Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley - The reality of totalitarism

Résumé du document

This book lets us share the author's view of the future. Aldous Huxley is indeed convinced that this story may be translated into reality very soon, considering that totalitarianism systems already exist in certain countries. In this document, we will analyze the different themes tackled in this story, but will not try to determine whether such a society can become a reality some day. Let's start with the idea of cloning. In the world described by A.Huxley, every human is conceived in a test tube. The first implication is that no one has parents any more. All the earth's citizens are "born" in laboratories, and a lot of them look exactly like each other. Thanks to scientific methods, 96 identical persons can exist at the same time! What a frightening prospect it is! This idea appears funny today, as it is completely impossible to realize, not for scientific reasons, but for ethical reasons. If a person expressed the desire to implement the idea, he would probably be considered a fool. Who could wish that almost 100 persons be the same? And what would it be useful for?

Extraits

[...] The problem is the following: the cloning overturns the ground principles, the human origins. This technique replaces the nature, and people then ask: at what point should science replace nature? What are the boundaries between what could be considered as scientific experiences and what could be dangerous for the human being? That is the reason why people are afraid of clones, and we can be sure that the scientists will not use it on humans before a while. The second theme that we will speak about is the human programming. [...]

[...] And what would it be useful for? But the fact to be born in test tubes seems the normal situation for everybody in Huxley's world. In the contrary, people find it frightening to have parents. Indeed, they do not exactly know what a mom is. For us, she is of course the first link with the world outside, and the most important person for the child, concerning for example the socialization. But the social grounds are different in the story. [...]

[...] There are five categories between the Elite and people designated to hard works, but all of them feel good with their status. This means that no jealousy exist, as everyone is happy. This is the principle of the universal felicity that we will develop a bit further. The Alphas, from the Elite, consider that they are the best, and they would never change their situation with the Gammas. Gammas think in contrary, that with no high responsibilities, they can live quiet and without any pressure. [...]

[...] Today, this seems to be unbelievable. In our democracies, everyone can think and act as he wants. And in countries where this principle is not applied, UNO works to implement such rules that are considered as for every human. This is quite normal that people are afraid by this idea of dependence, because it challenges all what they have always thought, and what's more, the right to free thinking. For us, in our societies, it is very grave to think that we could be lead like that. [...]

[...] Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley That book let us share the author's future view. Aldous Huxley is indeed convinced, that this story can become real very soon, considering totalitarianism systems already existing in certain countries. We will however analyse here the different themes tackled in this story, but we will not try to determine whether such a society can become true one day. The author develops four themes that we will deal with in a specific part. The first is related to the cloning, while the second part deals with the possible human programming. [...]