When comparing Huxley's Brave New World society with our modern society, it is evident that the hierarchy in both societies are quite similar. In Brave New World, the society is separated into five social divisions (in order): Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon; but when evaluating such divisions, what makes the Alpha's superior to the lower divisions? What gives them the right to look down upon the lower divisions while every division is distinguished by different color clothing?
Such social divisions are evident in modern society; the wealthiest being the highest division, followed by the middle class, and then the impoverished. Why do such divisions form? And then the higher divisions in both societies teach their children and later generations to look down upon the lower divisions and feel superior over them? Why so? Is it because they are less fortunate and are not born in luxury? This superiority felt by the higher divisions in both societies support Charles Darwin's belief of "survival of the fittest" because it emphasizes how the higher divisions are accustomed to luxury, wealth, and the feeling of superiority. Such feelings of superiority can be inferred that hypnopaedia teaches children the higher division children such as the Alphas and Betas to have the programmed mindset to avoid interaction and look down upon the lower division, this 'prejudice' mindset can be related to how the wealthy and higher class citizens of our society treat the lower class or less fortunate.
You bring up an interesting point. I agree with your statement about the social divisions in our society and the discrimination it causes; however, I do not fully agree with your claim concerning the similarities between our society and Huxley's. In our society people choose to discriminate and hate. They aren't conditioned from birth like the Alphas and Betas. We also have the liberty to strive for wealth and become an 'Alpha', which is a choice the people in Huxley's world didn't.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with your viewpoint on how both of our societies are similar in structure. It is pretty much a well known fact that there will always be richer and poorer people than you. The one difference is the process by how we get to be where we are. Huxley's society describes one where people have no choice and are essentially forced to behave in certain ways. Each and every "human" in his society is not a complete human. They are incomplete pieces of a giant puzzle. Whereas in our society humans are born without someone controlling their destiny. Huxley's society doesn't have the ability to break the mold given to them. True humans have the ability to live and choose not hindered by any outside force. The feelings and irregularities within the human race is what makes us different from Huxley's society. There are rich people such as Bill Gates who willingly donate their money to charity in order to help the needy.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is why do some people feel the need to hurt while others try to help. This problem is related to social divisions, but in the end is the result of a myriad of factors stretching far beyond castes.
The different classes in Huxley's society are similar to the social classes in our world, much like any social scale. In most cases, there will always be a small percentage of wealthy people and a high amount of poverty. This is true in our world and in their world. In Huxley's world there is much more of the lower classes because they are multiplied by Bokanovsky's process. Usually the people with high class and wealth either inherit it or earn it. In Huxley's world, the Alpha's are given their high class like being born into a royal family. I think the reason that they are conditioned to look down on lower class citizens is because they want to keep the power and suppress the others. Even in our world, the rich feel superior and some may even try to help the poor. However, they would never give up there luxury for others because no one wants to lose their power. That's why they will train their children to do whatever it takes to stay rich even if it's by dirty means and teach them to feel superior. It is the same in Huxley's world. The ruling class has conditioned the lower classes to love their position so they won't have any problems. They have no one lower than them trying to share in the wealth like our world.
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