My Brave New World
Sometimes the eternally confused soul in me firmly believes intent never matches the end result. The intent this time to read a cult hit. The resultant action - a casual purchase of a ragged, inconspicuous torn little book from a bookstore. The result - a imaginative jouney that transformed itself into a mind-boggling obsessive craze. Well the book happened to be "Brave New World"(BNW) .I knew nothing apart from the fact iron maiden had used it to name one their album and the book by itself was a classic. Gosh!!! It was as piercing as Bruce Dickinson’s hallowed vocals. BNW just doesn’t seem to fit into a "cult science fiction" genre. More than the sci-jargon (which by the way is used in a controlled manner given the fictional status of BNW) what really appealed to me was the deep "huxely"ian social introspection. The Utopian (rather dystopian) view of Huxley in a very "happy for all" societal set up is mind blowing.
The social relevance of this theme is probably its greatest strength. The Marxian view of class struggles to the Aryan philosophy of Hitler, the casteism in Hinduism (this in BNW lingo is the alpha-beta-gamma-delta-epsilon setup) are some examples of societal cravings for a "utopian" society. Science has been accorded an interesting role of the chief protagonist in this "leveling game". All though the utopian BNW was a by-product of ruthless and unsentimental scientific progress the further progress of scientific temper was a perceived as a possible cause of concern for the leaders of BNW. What they do then is restrict access to the very foundations of thought that created the utopian fantasyland. What really appeals is the same thoughts persisting to this very day were individuals or organizations take it upon themselves to create a society, which they perceive is ideal. Let it be the Hindu rashtra sought by RSS, the sharia based Islamic world or a world of pristine democracy for the capitalist neo-cons were a materialistic world view under the veils of free trade and to an extent globalization can be imposed. Science directly (e.g. the internet) or indirectly (e.g. military weaponry in the case of terrorists) is contributing to the cause. And as far as restriction of science or any “privileged” esoteric medium of expression goes we know common man has a minimal access to the upper echelons of power in a democratic setup. Leaders use suppression, as a tool to force upon on the masses what they perceive as right. Rightly Huxley has made human emotions an easy prey in the materialistic world. Everything is deemed artificial with a peculiar mood altering drug soma (this term has Vedic origins) playing the ultimate savior when any vague resemblance of humanness creeps up in the psyche of a BNW denizen. In today’s world the role of soma is played by the shrinking "global village" were information is enacting an agony aunt. If I can quote examples here, the various computer games we are so addicted to is a crude substitute for the joy we get in breathing the fresh air or the sheer challenges of facing a real world opponent in any game. The same applies to the numerous conversations with the ubiquitous mysterious chat partner. With technology all the more ready to bring us closer I only think it succeeds in increasing the distance. The scientific invention, which probably is closest in resemblance to the tools of science used in BNW, is undoubtedly cloning. As for the moral debate surrounding this, I personally feel it’s not the question of the right of creation (as seen from the eyes of the Judeo-Christian ideologies) that is important but the societal implications that has to be sincerely thought off. Not surprisingly Huxley has a profound influence on my judgments with regards to cloning. He definitely feels there will be a definite loss of individuality that plays a vital role in man-to-man interaction and in the way we judge a person and society as a whole. Individuality is the fulcrum on which human emotions rest. Killing individuality is nothing but imprisoning emotions. In spite of the tremendous odds stacked against human emotions in the all-prevalent monotonous world a desperate attempt of “humanizing” the world is also explored in the novel and just as expected a society were art and culture is long dead treats this attempt as a mere humorous delusion.
If I were to sum it up this masterpiece written in 1932 is way ahead of its time but can be extrapolated to describe accurately the present day world.
The social relevance of this theme is probably its greatest strength. The Marxian view of class struggles to the Aryan philosophy of Hitler, the casteism in Hinduism (this in BNW lingo is the alpha-beta-gamma-delta-epsilon setup) are some examples of societal cravings for a "utopian" society. Science has been accorded an interesting role of the chief protagonist in this "leveling game". All though the utopian BNW was a by-product of ruthless and unsentimental scientific progress the further progress of scientific temper was a perceived as a possible cause of concern for the leaders of BNW. What they do then is restrict access to the very foundations of thought that created the utopian fantasyland. What really appeals is the same thoughts persisting to this very day were individuals or organizations take it upon themselves to create a society, which they perceive is ideal. Let it be the Hindu rashtra sought by RSS, the sharia based Islamic world or a world of pristine democracy for the capitalist neo-cons were a materialistic world view under the veils of free trade and to an extent globalization can be imposed. Science directly (e.g. the internet) or indirectly (e.g. military weaponry in the case of terrorists) is contributing to the cause. And as far as restriction of science or any “privileged” esoteric medium of expression goes we know common man has a minimal access to the upper echelons of power in a democratic setup. Leaders use suppression, as a tool to force upon on the masses what they perceive as right. Rightly Huxley has made human emotions an easy prey in the materialistic world. Everything is deemed artificial with a peculiar mood altering drug soma (this term has Vedic origins) playing the ultimate savior when any vague resemblance of humanness creeps up in the psyche of a BNW denizen. In today’s world the role of soma is played by the shrinking "global village" were information is enacting an agony aunt. If I can quote examples here, the various computer games we are so addicted to is a crude substitute for the joy we get in breathing the fresh air or the sheer challenges of facing a real world opponent in any game. The same applies to the numerous conversations with the ubiquitous mysterious chat partner. With technology all the more ready to bring us closer I only think it succeeds in increasing the distance. The scientific invention, which probably is closest in resemblance to the tools of science used in BNW, is undoubtedly cloning. As for the moral debate surrounding this, I personally feel it’s not the question of the right of creation (as seen from the eyes of the Judeo-Christian ideologies) that is important but the societal implications that has to be sincerely thought off. Not surprisingly Huxley has a profound influence on my judgments with regards to cloning. He definitely feels there will be a definite loss of individuality that plays a vital role in man-to-man interaction and in the way we judge a person and society as a whole. Individuality is the fulcrum on which human emotions rest. Killing individuality is nothing but imprisoning emotions. In spite of the tremendous odds stacked against human emotions in the all-prevalent monotonous world a desperate attempt of “humanizing” the world is also explored in the novel and just as expected a society were art and culture is long dead treats this attempt as a mere humorous delusion.
If I were to sum it up this masterpiece written in 1932 is way ahead of its time but can be extrapolated to describe accurately the present day world.
posted by Dwarak Triplican at 11:25 PM
1 Comments:
i'd rather you split the post into two.
i have ad/hd
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