Pleasure Will Destroy Society | Brave New World
Summary
TLDRThe script delves into Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World', exploring its philosophical depths and dystopian society built on pleasure and stability over individuality and deep emotional connections. It questions the value of happiness, the nature of art, love, and freedom, and the cost of sacrificing these for a life of shallow contentment. The video challenges viewers to reflect on what truly matters in life and whether a society that prioritizes pleasure above all else is desirable or dehumanizing.
Takeaways
- 📚 The novel 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley presents a dystopian society where happiness is the ultimate goal, but at the cost of individuality and freedom.
- 🤔 The story prompts deep philosophical questions about the nature of pleasure, the value of individuality, and the potential dangers of a society driven by hedonistic principles.
- 🛑 Huxley's world explores the idea that pleasure can be a tool for societal control, suggesting that a constant state of happiness might not be as fulfilling as it seems.
- 🚫 The society depicted in the novel suppresses emotions, critical thinking, and the concept of family, using psychological conditioning and drugs like Soma to maintain a stable and compliant populace.
- 🧬 A strict caste system is enforced through genetic manipulation and conditioning from birth, ensuring that individuals accept their predetermined roles and do not aspire to more.
- 🎭 The absence of art, creativity, and deep emotional connections in 'Brave New World' is highlighted as a significant loss, suggesting that these aspects of human experience are crucial for a meaningful life.
- ❤️ The novel challenges the concept of love and relationships, presenting a society where emotional connections are discouraged in favor of promiscuity and detachment.
- 🔒 The use of shame and social ostracism as tools for control in the novel illustrates the power of societal norms in shaping individual behavior and the potential for abuse of this power.
- 💔 The character John the Savage represents the struggle against the dystopian society, seeking the 'right to be unhappy' and the depth of human experience beyond superficial pleasure.
- ⚖️ 'Brave New World' raises ethical questions about the value of suffering and sacrifice, suggesting that the elimination of pain might also remove the potential for profound human experiences and growth.
- 🌐 The novel serves as a warning for the present and future, encouraging readers to question societal norms, the pursuit of pleasure, and the importance of preserving human dignity and autonomy.
Q & A
What is the central theme explored in Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'?
-The central theme explored in 'Brave New World' is the idea of a society driven by the pursuit of pleasure and stability, and the potential dangers and philosophical implications of sacrificing individuality, freedom, and deeper human experiences for a life of shallow contentment and hedonistic paradise.
How does the society in 'Brave New World' use pleasure as an instrument of control?
-The society in 'Brave New World' uses pleasure as a tool of control by promoting a culture of hedonism where citizens are conditioned to seek pleasure above all else. This is achieved through drugs like Soma, which stave off any lingering suffering, and a social system designed to prevent emotional depth or philosophical questioning.
What is the role of the 'controllers' in the society depicted in the novel?
-The 'controllers' in the society of 'Brave New World' are the governing body that maintains stability and ensures the population's happiness by enforcing strict social controls, including psychological conditioning, a caste system, and the widespread use of pleasure-inducing drugs.
How does the caste system in 'Brave New World' contribute to societal stability?
-The caste system in 'Brave New World' contributes to societal stability by predetermining each citizen's role and social status based on their genetic manipulation and conditioning during early development. This system ensures that each class is content with their position and has no desire or ability to challenge the social order.
What is the significance of the character John the Savage in the narrative of 'Brave New World'?
-John the Savage is significant as he represents a contrasting view to the society's values. Raised outside the World State, he embodies individuality, emotional depth, and a connection to art and literature. His presence challenges the citizens' understanding of happiness and raises questions about the cost of their society's pursuit of pleasure.
How does 'Brave New World' address the philosophical debate on the value of individuality versus societal stability?
-The novel addresses this debate by presenting a society that has sacrificed individuality for the sake of stability and pleasure. It questions whether the loss of individuality and the inability to experience a full range of human emotions and experiences are worth the contentment and order provided by the World State.
What is the role of art and creativity in the society of 'Brave New World'?
-In the society of 'Brave New World', art and creativity are largely suppressed. The controllers have eliminated the need for art as a coping mechanism for an imperfect world, arguing that since they have eradicated suffering, the need for art has also been outgrown. This reflects a society that values uniformity and control over the expression of individual emotions and ideas.
How does the concept of 'free love' function in the society depicted in the novel?
-In 'Brave New World', 'free love' is a societal norm that encourages casual and non-committal sexual relationships without emotional attachment. This practice is used to further disconnect citizens from forming deep emotional bonds and to maintain the stability of the society by preventing the formation of exclusive relationships that could disrupt social order.
What is the significance of the drug 'Soma' in the society of 'Brave New World'?
-Soma is a drug in 'Brave New World' that provides instant happiness and contentment, eliminating any feelings of sadness or discontent. Its significance lies in its role as a tool for social control, ensuring that citizens remain happy and compliant without questioning the nature of their society or seeking deeper emotional experiences.
How does 'Brave New World' explore the idea of sacrifice in the context of a pleasure-driven society?
-The novel explores the idea of sacrifice by showing a society that has eliminated the need for personal sacrifice in the pursuit of pleasure. It questions whether the absence of sacrifice and the lack of commitment to anything beyond immediate gratification result in a loss of deeper meaning and fulfillment in life.
What philosophical questions does 'Brave New World' raise about the nature of happiness and the human condition?
-The novel raises questions about whether happiness is the ultimate goal of human life, whether all forms of happiness are equal, and if the pursuit of happiness can be detrimental if it comes at the expense of other aspects of human experience such as individuality, freedom, and the ability to experience a full range of emotions.
Outlines
📚 The Philosophical Depths of 'Brave New World'
The video script begins with a discussion on the nature of pleasure and its role as a societal and philosophical tool, as explored in Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'. The novel, frequently listed among the greatest of the 20th century, presents a dystopian society where happiness is manufactured through hedonistic means, leading to a lack of emotional and philosophical depth. The society's reliance on drugs like Soma to maintain a state of contentment is contrasted with the rebellion of a few individuals who seek more than superficial gratification. The script also introduces the video's sponsor, Short Form, which provides summaries and analyses of various books.
🌱 The Structure and Conditioning of the New World
This paragraph delves into the societal structure of 'Brave New World', where a global government maintains stability and pleasure through strict control over citizens' lives from conception. People are artificially created and divided into classes that determine their future roles and social positions. Psychological conditioning from an early age instills beliefs about society and the state, with the use of drugs like Soma to suppress any emotional depth or individuality. The story follows characters like Lenina Crown, Bernard Marx, and Helm Holtz Watson as they encounter John the Savage, who was born outside the World State and represents an alternative to the conditioned society.
🧐 The Philosophical Implications of Social Cohesion
The script examines the underlying philosophy of the controllers in 'Brave New World', who prioritize social cohesion above all else, leading to the suppression of individuality. It draws parallels with the ideas of philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer, who valued solitude as a means to individual freedom, contrasting with the World State's aversion to solitude and its promotion of uniformity. The paragraph explores the tension between the desire for social acceptance and the potential for individuality to cause social conflict, questioning the value of individual uniqueness in a society that prizes stability.
🤔 The Value of Individuality vs. Collective Happiness
This section of the script questions the value of individuality in the context of a society that seems happier without it. It contrasts the World State's citizens, who are content but lack individuality, with philosophical perspectives that emphasize the importance of individual flourishing. The script introduces the ideas of Aristotle, who believed in 'eudaimonia' or flourishing as the ultimate human good, which can sometimes require struggle and pain. The novel challenges utilitarian philosophies that prioritize happiness above all else, prompting a deeper discussion on whether the loss of individuality is a worthwhile trade-off for increased happiness.
🎭 The Suppression of Creativity and Emotional Depth
The script discusses the World State's suppression of creativity and emotional depth, as seen through the character Helmholtz Watson, who struggles with the lack of meaningful art in the society. The absence of great literature and the shallowness of the entertainment in 'Brave New World' are highlighted, with the controllers arguing that the suffering and strife that give rise to profound art have been eliminated. The paragraph explores philosophical debates about the purpose of art and whether it is necessary for pleasure or serves a deeper human need for expression and connection.
💔 The Transformation of Love into Consumption
This paragraph examines the concept of love in 'Brave New World', where it has been reduced to a form of consumption, devoid of emotional connection or commitment. The script contrasts this with traditional views of love as a profound, potentially painful, but ultimately fulfilling experience. It discusses the World State's conditioning to eliminate the desire for deep connections, replacing it with a culture of free love that treats romantic interaction as a simple recreational activity, raising questions about the loss of meaningful relationships and the nature of commitment.
😳 The Power of Shame and Social Isolation
The script explores the use of shame as a tool for social control in 'Brave New World', focusing on the character Bernard Marx, who experiences isolation due to his stature and non-conformity with societal norms. It discusses the psychological impact of shame, which is used by the controllers to enforce compliance and maintain social order. The paragraph delves into the concept of shame as a form of punishment that preys on the individual's desire for social acceptance, highlighting the power dynamics at play in the World State.
🙏 The Elimination of Sacrifice and Deeper Meaning
This section discusses the concept of sacrifice and its significance in providing a deeper meaning to life, as seen in various religious and philosophical contexts. The script contrasts this with the World State of 'Brave New World', where the opportunity for sacrifice is removed, and individuals are conditioned to avoid discomfort and pursue immediate pleasure. It examines the idea that sacrifice can lead to a sense of fulfillment and argues that the absence of sacrifice in the World State may result in a loss of meaningful experiences and personal growth.
🤯 The Complexities of Pleasure and Human Experience
The script concludes with an in-depth analysis of the concept of pleasure as presented in 'Brave New World', questioning the controllers' assumption that all pleasures are equal and that happiness can be quantified. It discusses the philosophical implications of valuing pleasure above all else, the potential emptiness of a pleasure-focused existence, and the importance of negative experiences in creating a rich and meaningful life. The paragraph raises questions about the nature of happiness and whether there are aspects of human experience that are more valuable than fleeting moments of joy.
🚨 The Timely Warnings of Dystopian Fiction
In the final paragraph, the script reflects on the relevance of 'Brave New World' in the 21st century, highlighting the novel's unique warnings about a society that is distracted by pleasure and unaware of its own oppression. It encourages viewers to question societal norms and personal values, to be aware of the potential for pleasure to be used as a tool for manipulation, and to consider what aspects of life are more important than transient happiness. The script leaves viewers with a thought-provoking question about the true nature of a good life and whether the World State's pursuit of pleasure is a worthy goal.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Pleasure Principle
💡Dystopian Novel
💡Hedonistic Paradise
💡Philosophical Depth
💡Utilitarianism
💡Individuality
💡Soma
💡Existential Individuality
💡Eudaimonia
💡Determinism
💡Creativity
💡Love and Free Love
💡Isolation and Shame
💡Sacrifice
💡The Right to Be Unhappy
Highlights
The concept of pleasure as a tool for societal and philosophical torture in Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'.
The novel's placement in the top 10 greatest books of the 20th century and its philosophical depth.
A society where happiness is manufactured through drugs and the absence of emotional depth.
The conditioning of citizens from birth to accept their predetermined social class and roles.
The use of psychological conditioning to eliminate the desire for individuality and promote societal stability.
The philosophical debate over the value of individuality versus societal happiness and stability.
The exploration of the consequences of a world without art, creativity, or deep emotional connections.
The dystopian vision of a society that has traded unique human experiences for hedonistic pleasure.
The critique of utilitarianism and the questioning of pleasure as the ultimate human good.
The portrayal of a society where love and emotional connections are discouraged in favor of free love and consumption.
The examination of the psychological effects of living in a society that suppresses individual desires and aspirations.
The role of shame as a tool for social control and the impact on individual psychology.
The philosophical implications of a society that discourages commitment and deep emotional investment.
The discussion on the necessity of sacrifice and its absence in a society focused solely on pleasure.
The right to be unhappy as a form of resistance against a society that enforces constant happiness.
The warning of 'Brave New World' about the potential dangers of a society driven by short-term hedonism.
The reflection on the value of freedom, expression, and individuality in contrast to the pursuit of pleasure.
The philosophical question posed by Huxley: What if the controllers were right about pleasure being all there is?
Transcripts
I don't want Comfort I want God I want
poetry I want real danger I want freedom
I want goodness I want sin we are used
to thinking of pleasure as a good thing
philosophies like utilitarianism even
make it the ultimate human good and the
so-called Pleasure Principle is often
the end point of explaining why we act
in the way that we do but what if
pleasure could be turned around and used
as an instrument of societal and
philosophical torture this is the
terrifying idea explored in Alis
huxley's phenomenal novel Brave New
World it frequently makes the top 10
list for the greatest books of the 20th
century and a close reading uncovers a
philosophical depth unmatched by almost
any other dystopian novel because
whereas other visions of fictional
totalitarianism focus on the suffering
caused by state repression in Brave New
World almost everyone is happy they live
in a hedonistic paradise and yet they
are permanently cut off from any sort of
emotional or Phil opical depth almost
every citizen lives in Shallow
contentment drugs staving off any
lingering suffering and yet a few Souls
choose to Rebel get ready to learn if
there are things more important than
happiness how gratitude can become
perverse and how we too may have become
a bit like huxley's tranquilized
citizens as always bear in mind that
this is just my interpretation of Brave
New World and there is so much I will
not be able to talk about here but let's
begin with a synopsis of the novel and
give an overview of the Society of this
new world as this will be important
context for the rest of the video from
this point on spoilers abound so be
warned but before we dive into that I'd
like to give a quick thank you to our
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and knowledge to gain one a brave new
overview like almost all dystopian
novels the setting of Brave New World is
perhaps the most important character in
the story and the relationship our
protagonists have with the world itself
shapes them just as much as their
interactions with one another if not far
more so Brave New World is set in a
post-war version of Earth where a global
government has taken over run by 10
governors who bear the rather
appropriate title controller and the
policies of this world state are
entirely centered around stability and
pleasure this dictates almost every
decision the controllers make from their
legislation around birth to their
extensive drug program to the culture of
the planet and their work begins at
conception the citizens of this new
world are all artificially created by
the state from eggs and sperm inside a
hatchery and even at this point the fate
of every single person is sealed they
are immediately separated into classes
ranging from alpha plus to Epsilon and
which letter they bear will dictate
their entire lives from the education
they receive to the jobs they will have
to their social position all of it is
determined From This Moment the alpha
pluses will be the future scientists
leaders and venerated Achievers of the
world while the Deltas and the epsilons
will be stuck with menial tasks
depending on which class an embryo
belongs to it is either given an ideal
environment for nourishing its future
physical and psychological development
or it is purposefully stunted with the
application of Alcohol and Other
Solutions designed to hamper their
intellect and body later in life the
idea here is that not only will an
Epsilon not be able to do an alpha plus
job but they would not even want to Once
children are born they are raised by the
state and the concept of mothers and
fathers is totally forbidden every child
is the government's child and each
little one is psychologically
conditioned to hold certain beliefs
about culture society and the other
classes Alphas are taught to look down
on the Deltas and epsilons while deltas
and epsilons are taught to venerate the
alphas but only ever at a distance this
is also where the core principles of the
culture of the state are conditioned the
tenants of unrestricted love making
total emotional
uninvestable authority of the world
controllers are all hammered into these
infant skulls through thousands of
repetitions once they are grown
happiness drugs named Soma are available
on demand and anyone who feels sad or
upset is encouraged to take some Soma to
restore their former Peace of Mind
misery is extremely frowned upon and the
idea of understanding empathy is seen as
outdated the only response anyone has to
another sadness is take aoma the story
of Brave New World follows lenina Crown
Bernard Marx and Helm Holtz Watson as
they deal with the arrival of John The
Savage someone who was born outside of
the world State the plot begins in
Earnest when Bernard takes lenina on
holiday to a Savage reservation these
reservations are the few places in the
world left unconquered by the world
State and they live in small tribal
communities there Bernard meets John who
will later be given the unflattering
name John Savage and his mother Linda
who was a citizen of the world State
mistakenly left behind on a previous
Expedition because his mother was
originally from the world States JN has
always been an outcast in the
reservation and Bernard agrees to take
both him and his mother back to see this
great civilization John had always heard
about at first this works out
wonderfully burn gets a lot of social
status for having found this unique
anomaly and John explores the world
Bernard is a psychologist and he is
fascinated by the way Jon's mind works
so differently from having been raised
outside the stat he also introduces Jon
to both Helm Holtz and lenina helmoltz
works in the government's propaganda
Wing but he Harbors a deep and
treasonous fascination with what art
could be if it was allowed to be created
through a free expression of human
passion and Jon's chaotic experiences on
the reservation as well as his knowledge
of the band works of Shakespeare strike
helmholtz as incredible meanwhile lenina
is very attracted to John the feeling is
mutual but Jon has not been raised with
the principles of total free love where
sex is basically the same thing as
high-fiving so he understandably feels
threatened by lenina's braggadocious
advances and eventually chases her away
Linda Jon's mother decides to spend the
rest of her life in a drug-fueled
semi-coma state in one of the government
hospitals which everyone is broadly
approving of apart from John who thinks
that such art artificial happiness is
abhorent however soon the drugs overtake
Linda's system and her lungs begin to
fail Jon rushes to her bedside weeping
but his grief coupled with his repeated
insistence that she is his mother and
that he loves her causes a public
Scandal everyone in the world's state is
conditioned to think of death as a
pretty unremarkable event and to think
of natural birth as both morally
abhorent and disgusting children are
given tours around the dying in order to
death condition them and when someone is
no longer useful to the state they are
not considered to have that much value
anyway Jon's erratic behavior and
natural displays of grief are considered
socially disruptive and he Bernard and
helmholtz are all hauled up in front of
Mustafa m one of the 10 world
controllers here Mustafa and Jon engage
in a fascinating philosophical dialogue
over the value of different aspects of
human experience and trust me we are
going to go into detail about this later
Mustafa sends Bernard and helmholtz Away
to one of the many islands the state
sends people with enough orig thought to
be considered dangerous while he allows
Jon to go free Bernard is horrified at
the thought of Exile but Mustafa almost
envies him apparently these exiled
islands are not too bad and are also
full of the most interesting people left
on the planet in fact those considered
so interesting that they are a social
disruption having been released back
into society Jon sets up shop in a
lighthouse and wishes to serve as a
living Counterpoint to the hedonistic
values of the new world he engages in
self flagellation and becomes
deliberately primitive assuring any sign
of the civilization he so hates however
soon people begin to show up at his
retreat in order to watch this modern
diogenes he is a curiosity and people
will not leave him alone robbed of even
the small respite of solitude Jon ends
his own life this could have been a last
Act of rebellion or of Despair or of
Torment but either way the man from the
Wilderness who was the only living
person who could serve as a true counter
example to the world state is dead and
the Brave New World continues it is
unchanged and unchallenged and may roll
on indefinately propelled by the weight
of its own inertia it is a fascinating
story and it contains such a host of
ideas questions and criticisms that we
are spoiled for choice on where to start
but I want to begin by examining the
underlying philosophy of the controllers
social cohesion Above All Else and the
interesting and unintuitive
philosophical consequences of this
approach Ro two alone in public the
German philosopher Arthur schopenhauer
lived most of his life in marked
Solitude women seemed to find him
repulsive he had few friends and his
philosophy found almost no admirers
until the very end of his life and
despite all of this loneliness he learns
to Value Solitude incredibly highly
because he thought it was the only time
someone is truly free to be themselves
in public there are always the
constraints of others expectations
threatening to crush what ever nent
individuality we have but in Long
stretches alone we can come to know and
create who we are if we spend our entire
lives with others then that is fine but
we will inevitably stifle whatever could
have been truly unique about us and this
is a theme that Echoes through a number
of 19th century existential philosophers
both kard and N were also very worried
about the impact of the crowd or the
Herd on others no one person can stand
against the immense power and momentum
of an entire public public so if they do
not wish to be devoured then they must
find some solace in solitude nature
implores people to symbolically climb
the mountain alone so that they can grow
their individuality and not just become
another limb of the eldrich crowds that
dominate the social sphere but for the
government of Brave New World no
philosophy could be more destructive or
harmful than this one of the main
lessons the citizenry are indoctrinated
with is everyone belongs to everyone
else enjoying Solitude is considered a
St and disgusting Quirk a bit like how
we might view someone who drinks their
own we and the idea behind this is
simple the world controllers agree with
shophow and N they know that Solitude
can cultivate individuality but they
associate this individuality with
unacceptable danger after all with
difference in thought might come
difference in action and with difference
in action might come social conflict and
upheaval how could they tolerate the
possibility of a thinker like n or kard
in a world where stability is prized
above everything else the very notion of
a revolutionary idea or a revolutionary
thinker is destabilizing and why should
we care about them anyway I mean if
everyone is broadly happy then what's
the point of the individual why should
we infect a perfectly happy Society full
of blissful clones with a corrupting
notion of uniqueness or individuality
what possible use could they have for it
and I think we should take the position
of the world State seriously here most
of the time when we ask whether
something is worthwhile or not many of
us tend to judge it according to to
whether it promotes human well-being so
ending world hunger would be a good
thing and massacring puppies would be a
bad thing this is often the line of
argument people use to support the
notion of existential individuality as
well according to them any attempt to
kill the individual inside of us will
leave us feeling empty and unfulfilled
we may try to assimilate into a crowd or
a public identity but there will always
be this nowing sense that we have
betrayed ourselves that we are living a
half life the thing that makes Brave New
World so fascin ating is that this
argument arguably no longer applies we
aren't presented with any evidence that
the notion of individuality will make
anyone in the world State happier if
anything it might make them less so at
the moment they feel no need to be
individuals they are content in their
class positions and have a life which
gives them more hedonistic pleasure than
any of us will ever get but all the same
it strikes us that something is missing
the loss of the individual seems like a
great tragedy even when no one is
suffering from it but can we justify
this position does it make sense to
Value the flourishing of individuals as
individuals as good for its own sake or
is this something that in theory we
should sacrifice for the greater good
the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle
thought that the ultimate human good was
udonia or flourishing this was a
pleasant and fulfilled state that
someone achieved when they were truly
living in accordance with both reason
and virtue it is a kind of individual
fullness that arises from cultivating
our virtues and obeying our duties to
others to our elves and to the gods this
is in contrast to utilitarian philosophy
which valued maximizing human happiness
above all else in Brave New World we see
these philosophies battle it out over
the value of us as unique persons for
Aristotle being happy is all well and
good but it is human development human
virtue that really matters and
importantly this sometimes requires
struggle and pain we cannot be brave if
there is no such thing as danger and we
cannot be magnanimous if we aren't
allowed to form attachments to others
without private action and individuality
udonia becomes impossible even in
Aristotle's extensive list of Duties
that we owe to other people the thing
that makes them virtuous is that they
are given without compulsion in Brave
New World all of this complexity in
ethics and in character is flattened
into maximizing pleasure but there is a
real question of whether this is a
sufficient justification for abolishing
our idiosyncratic usess Brave New World
is hardly the only dystopian novel to
tackle this concept of abolishing the
individual it comes up in 1984 and even
the Hunger Games it is pretty
commonplace for a dystopia to rob people
of what makes them quintessentially them
and absorb every individual person into
a wider idea of the public but what
makes Brave New World so brilliant is
that at a glance this loss of uniqueness
appears to have made everyone happier
whereas you could look at 1984 and say
Obviously a lack of individuality is
part of the reason the citizens are
suffering in huxley's novel they are not
suffering and we have to ask the genuine
question of whether uniqueness is worth
a loss in pleasure would we rather be us
or some happier person who is near
identical to a billion other happy
people where other dystopian fiction
defends individuality on utilitarian
grounds Huxley strikes at the very first
premise of utilitarianism by presenting
us with a situation where we have given
up our individuality for extra happiness
and now we must ask whether it was worth
it this is just the first example of
perhaps the most interesting
philosophical question Huxley poses in
the novel what if anything is more
important to us than feeling good get
used to this question as it's going to
be a major theme throughout the video
and while the topic of individuality
poses this question in the existential
sphere our next topic poses it in the
political one three Plato class and
gratitude in Plato's Republic the old
philosopher has a very similar Quest as
the world controllers do in Brave New
World he wants to create a society that
is stable and just and he also divides
the state into different classes to
achieve this for Plato there is the
bronze class the silver class and the
Gold Class the bronze class would be the
industry of the city the silver class
would form its military and the Gold
Class would be his Infamous philosopher
Kings who ruled from on high and Plato
also wanted his lower bronze class
citizens to enjoy their roles he said
they would never want to be silver or
gold anyway and that this was the best
place for them the place where they
would be happiest in huxley's world this
platonic idea has been taken to the
extreme as I said before there is a
rigid biological class system based on
the nourishment someone receives as an
embryo and as soon as this is done each
class is conditioned to know and love
their place the Deltas and epsilons are
made deliberately unintelligent by the
interventions of the Hatchery and they
are conditioned over their entire
education to love their work at one
point an alpha remarks that if they were
given much more to do than simple busy
work they would be miserable just like
if an Al was given an Epsilon job they
are essentially made grateful for their
position via their conditioning and the
alpha admits that if he was born an
Epsilon he would be conditioned to not
want to be anything else from a purely
utilitarian standpoint this can seem
great in a perverse way the psychologist
mahai shik shent mahai once argued that
us humans are at our most joyous when we
are occupied by a task that we find
meaningful and pushes our abilities
without overwhelming them ideally the
careful interventions of the Hatchery
means that everyone's job does just that
there is no room for social Mobility but
there is no wish for it either if the
epsilons are made content with their
socially devalued and exploited position
then who would we be to stop them are we
going to inflict upon them knowledge
that would only make them unhappy and
that they would not know what to do with
anyway in our world such arguments are
quite rightly viewed as very
condescending and misplaced but that is
partly because in our world almost
everyone can learn new things and become
much more knowledgeable skillful and
intelligent than they already are even
the most Ardent and extreme Believers on
fixed limits on intelligence do not
think that people cannot learn or grow
but in huxley's World there truly is no
possibility of growth for the Deltas or
epsilons which complicates the ethical
question and this is also a much more
extreme form of elitism even than
Plato's at least Plato allowed for
social mobility in theory whereas in
Brave New World it is a biological
impossibility as we move into the mid
21st century and start to explore ways
to edit the genetic makeup of embryos
some people have worried about this
biological hierarchy becoming a reality
so we are presented with a society that
is at the same time extremely unequal
and also perversely meritocratic
everyone ends up where they can perform
to the best of their abilities but at
the same time this is predetermined from
birth the potential of the majority of
the population is deliberately stunted
and they are made to enjoy this again we
see the challenge to the first
principles of utilitarianism this may be
a happy situation but does it not seem
somehow grow T is our moral intuition
not screaming at us that this situation
is unjust not by virtue of its
consequences but by its very form is
robbing someone of their potential and
making them thank you for it wrong even
if that is technically what will make
that person happiest or is this
kneecapping of someone's development not
respecting their dignity as a rational
agent certainly this is the kind of
thing that Jeremy benam and K would have
a bar fight about if we combine Huxley
with some contemporary philosophy then
the questions become even more
interesting Peter van invagen and Robert
spolski are just the latest in a long
line of determinists people who think
that the outcomes of our lives and even
the choices that we make are
predetermined and thus outside of our
control topolski points out that the
income levels of our parents our
education and the country we are born in
all have disproportionate effects on not
just where we will end up later in life
but also the kind of choices that we
will make if we experience certain types
of childhood trauma then we are more
likely to make decisions based in anger
and if we have a family history of
addiction we are much more likely to
become addicts ourselves all of these
have an effect on our lives but they are
also fundamentally out of our control we
do not choose our genetics or our
upbringing or really our education until
the higher levels and there are also
examples of this that are so obvious we
don't even register them on a day-to-day
basis if you are born attractive then
you have innumerable advantages in your
career relationships and more if you are
born with a debilitating illness this
can severely limit your options in life
and none of this is even remotely up to
us perhaps the scariest part of huxley's
determinist class system is that it is
an exaggerated and agential version of
Something the universe arguably already
does to us as a child we did not control
how we were raised or our genetics or
our social environment or even our
nutrition and yet this is a huge
determinant of where we will end up
later in life and what we will choose to
do later in life for instance if we were
part of the generation whose mothers
took thalidomide to help with Mourning
sickness then we might have been born
with it Associated syndrome and had our
physical growth impaired considerably a
huge sighe of our options in life cut
off in an instant through no choice of
our own sure we notice the extreme
effects of this particular example but
if the determinists are right then
structurally our situation is no
different we may not live in the
profoundly unfree system of huxley's
world but we don't often acknowledge the
ways in which our own universe is doing
the work of the Hatchery directors for
them and you don't even need to be an
outright determinist to recognize this
and in some way huxley's world even has
an advantage over our own at least they
can recognize all of the aspects of
their lives that are out of their hands
they can point to the hatcheries and say
look there that is why I am what I am
whereas many of us live with the
inherited idea that whatever happens to
us is solely the result of our own
merits and demerits even if you believe
that someone is radically responsible
for everything that happens in their
lives that does not mean that they have
caused it in huxley's world people know
what is constraining their choice es but
do we know what is constraining ours or
do we instead pretend we are much Freer
than we actually are just because we
don't have 10 Global controllers
Watching Over Us does not mean that we
are the masters of our own fate to what
extent can we truly claim credit for
where we are in life and how much did
causal factors outside of our control
intercede on our behalf or seal our
unhappy fate such questions lie at the
intersection of the debate around Free
Will ethics moral responsibil ility and
much more once again the philosophical
depth of huxley's novel is plain for all
to see but next I want to look at how
the world state has murdered a key human
instinct and one that many of us hold in
very high esteem four creativity and
consumption in one of France kafka's
letters he describes that he and his
novels are one and the same if you want
to know him then read his writings and
if you don't then the deepest parts of
him will be forever closed off to you it
is a characteristically drama
Proclamation for the Bohemian Legend but
it also strikes at the heart of
something that makes many people's lives
truly fulfilling their ability to create
one of the only books that was available
to John while he was growing up on the
reservation was the complete works of
Shakespeare which no one in the world
state was allowed to read and when he
enters this futuristic Society one of
the glaring emissions is great art he
goes to one of the entertainment venues
with lenina to watch a fely a kind of
all immersive film but he is horrified
by the shallowness of the art on display
it is all just stock storylines about
two-dimensional characters it does not
challenge nor does it reveal anything it
does not encourage reflection or even
pose an interesting question it is
pleasant but it is never anything more
than that and this causes John immense
distress this frustration about art is
shared by the propagandist helmholtz
helmholtz desperately wants to create
art but despite being one of the deepest
thinkers anyone has come across in the
world State he still cannot summon up
anything of depth or insight to write
when he encounters The Works of
Shakespeare through John he is astounded
at the creativity on display this is
what has been missing from his life but
his programming is so entrenched that he
can't even fully appreciate it he can
Glimpse its beauty admire its creativity
but its tragedies fall flat and some of
its Great Moments are rendered
unintentionally ridiculous and crude
this saddens John because he realizes
that not only has helmholtz been made
unable to create things that are
expressive but the very ability to see
and recognize depths of emotion or
passion has been totally stolen from him
most of the spectrum of emotional
experience is unexplored territory and
while he is in a sense happy this has
come at the cost of hobbling his psyche
and this is meant to be one of the most
gifted Alpha pluses in Europe someone
everyone recognizes as a genius a
towering intellect but try as he might
he is impotent to create this dialogue
about art and creativity comes to a head
in the conversation between John and
muster M at the end of the novel John is
bemoaning the state of Art in the new
world and Mustafar surprisingly agrees
he says there is nothing that they make
or even could make that would compare to
Shakespeare according to him you cannot
have art except by suffering and strife
for Mustafar extreme creativity can only
exist as long as there is war famine
disease pain loss and grief but he and
the other world controllers have worked
very hard hard to eliminate these sure
the quality of art has decreased but if
the whole purpose of Art in the first
place was to help us cope with an
imperfect world is that so bad now such
a world is a thing of the past there is
no need for art it has outgrown its
usefulness and for Mustafar this is not
a cause for despair but for Bittersweet
celebration just as the small poox
vaccine has been rendered pretty much
obsolete because the horrific disease
has been totally eliminated the
controllers have destroyed the suffering
that we needed art to treat no one would
say we should bring back small pox
because without it we don't get the
small poox vaccine for Mustafa the death
of creativity is a small price to pay
for a world without pain and this hits
at the core of an age-old philosophical
debate about the purpose of creating art
is it the job of Arts to produce
pleasure in its audience or does it
strike at something that is more
important than pleasure for instance
Plato thought that beauty was good for
its own sake he would quite often talk
about the beautiful and the good as if
they inevitably went together and one of
the jobs that art does even in his
censorious Republic is reflect the form
of the beautiful other thinkers would
argue that the world controllers have
not eliminated the need for creation for
instance the psychoanalyst Eric from
posits that the act of creating
something is partly aimed at dealing
with a feeling of separateness in a
moment of creativity we become unified
with our craft we become one with it
while maintaining our individuality for
others like Kafka art is partly an
expression of something within a way of
communing with the world and with other
people those aspects of ourselves that
we cannot put into straightforward words
and this is only scratching the surface
of the various different views of Art
and creation that abound among
philosophers something we see an awful
lot in the Diaries and private letters
of great creatives is that their works
sometimes seem like they are bursting
forth from within causing extreme
discomfort if they are not released the
Russian writer and philosopher Theodor
dovi said that one of the unbearable
things about life in his prison camp was
his inability to put pen to paper he was
constantly bursting with ideas and they
were screaming at him to be expressed
but his will was frustrated and many
people feel this to some extent many of
us have a desire to create and to leave
a mark on the World by our creation
nature would have called this a
manifestation of the will to power
Ernest Becker would have called it death
denial and schopenhauer might refer to
it as an externalized will to life so a
huge philosophical question dangles in
the air how important do we think this
desire to create is and are we willing
to sacrifice it if it's going to bring
us more hedonistic pleasure are the
citizens in Brave New World happy in the
greatest sense or are they cut off from
some of the deeper joys of life because
of their inability to exert these inner
creative drives characteristically of
this work there are endless questions
and very few answers and the issues
certainly do not stop there because now
we will move on to something very close
to our hearts the way this utopian
dystopia treats love five love love and
free love some of the greatest stories
in history have centered around love and
its Earth while companion loss we hear
Love's frustrations in the declamations
of Tristan and doal while Romeo's
profession that he n saw true beauty
till this night speaks to the way love
can well and truly knock us over turning
our lives completely upside down love
caused the Trojan War brings joy to
billions of people and edles thought it
was one of the fundamental forces of the
universe suffice to say it's a big deal
and a huge theme in a lot of philosophy
and literature about love is the idea
that we want to merge with another
person in some way in the Bible this is
put as becoming one flesh in Plato's
Symposium lovers are imagined as two
halves of the Same Soul cut in Twain by
the Gods in the 20th century the French
psychoanalyst jacqu Lan spoke of the
tension in Romance between togetherness
and distance there are the twin wishes
to remain independent from our lover and
to meld with them we want to be
reassured by the continued presence of
another person yet also to remain
independent and these desires
understandably come into conflict this
tension can be seen almost everywhere
from the advice to treat them mean to
keep them Keen to the third Act of
almost every single romantic comedy so
it is notable that in Brave New World
the controllers have tried to take this
desire from us to condition us out of it
instead of this wish to merge with
another there is the maxim that everyone
belongs to everyone else and there is a
love that is totally toally free and
here free simply means without
restriction making love is essentially
on par with making a cake lenina is
looked upon as strange for having
vaguely monogamous and committal drives
first she takes up with a man named
Henry and stops seeing other people and
then later she forms a unique
Fascination for John her friends look
upon this as totally bizarre as do the
rest of the citizens for them love and
love making is not something you do with
someone you care about instead it is all
simple Recreation and nothing more
indeed the very notion of an emotional
passionate connection either with a
single person or with multiple people is
condemned in the strongest terms even
the word mother is considered vulgar
because of the special connection it
implies someone has with their child I
find this very interesting because the
view of love the world State ends up
taking is at once deeply individualist
and also very collectivist on the one
hand no one can really open themselves
up to another person in any meaningful
fashion because that would require the
dreaded emotional connection but on the
other hand everyone is free to be CED by
anyone else at any time there is the
illusion of freedom but every choice
amounts to the same thing a shallow
connection with someone you are using as
a self-pleasure Aid everyone belongs to
everyone else but everyone is also a
consumable object to everyone else and
in a flurry of Freedom the citizens of
the new world find they have no choices
because in what sense is a choice
meaningful if its effects are the same
as every other one we could have made
with only superficial differences
dancing along the surface connection has
been totally replaced by consumption the
fundamental option that is barred from
the new world is that of commitment no
one has the ability to commit to another
person in fact it will make you a social
Pariah and possibly get you exiled but
it is only through types of commitments
that we get to experience the deeper
layers of Love companionship and more
don't be foed into thinking this point
is more profound than it is it is just
that if we're going to forge a
connection with others then we need to
give that person our time attention and
affection in a way that is
non-transactional and does not treat
them as an object for our own pleasure
it is love freely given and freely
received but not free in the sense of
Brave New World there every romantic
interaction is reduced down to pleasure
traded for pleasure there is nothing
inherently wrong with this being one
dimension of love but if it is the only
Dimension then so much is missed out the
reassurance that someone knows you at a
fundamental level with all of your
little insanities and flaws and loves
you nonetheless the ability to express
your vulnerable affection for someone
else safe in the knowledge that it will
be well received According to Aristotle
virtuous friendship and love was the
deepest and most fulfilling connection
we could Forge with any other person and
yet in Brave New World people are
permanently cut off from this and this
deprivation is made all the more
Insidious because they are not forced to
abandon love at the point of a gun but
instead they are taught that it is
something of little importance and that
taking it seriously is a mark of
undesirable eccentricity I cannot help
but think of how some of my close
friends describe their experiences on
dating apps and see some rather
unsettling parallels this notion of
there being so many people out there
someone could be with yet a fundamental
inability to commit to anyone in
particular reminds me of something that
kard talked about in His Brilliant book
The Sickness unto death a type of
Despair brought on by an excess of
possibility and one example of this is
when we are paralyzed by options so that
each individual choice to not commit to
a single line of action strikes us as
totally consequential but then
eventually our postponement of
investment comes back to bite us and we
never engage in the sort of
unconditional commitment that might
fulfill us for kard commitment is a leap
of faith that we must take to elevate
Our Lives yet it is always terrifying
and to a certain extent irrational but
sometimes just committing to something
is better than to nothing at all the
citizens of Brave New World are arguably
Meed in this despair of possibility and
their only Mercy is that they don't know
what they're missing however we have now
talked an awful lot about the carefully
crafted culture of the world state it is
now time to turn to their enforcement
mechanism and it is a power we are all
sadly familiar with six isolation and
shame if you've been a teenager at some
point then you almost certainly know
shame that creeping feeling that
whatever you are doing is either wrong
or being constantly judged by your peers
it makes you feel like you are
insufficient or defective in some way
after a while the voice of outer
condemnation and and the voice of inner
shame begin to sing from the same hym
sheet and you can end up truly believing
that you are all of those horrible
things that people are saying or
insinuating about you while in many ways
the new world functions as a hedonistic
Paradise shame is the engine of
punishment that keeps everyone in line
This is clearest in the case of Bernard
Marx he is an alpha plus the highest
ranking cast in the world State he's an
accomplished psychologist and by all
accounts should be having a great time
but he is constantly being shamed both
by other people and by himself the first
source of this is quite literally his
stature Bernard is a few inches shorter
than the other Alpha pluses and in a
world where physical size is praised as
a virtue and when the alpha pluses are
purposefully made to Tower above the
lower ranking classes this is a source
of great insecurity for Bernard and it
is something he cannot change in the
slightest he is not content with being a
short King as some people say I don't
know if that term is still relevant my
sister told me about it the other day
but I tend to learn slang terms about 6
months after everyone else stops using
them so let me know if short King is
relevant here or if I just seem like an
old man this little touch of alienation
is also what leads to his separation
from wider Society it is what causes him
to stop taking s and to purposefully
feel sorrow as a little Act of rebellion
against the community that has rejected
him outwardly he wants nothing to do
with this Society but inwardly he yearns
for its approval he is like the child
desperately trying to get his parents
attention after being ignored for so
long and this inner conflict in Bernard
is displayed all throughout the novel
most notably when he brings Jon back to
the world's State and is effectively his
custodian he becomes a bit like a
celebrity he invites only the highest
ranking people to his parties everyone
wants to see Jon and by extension
everyone wants to see him he has the
attention of attractive women something
he could previously only dream of and he
has the social standing of someone far
above even his position and he loves
this his opinion of the state changes on
a whim and all of a sudden he
appreciates what he previously hated of
course as soon as his Newfound Fame
evaporates when Jon refuses to make an
appearance at one of his parties he goes
right back to despising this horrible
new world but despite its amusing
undertones I actually think Bernard's
experience of Shame is very insightful
and it's one of the most underrated
aspects of huxley's novel in a recent
paper James Lang argued that shame stems
from a thwarted desire to connect with
other people in a socially acceptable or
proper way so when we are shamed and
when we experience shame we are reing
two distinct messages the first is that
despite our wish to connect we are not
connecting and secondly that this is
because of some value failing on our
part in other words we are not just
being rejected but we are being rejected
specifically because we are deficient in
some way there are clear cases where we
might actually want to communicate this
message we might want to let a mass
murderer know that their social
rejection is as a direct result of their
failure to live up to the moral
standards of the community but if we
take Lang's analysis seriously then we
we immediately notice two further things
one shaming only works if someone
actually desires to connect with us and
two shame can bleed into someone's
self-conception because we're telling
them that they are not only denied
connection but denied it because of
something wrong about them specifically
and this is where the unsettling way the
controllers use shame in Brave New World
comes into Focus there is only one world
State and one world culture moreover
every child is conditioned from birth to
desire socialization and companionship
and to find Solitude and quiet
reflection incredibly uncomfortable in
other words the setup is perfect to make
shame as painful as possible everyone is
taught to desire social acceptance and
these shallow Connections in the extreme
but at the same time there is only one
way to achieve this desire and if you
don't get it that way then you are
permanently isolated and alone and since
these citizens are taught to associate
being alone with being deficient and the
only weird people want to spend time
with themselves they conclude that if
they are not constantly in the company
of others there must be something deeply
wrong with them and underneath all of
his spite Bernard thinks this too of
course this also means that if the
controllers ever wanted to bring someone
back from the brink of rebellion then
they could snap their fingers and summon
up some social acceptance for them and
they would react exactly how burnard did
his programming still has a total hold
on him and as soon as the opportunity
arises he leaps back into the arms of
the institutions he so hated this is the
existentially terrifying nature of shame
it Stokes our desire for acceptance at
the very same time it denies it to us
Brave New World communicates just how
powerful a form of social control shame
can be and Huxley uses it to great
effect in the unsettling dynamics of
burnard's relationships it also reminds
us of the long-lasting effects of
rejection Bernard has faced rejection
his entire life and as a result he
becomes immensely vulnerable to
betraying his principles at the first
sign of acceptance by contrast Helm H
halt has always been considered an
exceptional and brilliant man and has
only had encouragement wherever he went
so by the events of the novel he does
not require social acceptance and this
allows him to bear his Exile with
dignity while Bernard flies into a
frenzy at the thought of losing what
little social position he had but next
we shall move on to huxley's analysis of
a deep and controversial human need one
that we see come up in philosophy quite
a lot but that often goes unacknowledged
seven the necessity of sacrifice all
through the New Testament of the Bible
we see themes of sacrifice the most VI
example of this is Christ dying on the
cross and so redeeming all of mankind
but we also see the apostles give up
their possessions and their former lives
to follow Jesus St Paul sacrific his
livelihood to spread the word of God and
the Virgin Mary give up her beloved Son
for the good of the world and this is
not just a theme in Christian scripture
it appears in Buddhist texts where
monastics are instructed to live in
service to others and in the vadas where
rituals of sacrifice are outlined and
this widespread usage of sacrifice as a
motif is kind of remarkable able given
how potentially unpleasant sacrifice can
be by definition a sacrifice is the
giving up of something good in service
to something greater and that's sort of
a tough pill to swallow but what is
perhaps even worse than sacrifice is
having nothing we would want to
sacrifice for the philosopher Bernard
Williams talks of categorical desires
these are things that we would desire to
happen even if we were not around to see
them for instance I might wish that my
siblings achieve success in whatever
they do even if I do not live to see it
happen that would be a categorical
desire but I'm not going to wish that my
bacon sandwich tomorrow would still be
here even if I die in the night thus
that is not a categorical desire
intuitively categorical desires
transcend our thoughts about ourselves
and our own pleasure and reach out into
the world to imbue an aspect of it with
value it is striving for something
greater than ourselves and according to
Williams categorical desires are a huge
part of what makes our lives meaningful
they are what stop our existence from
becoming a solipsistic circle jerk and
allows us to Value things for their own
sake rather than merely what they can do
for us and the value of this idea seems
intimately connected with sacrifice
having a categorical desire is in effect
having something outside yourself that
you value just as much or more than your
own pleasure it is thus very close to
having something worth sacrificing for
and it's a good thing too without these
categorical desires we would have no
reason to care about anything whose
timeline stretches beyond our own depth
of course Williams is not the only
person who's working is relevant here if
we examine Nature's working definition
of meaning we see it as something like a
thing you are willing to act in service
to or to stick more closely to his
terminology a higher purpose you are
able to sublimate your will to for him
it is what allows us to transcend
short-term Hedonism and make our lives
not just pleasant but fulfilling and
organized to bring this idea down to
earth think of the parents you know and
how they say they would not just
sacrifice for their child but do so
happily without a shred of doubt or
resentment in their heart and that they
find this fact both comforting and
fulfilling if nature is to be believed
this is the kind of meaning a
sacrificial attitude can imbue us with
and we can see people's willingness and
even eagerness to sacrifice quite a lot
in everyday life from the friends giving
up a jolly evening to confront a
recently bereaved companion to the child
in the playground sharing their favorite
toy with their little sister this sort
of sacrificial generosity can make not
just the receiver happy but the giver as
well and this is one of those rare
things that
Jesus the Buddha dovi and Aristotle
would all agree on so it's at the very
least worth considering and part of the
reason Brave New World strikes JN as a
dystopia is because the people there are
deprived of having something they can
sacrifice for behind the vague
platitudes about everyone living for
everyone else there are very few
examples of genuine sacrifice in the
world state in practice people simply
pursue pleasure and avoid discomfort if
they are sad they take a sua and if they
feel desire they just go out and achieve
it without a second thought about
anything else there are certainly
strengths in this approach it's better
than a kick in the teeth but it also
seems that we have lost something in the
process one of the clearest examples of
this comes in the relationship between
Jon and lenina Jon is clearly attracted
to lenina as she is to him but he does
not want to consumate this until they
are in a committed bond this makes very
little sense to Lina but to John the
self-denial is the point he is
sacrificing his own short-term pleasure
to show his seriousness about making
lenina his wife lenina may not
understand but to John this is a crucial
part of love he is demonstrating his
willingness for self-sacrifice and this
same urge to sacrifice is embodied in
Helm H halts when he begins to act out
against the world State inserting his
own poetry into his lectures on
propaganda despite it being forbidden
nobody forced him to do this he wants to
sacrifice for his own principles
otherwise how does he know he even has
them it is all well and good us saying
we would suffer for something but until
we truly do our modest martyrdom is Holy
untested Helm Holtz and JN both hold
their categorical desires incredibly
close to their heart additionally some
philosophers like schopenhauer have
argued that our willingness to sacrifice
on behalf of others is the very thing
that marks us out as ethical people the
willingness to give up some of our
pleasure or to feel pain out of
compassion for another person is for him
emblematic of everything a good person
should strive to be but in their wisdom
the controllers have effectively removed
sacrifice if anyone is unhappy then they
just put them in a drug fueled mental
holiday and the Very Act of being
invested enough in another person or an
idea to sacrifice on their behalf is
seen as socially destructive after all
it is everyone belongs to everyone else
and any deeper level of compassion than
the vague Goodwill we feel towards our
fellow humans runs counter to the
maintenance of predictable social order
if someone values something enough to
sacrifice for it then they might even
value it more than the orders that come
from on high but if we take philosophers
like Bernard Williams and along with
some Modern psychologists like Emily
impet seriously then we are forced to
admit that in eliminating sacrifice the
controllers have also killed off a
potentially very fulfilling aspect of
people's lives deeper meaning has been
sacrificed at the altar of shallower
pleasure we never find out how many in
Brave New World feel the same sort of
emptiness as helmholtz or burnard but I
cannot help but think that they must be
more common than the likes of Mustafa
would want to admit there may be such a
thing as empty pleasure and now I want
to tackle this point about pleasure
headon as it truly is the golden thread
that runs through the novel's philosophy
and it touches upon a few of the most
interesting questions in history eight
the right to be unhappy towards the end
of the novel we witness an extended
dialogue between JN and muster Mond on
the nature and value of pleasure we've
been referencing this through the whole
video but now let's dive a little deeper
in order to interrogate the very
foundations of the controller's views on
good governance and what it means to be
a person as I said before the thing that
sets the governments of Brave New World
apart from a lot of other dystopias is
that they're actually quite good natured
they profess that they only want what is
best for the citizens of the world State
and we have no particular reason to
disbelieve them furthermore they work on
largely appealing utilitarian premises
they want to maximize happiness and
minimize pain and this seems perfectly
Noble but the controllers also make a
number of philosophical assumptions that
are quite questionable and we and John
can tar get each one of them the first
is that all pleasures are created equal
implicit in Musta Mon's worldview is
that happiness is linear and based on
quantity so no distinction is made
between different types of pleasure the
difference between ecstasy joy happiness
titillation Som fueled Mania and
fulfillment is essentially glossed over
in favor of a lower resolution worldview
where all of these things are exactly
the same and can be summed together in a
honic calculus and funnily enough this
was also a criticism that early
utilitarianism encountered in its
initial format it only talked about
pleasure and nothing else and was
accused of being far too simplistic so
John Stuart Mill eventually drew a
distinction between the lower Pleasures
like eating drinking and the physical
part of having sex and the higher
Pleasures like companionship love and
Aristotelian style contemplation this is
partly the thrust of John's criticisms
regarding art in prioritizing the
short-term Hedonism of their citizens
the controllers have robbed them of lots
of other kinds of positive feing like
cathis or Compassion or deep-seated
affection but John's critique ultimately
stretches much deeper than this because
what he wants as Mustafa puts it is the
right to be unhappy that is he wants to
feel the full breadth of human
experience and places some value on this
in itself rather than simply Desiring
positive feelings all the time this
reminds me of a paper by Robert Ney who
argues that grief is partly about
establishing the identity of the
deceased after their death in this case
someone might paradoxically feel glad to
be grieving as in doing so they are
honoring their beloved dead Shakespeare
once described the sweet sorrow of
parting from your lover knowing that you
will see them again and full of present
sadness and premeditated Joy the human
mind is not as simple as adding up our
pleasures and subtracting our pains
according to John there is value in the
push and pull of the pleasant and
unpleasant sides of human experience and
if we cut off negativity entirely then
we will be depriving ourselves of the
strange satis action of having lived a
life that was full there are parallels
here with something n said about how
someone can either be open to the highs
and lows of life or neither but you
cannot have one without the other that
is if you are going to fully engage with
the willful and passionate aspects of
your life then sometimes this will take
you to a temporary energetic Ecstasy but
sometimes it will also plunge you into
Misery we can choose to dull both edges
of this passion if we like but for
nature if we are open to one then the
other will surely occur at at some point
ultimately this is an empirical claim
and I will leave it up to you to decide
how well evidenced it is from your own
experiences John also despises the
concept of Soma this drug that can
induce happiness in even the most
melancholic of patients it is unlike
many modern anti-depressant in that it
does not have immediate side effects
only shortening the patient lifespan
slightly in the long term but JN still
sees its happiness as false in some way
in my video on 1984 I mentioned Robert
nok's fantastic thought experiment The
Experience machine this was an imagined
scenario where he would offer to plug us
into a machine that would simulate total
Bliss for our entire lives he will even
sweeten the deal by wiping our memory so
we won't even know it's a simulation his
contention is that most people will
refuse this offer we would rather
experience a true and real mixed bag
than a false and simulated Paradise this
has been used as evidence that there are
some things we humans tend to Value more
than happiness truth being one example
of this but there is another question
raised by this experiment what does it
mean for someone's happiness to be false
a s trip strikes a lot of people as
false happiness because it induces a
dreamlike state where someone's
fantasies play out in front of them but
does that devalue the feeling itself in
some way JN and Bernard contend that it
does but it is an open question take
Linda for instance Jon's traumatized
mother who spends her final days high on
S she was truly miserable and there
seemed to be no way to relieve this
misery should we really expect her to
remain in this world that has done her
so much harm rather than Escape into a
comforting illusion and then there are
other thinkers who talk about our
deep-seated self-destructive drives dovi
thought that if we perceived ourselves
as unfree then it would not matter how
much pleasure we ought to be feeling we
would eventually Rebel wanting to
reclaim a sense of our human dignity
this thought was picked up by later
psychotherapists and given the startling
name death drive a concept which remains
controversial to this day but whether it
is true in general for Jon such a drive
very much exists he would rather be a
suffering Rebel than a happy conformist
and his impulse to self-destruct is
finally fulfilled when he ends his own
life in his isolated Lighthouse the
scars from his self flagellation still
gleaming on his back ultimately Brave
New World challenges a deep-seated
assumption that many of us have that
pleasure is always good and that more
pleasure is always better this may be
true or it may be false and it partly
hinges on where exactly we set the
boundaries of the term pleasure for
Huxley the controllers have made the
concept far too narrow and traded in our
Humanity for a cheap thrill but finally
what is the point of reading a dystopian
fiction book from the 1930s in the 21st
century well I'm glad you asked nine the
warnings of Brave New World As I said at
the beginning of this video Brave New
World is pretty unusual in the genre of
dystopian fiction rather than depicting
outright oppression it instead portrays
a populace too unreflective and filled
with short-term Hedonism that they
cannot see what is potentially wrong
with their society rather than the
brutality of the Pax Romana it is the
gentle distraction of the PanAm ET
kirkenes instead of Maintenance through
military might it is the manufactured
happy consent of the citizenry that
keeps the global government afloat it is
not that they have thought about it and
decided that this is what they want it
is that it has not even occurred to them
to question their situation and this
means Huxley can provide his own unique
brand of warning first at the personal
level it encourages us to put conscious
thought into what matters to us the
citizens of the new world are
deliberately conditioned not to Value
anything more than consumption and
pleasure but we don't have to we can
freely reflect on what fulfillment means
to us and to what extent short-term
pleasure has a role in it beyond that we
can question what Hedonism even means
for our lives do we favor the highs and
lows of a more extreme lifestyle or the
epicurian Delights of a conversation
with friends over some bread and a glass
of wine we will have inherited a
societal idea of what is pleasurable and
Huxley encourages us to interrogate this
viciously secondly at the social level
it is worth reflecting on when pleasure
becomes a tool that is used to distract
us from an issue or question that might
be really important to us thinkers from
the Rowan poet juvenile to macki AI have
warned us that when push comes to shove
rulers may turn to distraction
techniques to sneak through some
unpopular decision or to cover something
up Huxley reminds us that just because
we are having a good time now does not
mean that all is well and that
distraction is no less diverting because
it is Pleasant thirdly at the
philosophical level we can begin to ask
what things are more valuable than
pleasure and how they might factor into
both our ethical system and our
existential philosophy even if you're a
DieHard utilitarian the question of what
exactly pleasure amounts to and its
relationship to pain disappointment
excitement anxiety fear Elation
anticipation and more are very much
relevant
Beyond this asking whether Pleasures can
be empty or whether some Pleasures are
more morally important than others or
whether there are some things like
Freedom or expression or individuality
that are far more important than
pleasure can all get our philosophical
juices flowing again these are all open
questions but they are profoundly
interesting ones and they can help us
gain a more precise understanding into
what is perhaps the most important
philosophical question of all how to
live a good life your answer to these
inquiries will help you decide whether
Brave New World is a flawed Utopia or an
outright Abomination trampling over
everything that is human in the name of
a false mistress because ultimately what
separates Brave New World from its
contemporaries like 1984 is the nagging
question pervading the whole book what
if the controllers were right what if
pleasure is all there is and what if the
sacrifice of art Freedom individuality
change love class Mobility solitude and
more are all worth it provided we can
get our daily hit of happiness and dream
some easy dreams must Fon stands in
front of us a modern mephistophiles with
his hand outstretched but is his bargain
worth it thank you for watching and I
hope you have a wonderful day and if you
want to see a completely different
dystopia then check out this video where
I look at all Wells nightmare
1984 and stick around for more on
thinking to improve your life life
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