dream having taught the claim that the Nile River is the longest in Africa, but not knowledge which river in Africa was the longest. They had no independent thinking. In fact, they did not have most of the Maslow characteristics of psychologically healthy people: “an objective perception of reality, independence, need for privacy, empathy, resistance to conformity, democratic characteristics, or a desire to be creative.”
Today’s society is slowly but surely moving towards ever greater control. Big business and government are two powerful forces united, driven by money and power. We are still giving fingerprints as a form of identification; Will DNA be next? Our spending is controlled. We have credit and debit cards; even our paper money contains a metal strip for tracking. We are constantly being watched by cameras on every corner of the street, the highway, the park, work, shopping. The whereabouts of the animals are tracked using microchips that have been implanted in their bodies. Are we next? How about cloning?
Like “orgies porgies”, “feelies” and “soma”, they are giving us distractions to divert our attention from realities like these. To keep independent thinking at bay, we are given Ritalin, Prozac, television “news,” soap operas, talk shows, and the Internet. Advertising is stuck in our throats. Catchy melodies that remind us how much we need this or that. The power of suggestion is strong. Mass production needs mass consumption. On A brave new world the statements “Finishing is better than mending”, “I love new clothes …”, “The more points, the less rich”, were pierced in the head. Another form of distraction in A brave new world they were the constant groups of people, of strangers. This is similar to our life in the city. Masses of people lose individually, which makes them easier to lead. Churches have known this throughout history.
On A brave new world, the Comptroller spoke with John about his nine-year war and how the masses were “ready to even have their appetites checked at the time. Anything for a quiet life.” Are we heading towards a new society? A society that is slowly and methodically reforming to better serve the needs of someone in a position of power? Will we soon be willing to give up our freedoms in exchange for physical security as in the Brave new world?