Nathan Brooks

A.P. Literature
09/23/10
Brave New World: An Individual or a Cog?

In his utopian satire, Brave New World, author Aldous Huxley warns against the dangers of a

utopian society. When John, a native who has lived on a reservation all his life, sees this new world

state, he finds the conditions rather tragic. The state boasts, “Community, Identity, Stability,” as its

motto. However, John discovers that the happiness of the state's people is only a product of

brainwashing. Further, the stratified caste system of the New World State depends on strict censorship

of literature. Without literature or science, the state remains stable; the people live simple lives never

questioning authority. Instead, they drug themselves with the fictional hallucinogen, soma, to leave

them in a coma of blissfulness. Finding this life oppressive and degrading, John hangs himself.

Focusing on the society’s slowness, the utopia's physical and mental uniformity and a culture of hyper-

indulgence, Huxley argues that in practice the state's utopian principles degrade human life.

Huxley critically focuses on the state's social structure, and by doing so, illustrates that a loss of

individuality within the classes has created a society of mindless drones. The world state does not

repopulate through maternal birth, but rather a calculated process of test-tube decanting to create a

perfectly stable social hierarchy. Huxley describes a crowd of workers waiting for a ration of soma as a

“long caterpillar of men and women [moving] slowly forward” (Huxley 164). Huxley's comparison of

the crowd to a caterpillar has significance on two fronts. First, a caterpillar moves very slowly. The

slowness of a caterpillar may symbolize the slowness of the society. Without science, the society never

seems to advance. By definition the utopia will never need to change, cheapening human existence to

only a calculated social variable. Second, the caterpillar symbolizes the workers’ slow mindset. The

workers see only immediate reward. Through repetitious sleep-teachings, castes are taught to be

satisfied with their social status. To solve even the smallest measurable conflict the people are taught

that “A gramme,” of soma, ‘is better than a damn” (Huxley 37). This state propaganda teaches the
people to turn to a drug rather than confronting problems or dissatisfaction. They work; they drug

themselves; they sleep. When problems are ignored, so are the opportunities to advance society.

Clearly, the conditioning of lower caste workers may make them efficient, but only by barring them

from thinking freely. Mentally slow and slow in achieving societal advancements, the utopian society

lowers the value of human existence, and demonstrates Huxley's critical assertion that a utopia would

reduce people to dull, unambitious creatures.

The mindless workers of Huxley's utopia not only share a simple mindset, but due to technological

advances, they share the same physical attributes. The state uses a process that forces a human egg to

bud, creating hundreds of identical humans. In development, conditioners modify these batches of

identical beings to create preferred characteristics for the batch's social and labor role. For example, a

group of identical chemical workers are conditioned to be tolerant of chemicals (Huxley 11). Identical

physically and in conditioning, the twins can all work together in one factory with optimum efficiency.

However, this efficiency increasing process degrades human life to only an identical cog in the utopia's

industry. With no pressure to evolve, the unmotivated look-alike humans have little worth. Without

variety they have no incentive to better themselves; while idealistically flawless, this lack of motivation

breeds docility. Slow and identical, the people of a Huxley's utopia demonstrate Huxley's assertion that

a utopia will consequentially degrade human life.

Slow and mindless, the people face further degradation due to the society's culture of

indulgence. To maintain constant bliss, the state encourages a hyper-sexualized culture which in turn,

illustrating Huxley’s feelings on utopias, degrades the people into complacent dim-wits. To fulfill the

human need for intimacy, the state sponsors regular Solidarity Services that end in ritualistic orgies. In

circles, the Solidarity Groups dance, singing, “Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun, Kiss the girls and make them

One. Boys at one with girls at peace; Orgy-porgy gives release” (Huxley 84). The participants may

indeed find sexual release in the orgies, but they also relinquish their right to the dignity of the

individual. Disguised as a bonding experiences, these sexual releases actually degrade the people into
creatures satisfied by ritualistic communal sex. Further illustrating a degradation of human worth,

Huxley's repeated use of the word “pneumatic” illustrates the consequential lessening of women’s

worth. When the new world's men use pneumatic, a word typically used to describe plush chairs, to

describe the female body, the men lessen women to nothing more than sex objects. Satisfied with this

culture of frequent empty sex, the men feel good, and therefore do not spend time to questioning the

dullness of their existence. Huxley's critical illustration of an utopian human demonstrates his assertion

that constant indulgence will degrade the human race to a duller form. Moreover, young boys and girls

are taught to enjoy erotic play. Rather than playing four-square or kickball, children run around

sexually pleasuring each other. In modern society, educators use early years to help kids develop

emotionally and mentally in a way that promotes further learning. The utopian conditioners, a word in

itself degrading to human life, teach youth to only focus on their immediate desires. A worker only

focused on his daily desires, will continue to complacently work a simple job and think simple

thoughts, further illustrating Huxley's assertion. Finally, Huxley demonstrates the state's mentality

through the words of World Controller Mustapha Mond, who argues that stability depends on “Self-

indulgence up to the very limits imposed by hygiene and economics” (Huxley 237). This relative

social stability, while present, forfeits human values through a culture of constant indulgence. Huxley's

portrayal of this self-indulgence demonstrates that while people show outward complacency, they lack

intelligence and ability to act as an individual. Using the utopia’s polygamist, very sexualized culture

to demonstrate the lessening of human worth, Huxley further proves his faith in a utopia's inevitable

destruction of human individuality.

On top of lacking intelligence and individuality, Huxley’s utopia further lacks a concept of

natural struggle that in turn leaves its citizens mindless idlers. In development, the castes are taught to

believe that “every one belongs to every one” (Huxley 31). This lesson not only creates a society in

which men may have any woman they wish, but also makes monogamy anti-social. Huxley critically

satirizes this polygamy in a scene where the naked and naive Lenina jumps on the horrified John,
demanding he finally have sex with her (Huxley 131). By pairing the new world sexually promiscuous

ways of Lenina with John's old world tradition of monogamy, the reader immediately identifies that the

sexual freeness of the new world does not advance the worth of human existence in any way. The

sexual freeness does nothing but fulfill basic needs. Since the people are content with the sexualized

society, the utopia in a way succeeds in keeping blissful stability. However, when compared to John's

tradition, Huxley reminds that while constantly indulged and seemingly blissful, the people of the new

world no longer desire deeper relationships. All they have are indulgences. These indulgences serve as

the lubricant to the cog-- a cog in a utopia’s industrial stability. A person has almost no value as an

individual. Constantly indulged, the people have lost the human desires that give individuality and

therefore live mindless, boring lives.

Huxley's society of socially and mentally backward test-tube twins proves to be anything but

brave. Focusing on stability at all costs, the state encroaches on the individual's right to think freely.

With no freedom to think for one's self all the people can do is continue to work meaningless jobs.

When finished working, they live empty home lives filled with insignificant distractions. Lacking

natural physical uniqueness, the beings cannot act for themselves. All actions and characteristics are

calculated, making the people nothing more than expendable labor. Finally, the state encourages

extreme self-indulgence which leaves the individuals mentally slow and unable to question their

existence. They play and have sex as much as they can, leaving no room for anything deeper.

Huxley's critical portrayal of utopian principles in Brave New World, clearly portrays his belief that

utopias reduce humans to identical cogs in a not so brave new world's industry.