![]() He foresaw the ubiquitous prevalence of drugs, both legal and illegal, and how pharmaceuticals such as Ritalin would sedate growing numbers of children. He predicted, for instance, the ways in which technology, in the control of powerful elites, can control our decision-making with social media, pornography, the commercialisation of sex, advertising and reality TV. Here, Mustapha Mond's description of normal emotional tension.Aldous Huxley envisaged a regime with genetically engineered test-tube babies in Brave New World. Neurasthenia a former category of mental disorder, including such symptoms as irritability, fatigue, weakness, anxiety, and localized pains without apparent physical cause, thought to result from weakness or exhaustion of the nervous system. The conclusion to the discussion will drive John into isolation, but Huxley also means to inspire the reader to explore the assumptions of each character and to think beyond the frame of the novel toward the world itself - and the combinations of freedom and control that might enhance rather than limit life.Ĭardinal Newman (1801-90) John Henry Newman, English theologian and writer. The choice of freedom as it is defined by Mond is not a real victory, and John is still not a true hero.īoth Mond and John show themselves incomplete in this chapter, their different world-views shallow and unimaginative. The obvious misery of freedom's possibilities, John's hesitancy, and Mond's indifference - a noncommittal "You're welcome" - combine to dampen this climactic stand by John. Faced with the choice, John chooses freedom, replying to Mond's list of horrors, after a long silence: "I claim them all." But freedom means the possibility of disease, starvation, and misery. Control means comfort at the loss of freedom. Now Mond and John face each other squarely, and the choice emerges clearly. The two world-views are obviously incompatible in their own minds, although Huxley leaves open an option for the reader to find a middle way. John, the Savage, has made his case for freedom, and Mond for the stability and comfort of the brave new world. ![]() Huxley poses a choice between freedom and comfort. This disclosure brings the discussion - and the novel itself - to its climax. The discomfort and the pain, John maintains, are an essential part of freedom, beauty, and religion. John, of course, rejects this view immediately, because, according to his definition, a worthwhile human life requires suffering and danger, from which will spring nobility and heroism. In a memorable phrase, Mond describes soma as "Christianity without tears." In his response, Mond accepts the virtues of Christianity - kindness, patience, long-suffering - as reasonable and even socially valuable, but points out that soma can do as well as years of painful self-denial in producing virtuous behavior. A life of constant amusement and pleasure, he argues, is "degrading." ![]() Where Mond sees comfort as the pinnacle of human experience, John sees it as a barrier to growth and spirituality. In contrast, John's argument stems from a belief in self-denial and suffering as a means to the good - by which he means virtuous - life. Thus, Mond argues, God is irrelevant in the brave new world. But if age and discomfort are banished, the physical, material world never loses its pleasure. According to Mond's view, people turn to religion only when age and discomfort impel them to look beyond the physical world. Mond's argument against religion in his world is materialistic - the main point being that the culture of comfort has made God obsolete. John, in contrast, has actually lived a religious life in Malpais, surrounded by the rituals of worship and purifying himself in fasting and suffering. Mond knows about God and religion from the forbidden books he has read - the Bible, the medieval Imitation of Christ, and the relatively modern works of Cardinal Newman and William James. Mond and John's experiences of religion oddly complement one another. With Bernard and Helmholtz gone, Mond and John concentrate on the issues that distinguish the traditional world - John's Malpais as well as the reader's world - from the dystopia, especially a belief in God. In this chapter, Mond continues his discussion of the practical philosophy of the world he controls. John's formal acceptance of all the horrors of sickness, poverty, and fear - capped by Mond's terse "You're welcome" - ends the chapter. Mond counters that John is claiming "the right" to be unhappy, and John agrees. As their discussion unfolds, John expresses his disgust at the casual ease of living in a society where science and conditioning abolish all frustrations. In this chapter, Mond and John discuss the brave new world - especially the absence of God.
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