Modernity refers to the approaches, behavior, and ideas of the post-traditional period. Originally, modernity can be defined as a critique of tradition, and a movement toward a new point of view rooted in new paradigms and insights. Recently, modernity has embodied present-day thoughts and present-day lifestyle. One important aspect that arises from this definition of social change and its impact on human experience is the formation of a newly constructed self-image and identity. In essence, the concept of modernity differentiates the modern person from the traditional individual. Such newly founded freedom in connection to modernity involved an experience and consciousness of time. The modern person is focused on time and process; s/he is aware of the forceful, vigorous change that shifts the processes from the past to the future. The modern person is conscious of him/herself not just as a person, more specifically, as an architect of society and the self, but also as a person moving toward the future. This paper analyzes how Aldous Huxley portrays modernity and its crisis in his seminal work Brave New World.
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is a novel that crosses the boundary between modernity and its crisis. In the preface to his novel, Huxley claims that “it is only by means of the sciences of life that the quality of life can be radically changed This really revolutionary revolution is to be achieved, not in the external world, but in the souls and flesh of human beings” (Lilley 7). From this statement, it is apparent that Huxley is envisioning an authoritarian government using sophisticated technologies to gain control or power over social processes. His so-called World Society in modern times requires sleep-learning, neo-Pavlovian conditioning, biochemical engineering, and supreme psychotrophic drugs to rapidly generate members who are not able to challenge their social status and society itself. Basically, Huxley warns his readers about the dangers of a bioengineered society and science.
Huxley presents his image of modernity-- a secure, well-founded, and standardized society, whose people are splendidly overjoyed; all their desires are fulfilled, they feel ecstatic whenever they want to, and they breed and commit promiscuity. They are not capable of loving, thinking, writing, or reading. As a matter of fact, these people are barbarized, demoralized, and brutalized yet unknown to them. The troubling aspect of the narrative is that numerous of the processes and dynamics Huxley talks about are not impossible anymore; in fact, some of them are being carried out today. In essence, the nature of modernity in the Brave New World is comprised of people who are happily contented with their enslaved lives. They are not dehumanized in a physical way; they are totally immune to illnesses; they do not get hungry and thus have no need for food. They are without hardship and suffering. Yet they are caged.
It is exactly the issue of freedom that reveals the nature of modernity in the Brave New World. It is of paramount certainty that freedom bolsters modernity. In the novel, eugenics entails social differentiation or hierarchy. Each social class has a label that represents its position, obligation, and role in society-- Epsilon and Delta are the lower classes (proletariats), the middle class is named Gamma, and the upper class or elite (bourgeoisie) is called Alpha and Beta. Individuals are assigned to their social class based on inheritance (if their ancestors belong, for instance, to the working class then they would certainly belong to Epsilon and Delta) and their entire lives are constructed or fashioned to convince or brainwash them to fully accept their social status and surroundings. This superficially democratic society is in fact shameless despotism (Izzo and Kirkpatrick 10). In the novel, the concept of eugenics is envisioned as an instrument of racial discrimination and social division, which would guarantee a bigger labor force and greater success for society, yet, consequently, divests people of diversity and freedom.
In the novel, the old-fashioned First Amendment, which guarantees basic human rights to freedom (e.g. freedom of speech, freedom of the press), is extinguished. Its anxiety over the power of despotism is overpowered by a terrorism of pleasure. As asserted by Huxley (as cited in Magliola et al. 65):
[T]he early advocates of a free press envisage only two possibilities: [that] propaganda might be true, or it might be false. They did not foresee what in fact has happened, above all in our Western capitalist democracies-- the development of a vast communications industry, concerned in the main with neither the true nor the false, but with the unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions (Magliola et al. 65).
Even though in the real world freedom is a part of life that brings happiness and fulfilment, this is the contrary in Huxley's novel where the state of being happy is simply summed up as 'soma'-- a prescription drug. In the Brave New World, people exist in harmony and peace without any emotion. Huxley showed that in modernity there are no friendly, intimate, or close relationships or commitment, only programmed, preconditioned feelings. The idea of building or being a part of a relationship is regarded as wicked, as having an intimate relationship with a single person is firmly prohibited in this mechanical, programmed society.
Bernard Marx, an Alpha-Plus who has a poor self-esteem, believes in and support relationship piety or loyalty. He believes that happiness originates from the experience of intense, aggressive desire, but also from removing and secluding himself from the excesses of modernity. In a similar way, John Savage, a crossbreed of Utopian and Indian societies, encapsulates happiness in a single term-- freedom. He desires plain entertainment, without the influence of sophisticated technologies. He is not an avid fan of controlled emotions and desires the feeling of love without being restricted by the absolutely controlling society.
In Chapter 17, Mustapha Mond-- the rule maker and the most self-reliant thinker in the society-- and John Savage talk about the nature of modernity-- particularly God's nonexistence. As their conversation unravels, John openly admits his hatred of the spontaneous or natural satisfaction of existing in a world where conditioning, scientific processes, and technologies get rid of failures and dissatisfactions. Mond answers that John is asserting his 'privilege' to choose to be miserable or saddened, and John positively responds (Huxley 62): “But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” Mond responds, “In fact, you're claiming the right to be unhappy” (Huxley 62-63). This discussion between Mond and John is the paramount illustration of Huxley's vision of modernity, particularly the conflicting perspectives of modernity and traditions.
Mond keeps on talking about his pragmatic ideology of the world he governs. John and Mond focus on the subject matters that differentiate traditions from modernity, particularly God's existence or faith in God. The religious experiences of John and Mond ironically correspond to each other. Mond has gained knowledge of religion and God from the prohibited written materials he has read, such as the modern writings of William James and, of course, the Bible. On the contrary, John has in fact experienced a religious lifestyle in his hometown, enclosed by the ceremonies of prayer, church service, and cleansing himself through offering his own sacrifices (e.g. fasting).
The ideas of Mond against religion is materially oriented, the major idea being that the culture of pleasure and convenience has lowered the value of religion and transformed God into an antiquated entity. As emphasized by Mond's ideas, individuals resort to God or religion when suffering, hardship, and death force them to seek answers outside the physical, material world. Yet, if death, hardship, and suffering are eliminated, the material, physical world will retain its comfort and pleasure for eternity. Hence, Mond believes that in the brave new world religion and God is of no value: “Call it the fault of civilization. God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe” (Huxley 28). Mond's ideas clearly demonstrate the conflict between modernity and religion. Modernity encompasses freedom, which, ironically, is not present in the brave new world, but the same modernity negates the value of religion, which is clearly manifested in Mond's mechanical world.
On the other hand, John's rebuttal to Mond's ideas arises from a faith in self-sacrifice and hardship as a way toward righteousness. If Mond believes that pleasure and comfort are the culmination of human existence, John views pleasure and comfort as hindrances to goodness, spiritual success, and progress. A life without suffering, only pleasure, entertainment, and comfort, John claims, is dehumanizing. Mond responds by acknowledging the values of religion, such as self-sacrifice, perseverance, and compassion, as sensible and practically useful, but stresses that 'soma' can also successfully generate righteousness just as how prolonged self-sacrifice can produce a good, virtuous life. Mond further argues that 'soma' is painless, unlike self-sacrifice that requires pain and misery. This argument illustrates another aspect of modernity-- freedom from self-sacrifice.
As expected, John repudiates this argument because he strongly believes that a valuable, virtuous human existence entails misery, pain, and risk, from which will emanate strength, courage, and integrity. John further argues that misery and suffering are a necessary component of religion, harmony, and freedom. This admission carries the debate, and the narrative itself, to its culmination. Huxley underlines the decision that has to be made between pleasure and freedom. Mond chooses the pleasure and security of the brave new world, whereas John decides to go with freedom. These two opposing perspectives are clearly irreconcilable, just as how dissonant modernity and tradition are.
Crisis of Modernity
Modernity has produced numerous advantages, such as better health, material comfort, and technological advancement, to name a few, but the setback involves the appearance of new barriers and problems which originate from how people live and organize their society. This so-called crisis of modernity involves expanding inequalities, inferiority complexes, addictions, reduced spirituality, mental problems, and so on. This crisis can be attributed to the growth of consumerism, individualism, materialism, and capitalism. In Huxley's Brave New World, the people are shown to be acting in response to this crisis not by accepting a new movement toward change, but by passively accepting the status quo, resisting, or through self-denial.
Brave New World vividly illustrates the crisis of modernity based on its tendency toward instant pleasure and comfort, while most people still have to carry out boring and difficult jobs in order for the Alpha and Beta (upper class) to continue benefitting from their childish desires. Remarkable characters like Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson receive a great deal of emphasis in the novel because they view themselves as distinct from the pleasure-seeking and happily enslaved Alphas and were eventually banished to remote islands and isolated from the homogenized dominant society. Lenina Crowne, the breezy Beta, is the only outstanding character who is apparently incapable of being anything besides being a well-conditioned and properly trained citizen of the secure, pleasurable, and comfortable society. Thus, the author presents the awareness of the crisis of modernity by promoting the characters of Watson and Savage as unconventional, deviant, and self-conscious individuals, while mocking Bernard Marx for refusing to take part in a more radical ideology, Lenina for her lack of ability to understand or deconstruct her programming, and the World Controller for contributing to the hidden crisis lingering in the society.
In the novel, Huxley reacts to the crisis of modernity all over the world stemming from social disorder, global conflicts, and economic needs by combatting not just the core source of the problem but also the barriers and difficulties that people living in these societies confront on a daily basis. Even though authoritarian or despotic governance of the people can assume numerous forms, the outcome is paralysis that suffocates both the society and the people. Through the characters of Watson, Marx, and Savage, Huxley takes into consideration options of freedom that the starved and enslaved masses may be compelled to choose when governed and exploited by the fewer but more generously nurtured members of society.
Although Huxley realizes that most of the people rigidly conditioned and regulated by society will refuse to go out of their comfort zones, some will understand their circumstances and look for that which will nurture them despite the burden and hardship because it will enhance their situation, which, when summed up to the core, bears a resemblance to a herd guided toward a series of rich meadow of consumption pleasure until they are killed and sacrificed for the greater good. This is the image of the crisis of modernity envisioned by Huxley in the Brave New World.
Artistic Style of a Brave New World
Throughout the novel, Huxley underlines the conflict between traditional virtues and Brave New World-- modernity-- ideals by persistently shifting between opposites: consumerism vs. religion; sex vs. love; soma vs. self-denial; state homes vs. families; and so on. The mention of the expression “the more stitches the less riches” (Huxley 40) works to mock the professed benefits of modernity. These expressions highlight the consumerist nature of modernity and are incorporated to contradict Mond's idea of the formation and evolution of government. The author's artistic style demonstrates how the components of the Brave New World are remarkably distinct from the traditional aspects.
Another example of how the author uses his artistic style to communicate his understanding of modernity and its crisis is the contrasting of the delight and contentment of Foster and Lenina-- who are fully programmed to belong to their social class, embracing it and its drugs without resistance or questions-- with the misery and discontentment of Bernard Marx, a person who has thoughts continuously running in his mind and stays unfortunately secluded. The portayals of the solidarity program and the dance employ the medium of sexual culmination, for instance, of the dancing act: “hot and breathless, Sixteen Sexophonists, wailed like melodious cats under the moon, the little death, climax, deturgescence, intense expectancy at last fulfilled” (Huxley 63). This description is intended to contrast how sexual interaction or relationship in modernity and how it contributes to its crisis. Such sexual promiscuity ruins the traditional virtues of a family and disregards the value of faithfulness and fidelity. This is one of the aspects of modernity that Bernard Marx laments and wishes to change by detaching himself from the controlled society and isolating himself to regain the freedom he has lost.
Similar to other writings on Utopia, Huxley's Brave New World does not have the intricacy of the characters that defines other exceptional novels. The characters have a tendency to embody the insights the author approves of or disapproves of. Only a handful are larger than life or three-dimensional; majority bears a resemblance to cartoon images or caricatures. Similar to other authors, Huxley introduces and builds up the character of John the Savage who can clearly make sense of the crisis of modernity and everything that is wrong in the controlled society. As the narrative unravels, Huxley's parody of modernity becomes more and more frightening. The novel becomes a grave admonition that if people employ science and technologies as tools of control, manipulation, and power, the society will perhaps use it to gain power over the people in an inhumane, degrading manner, generating a dehumanizing society. Huxley's Brave New World fits squarely into the paradigm of Utopian narratives, yet the Utopia it depicts is frighteningly gloomy and threatening.
Works Cited
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Ontario, Canada: Random House of Canada, 2007. Print.
Izzo, David and Kim Kirkpatrick. Huxley's Brave New World: Essays. New York: McFarland, 2008. Print.
Lilley, Stephen. Transhumanism and Society: The Social Debate over Human Enhancement. New York: Springer Science & Business Media, 2012. Print.
Magliola, Robert et al. Freedom and Choice in a Democracy. New York: CRVP, 2004. Print.
