debka_notion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
debka_notion) wrote2005-02-11 10:14 am
debka_notion) wrote2005-02-11 10:14 am
Brave New World Essay
On request from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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?
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?
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.