Brave New World

"'Each of us, of course,' the Controller meditatively continued, 'goes through life inside a bottle. But if we happen to be Alphas, our bottles are, relatively speaking, enormous. We should suffer acutely if we were confined in a narrower space. You cannot pour upper-caste champagne-surrogate into lower-caste bottles'" (200-201).

This passage is found in the conversation between John and Mustapha Mond. Mond is explaining the reason for controlling society and the necessity of order in maintaining a sense of happiness. He tells John that a society of all Alphas would backfire, therefore, they must create social classes and condition each person to accept and even like their position in society.

The idea of "foredooming" someone to a certain place in society in which they cannot ever grow or overcome is horrifying. The thought of a controller picking and choosing an entire population's social class, career, and intelligence level baffled me as I read through this conversation. However, as shocking as this idea is, it's not shocking at all. The more I thought about it, the more I saw characteristics of our society in this dystopia. Although Mond is talking about scientifically creating people to fit into a certain place in society, people are born every day into different social classes and tend to stay just where they are, content or not, in our society. As a whole, people born into poverty typically stay in poverty while people in upper classes usually remain in wealthy circles throughout their lives. Many are complacent, perhaps because they assume they cannot do anything about it, while others might be compared to Bernard and seek something more for their lives. But, regardless of who we are, Mond is right in saying that "we go through life inside a bottle." It is much easier to stay within our comfort zone, regardless of whether we are at the top or bottom of the social ladder. Like Bernard and Helmholtz, those who challenge the status quo often don't know what action to take and remain in their assigned role, whether assigned by nature or controllers. Then, there are the rare few who might be considered outsiders in our society, like John, for pushing the boundaries of what is considered appropriate for a person of their kind.

As much as we like to think that racism and stereotypical thinking no longer exist in our world, it does. We categorize people by all kinds of things like gender, race, religion, and class. However, the question to be answered then is which is worse, conditioning people to be content with their lives as a certain class of citizen, or giving people the emotion necessary to be discontent? If people are going to be put in a class from the beginning regardless, would it be more utopic for them to be happy with where they were born, or for them to be unhappy with their determined social class and have to fight for happiness? I think there are dangers in being complacent. What would society be like if no one ever fought for anything or believed in anything? If no one ever sought more for their lives, what would be the point of living at all?

Q: How long can a society so "perfect" last if it never progresses?