In the beginning of Chapter Three
of Huxley’s Brave New World, Mustapha
Mond, the Resident Controller for
Western Europe, tells the students in the garden that “history is bunk” and sees
all of the olden ways of life before this futuristic era as savage and of no
value, including familial life, “sexual repression, and delayed satisfaction of
desire”- as mentioned in Spark Notes and Brave New World:revisited. He
reveals to the readers that history is not taught to them because it is
worthless.
History
is important and, if the present is troubled, can be repeated- just as the many
wars, genocides, economic rise and falls, and the development of dictatorships. If the people don’t study history,
their society is not at all improving or developing any more than it has. If there
is a problem beyond their control, they will not know how to fix it.
There
are some people in this world that do not take learning history seriously. How
do we corrupt society by ignoring or misusing history?
I thought the same things when I came across this portion of Brave New World. It is often said that history repeats itself and that we should learn from history and the mistakes of the past.
ReplyDeleteIf the people are not taught history then how could they know to prevent arguments that result in massive destruction (wars, genocide, etc..).
Then again, in the minds of these people, what arguments are there to prevent? They live in a 'perfect' society and everyone is 'happy'.
So learning from history would prove helpful if problems aroused. However, if the society is kept 'perfect', then what's the point?