Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Science in Brave New World


Science and how it affects people is a theme that occurs in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.  Towards the end of chapter sixteen Mustapha Mond, the resident controller for Western Europe, reveals that science was concealed from the World State. It was treated as a “possible enemy” to their society.  This was somewhat ironic and confusing due to the fact that the citizens of the World State were taught through hypnodaedia to believe that “science is everything”, even though the citizens themselves did not fully understand the true meaning of science.  Mond refers to science as a “cookery book” that no one is allowed to question or add to. This implied that science was to be kept to a minimum, used only for what it was needed, and was never to be explored.
It was decided to limit the exploration of science because it would lead to change in the World State.  In our world, new discoveries in science are celebrated and are seen as a step forward to discovering the truth about the world and everything in it. Too much science was dangerous to the World State because it threatened their social stability by leading to the truth about their world.  Even without science and the truth about their world, the citizens of the World State were happy.  This led me to question if the truth about our world was something we needed to know. Would it be better if our society suppressed science and used it only for what it is useful for?  Or is the restraint of science in the World State another way to enslave the humanity and individuality of the citizens?

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2 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 28, 2012 at 2:08 PM

    Controlling science is something very important. Science is one of the most intense powers of the human race. We discovered a way to mess around with nature, and even make it all work for us and, unfortunately, work for some us that are selfishly evil. How the controllers of the new world were able to control science is almost perfect, because of how in our own world we seemed to fail. It's as if once humans gain so much power, like science, the decision of using it for the whole community or using it for our individuality becomes very hard to make. I do not believe it is to enslave. The Controllers knew how cruel it could be in the hands of people, such in the war of Nine Years, and believed that a sacrifice must be made to create prosperity. Mustapha knew that. They believed that the people had their chance and now they must take it away.

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  2. Ligaya KhennavongAugust 1, 2012 at 5:10 PM

    There is so much new technology that only doctors, the military, and the rest of the government know of. The reason all that knowledge is kept secret is to protect the people from themselves. Restraining science is generally a good thing. Corrupted minds would misuse our newfound technology and destroy the society we have worked for centuries to build. I agree with Bianca in saying that science needs to be controlled.

    In the same way that we control science, science also controls us. We are so afraid of what may happen if we take a wrong step that we hold ourselves back in fear. Mustapha was afraid of science because it just may destroy all of his hard work.

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