Sunday, February 28, 2016

World State vs. Savage Reservation: Brave New World

The World State eliminates the aspects of modern life that makes the human experience so real. First, it eliminates the miracle of childbirth, and replaces it with cloning via lab production. "A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, AND STABILITY," (page 1). The name of the facility reveals the robotic nature that life has become in this new society. People are no longer born; they are hatched like birds, or clones in the Prequel Trilogy of Star Wars. In addition, children in the World State are no longer provided a real education. They are conditioned to a certain role: conditioned to know how to perform that role and conditioned to love that position and nothing else. The leaders of the World State believe that, with the removal of families by replacing them with the hatchery system, and creating workers who are drones, life will be easier due to consistent happiness with no feelings of jealousy or free thinking.

The range of human emotion is a critical factor to the foundation of the World State. Families are abolished, as well as the experiences of abject misery or pure elation. The people of the World State are conditioned and forced into staying in one small sector of the emotional spectrum. "Our ancestors were so stupid and short-sighted that when the first reformers came along and offered to deliver them from these horrible emotions, they wouldn't have anything to do with them," (page 45).  The controller criticizes people of past generations for allowing feelings of sadness or anger, and he believes that everyone should always be in the same small window of happiness. A person's emotions can not swing too far to either extreme, because then it wouldn't be stable. Consequently, the World State will always be stable because there is virtually no variation in emotion: with no family attachment, abject misery, or elation, everyone is always in the same frame of mind.

The Savage Reservation, however, is the polar opposite of the World State. There is no defined political system, natural birth is existent, and the whole range of emotion is available to everyone. People are allowed to think and feel freely; they are not manipulated by a government to be content with a certain role or position, or even to be forced to do something. "Nobody's supposed to belong to more than one person," (page 121). The savage talking to Lenina is explaining one of the differences between the Savage Reservation and the World State. In the world state, there is frequent group sexual intercourse, because everyone is believed to belong to each other. In the Savage Reservation, however, the people follow ancient rules. The idea of monogamy is followed, and when someone breaks that belief, he or she is punished.

Based on my reading of the two different societies, I would rather live in the Savage Reservation. Yes, it may be more physically brutal, but I would be able to live knowing that I am free mentally and physically. The World State appears to be entertaining, but it is a shallow world with no substance to living. The members of that place are servants to the Controllers, and they will become nothing more than that. The Savage Reservation allows the possibility of elation and true love as well, as opposed to the polygamy that consistently occurs in the World State.   

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