Brave New World Essay

[debka_notion]

On request from jessebeller. FOlks, do please remember that I wrote this 3 years ago, and have not edited it since (or even reread it in quite a while).


“‘Anyhow,’ he concluded, ‘there’s one thing we can be certain of: whoever he may have been, he was happy when he was alive. Everybody’s happy now.’ ‘Yes, everybody’s happy now,’ echoed Lenina.” –Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.
I first encountered Brave New World the summer after my freshman year of high school, and was immediately struck by how unhappy such apparently contented people could be. Soon after, a friend of mine, when asked what he wanted out of life, wished that he could always be happy. This craving for constant happiness alarmed me. In thinking it over, I began wondering if life really would be better if we were all perpetually happy.
As time went on, I found that my instinctive distaste for this idea had its foundation in my general worldview. I couldn’t see how anyone can appreciate happiness if he had never been unhappy. To my mind, happiness is a relative term; one cannot be absolutely happy or absolutely sad. Even when times are at their worst, we can stop to laugh at a bad pun or smile at a baby. If everyone were constantly happy, it would not be appreciated. Without the knowledge of misery, simple enjoyment could not be appreciated because there would be nothing worse. There is a range of happiness. I do not advocate self-torture for the sake of making everything else seem pleasant in comparison; that is going too far to the opposite extreme. Nevertheless, these thoughts ruin the idea of any sort of utopia for me.
It is a statement of the obvious that life can never be perfect, nor can it be perfectly happy. Nevertheless, I find it particularly important to remember when I am less than sanguine myself. Knowing that whatever unhappiness I am currently experiencing will only strengthen my happy memories in the future can make misfortune seem more bearable. Many of the times that I remember as having been extremely pleasant were the combination of exceedingly happy and quite disturbing events, when viewed on a moment to moment basis. I find that contrast is indeed the best way of gaining perspective. Being happy without ever being sad or angry or upset would make for a dull, unmemorable world. How then would life be worth living?

Comments

Disagree

[yemeknight.livejournal.com]

I was always fascinated by Brave New World. A world without beauty, and without history. I disagree on the issue of happiness. If they were all unhappy, they'd be taking Soma ALL the time, like the savage's mother.

And they do know unhappiness. When they're a bit colder than they want, or a bit warmer. Or when they're in a bad mood, just before they decide to take Soma. They create a technological paradise at the expense of beauty. Because beauty is linked to agony, I would say.

The people of Brave New World are happy, but I think Aldous Huxley got it wrong after all.

The human mind works on priorities. Always whatever the person feels most lacking is what is desired. Today, when most of us have food and shelter and all that good stuff, we find ways to make ourselves miserable due to lack of a mate, or lack of enough friends, or lack of something intangible we call "nobody understands me". I think that Aldous didn't understand that there will always be something to be unhappy about. It's how our brain motivates us to seek to improve our situation.

Unless he claims that this world satisfies all the things needed, and as for other things, doesn't give them names to be wanted by. I think the savage commits suicide in the end because he realizes that this society indeed is self-supporting and has accounted for human nature, such that even he can't resist it. He, as the modern man who loves beauty, can not stand living in such a world.

Re: Disagree

[thevortex.livejournal.com]

"...we find ways to make ourselves miserable due to lack of a mate, or lack of enough friends, or lack of something intangible we call 'nobody understands me'."

yemeknight, might I suggest that you take a look at Maslow's Hierarchy of Self-Actualization? It is not that we look for things to make ourselves unhappy, but rather that, as we move up in the hierarchy, there are other goals to be reached in order to achieve complete self-actualization. It is not a goal that is typically motivated by unhappiness, and might be hardwired into us (I do not think that question has yet been answered).

debka_notion, this is well-written, including some excellent diction and ideas. Kudos!

The Vortex

Re: Disagree

[yemeknight.livejournal.com]

I've studied Maslow's heirarchy. Same thing, more or less. But what I'm saying is that having satisfied your first goal does not make you happier. Nor your second, nor your third. (Though I might make an exception for the first two of Maslow's Heirarchy, seeing as what they are...) Someone with safety, food, shelter, security, friends, and all that, can be just as unhappy just from lacking self-actualization as someone who is unhappy from lack of security. In fact, it is often the latter, not the former, who decides to commit suicide. Perhaps this is because they have no idea how to find what they feel they lack. Maybe because there is no such thing as self-actualization.

My cousin recently mentioned a Bradbury which, in terms of this subject, could be seen as saying "Self-Actualization=death", and then he differentiates the simple, satisfied person, who is satisfied without seeking unnameable things from the questing person.

In the words of someone I knew, "Happiness is a choice".

Re: Disagree

[thevortex.livejournal.com]

I would not call happiness a choice as much as a chosen frame, but that is a technicality not worth discussing at the moment (I do have plans to write an essay on frames, though, if you want to check back with my lj in a month or two [/shameless plug] =P).

As I pointed out to debka_notion in a different thread, happiness and satisfaction are NOT the same. For example, during my sophormore year I took an advanced Judaics course in which I did not really have the time to do what was necessary to get an A (particularly considering what else I was taking at the time). I was not happy with the grade I got in the course, but I was satisfied with it, insofar as I knew that I did not have the time to do better than I did (and I took the course pass/fail for just that reason).

Someone with safety, food, shelter, security, friends, and all that, can be just as unhappy just from lacking self-actualization as someone who is unhappy from lack of security. In fact, it is often the latter, not the former, who decides to commit suicide.

I think you meant "the former, not the latter," but either way, I would point out that you have a statistical artifact in there, which is that people without security have a higher mortality rate.

Interesting points you make...

The Vortex

Worth living?

[yemeknight.livejournal.com]

"Dull, unmemorable world" doesn't mean that its denizens are not happy. Happiness is what makes life worth living.

I'm sure that people from 300 years ago would find your life and my life EXTREMELY dull and unmemorable and banal. If he were to visit 2500 AD, he might find society so mutated that he would indeed kill himself.