Review of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

By Heather Sakaki

Heather is a former "epsilon" and second year student at Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, majoring in Liberal Studies. She is predominantly interested in political philosophy and social contract theory, bridging the gap between past and present arguments within these disciplines, and designing original principles and theories that may guide the global political atmosphere in a safer and more inclusive direction.

When critiquing the work of one of the most abstract minds in the Western world, it is

important to first question whether it was Aldous Huxley who chose the theme of fate for Brave New World, or if it was Brave New World that chose the theme of fate for Aldous Huxley. In this shockingly curious science-fiction novel, Huxley puts his humanistic training to practice by connecting the ancient wisdom of Plato’s Republic to post-modern concerns, forcing readers to think about the concept of fate and the role it plays in bringing about

dangerous political revolutions. As a result, the soulless become another major theme in this story as each, new desensitized character is introduced. As soon as it becomes evident that the soulful have been greatly outnumbered by the soulless, we realize that Huxley has cooked up a totalitarian state for us to digest using a style that will be difficult to for readers to swallow. By allowing his audience to see and hear all the ways in which citizens can be prevented from achieving their mind/body/soul connection, we can begin to see why those who are made to suffer this half-life would be involuntarily subordinate to the state. When the only citizens who possess the ability to free the state are stuck “living” a soulless existence, an authoritarian state will emerge. Whether intentional or not, Brave New World symbolizes the swiftness of this shift from democracy to authoritarian rule, which at least gives us an explanation as to why such revolutions are so difficult to prepare for.

The uncomfortable familiarity of Huxley’s social taxonomy in Brave New World forces

readers to acknowledge the boundaries of existence within a scientific revolution long predicted by “controllers” who have taken pity on future subjects of new biology. In this genetically engineered nightmare, natural rights are assaulted by scientists who lack the consciences necessary to recognize the horridness of their comments and practices in a community that has, apparently, lost all measure of the good. The new world order that Huxley creates in this novel make the “new horizons” of biology look more like crazed hurricanes, symbolizing both the terror and magnitude of unchecked science.

According to the main “controller” of this state, “all conditioning aims at…making

people like their unescapable destiny”, which is achieved through a combination of

indoctrination, regulation, and medication. Social groups are arranged according to intelligence levels in this “ideal society” that takes “extra special care” in controlling the development of its embryos. Disturbingly, the “lower” caste embryos are purposely given less oxygen during key stages of their bottled development to ensure that their brains will be “below par”. Consequently, this will result in greater levels of complacency among members of this group who will have no choice but to submit to their fate and the role they have been assigned. To our horror, we find out that one of the main expectations of this role requires early childhood sexual objectification which "prepares" certain society members for all the meaningless sex that they will be slated to participate in with the "higher” caste members who will use this public utility to satisfy their sexual needs.

Huxley illustrates a peculiar lack of emotion in some of his more oppressed characters,

like young Lenina Crowe, who have been purposely conditioned to tolerate the meaninglessness of their own existence. What’s more, these characters have been persuaded to believe themselves “fortunate” for having been spared the “difficulty” of emotion, therefore, do not have the capacity to see themselves as victims of the unjust deprivation that is taking place during their conditioning. Sympathetic readers, on the other hand, likely will be able to sense the tragedy in Lenina’s unnatural complacency and her predetermined destiny, marked by ethical injustices that tragically linger outside the range of her understanding. Most disturbing perhaps, are the small glimmers of frustration that materialize in response to this oppression, which are hastily tempered with mood stabilizing drugs that keep its ingesters in an awkward state of despondency.

Thankfully, we get to observe some defiant behaviour from Huxley’s protagonist,

Bernard Marx, who will inspire readers (especially scholars in Western philosophy) to reflect on Plato’s Republic and the “the mixture of metals” among the classes that can potentially ruin (or save) a state if not monitored carefully. In Brave New World, Bernard is the only subject who can sense the enslavement taking place in this “Ford” worshipping state, disillusioned by his peers who unquestioningly obey. The “silver” and “bronze” that Bernard possesses do not align with his purely “golden” counterparts who alienate him for the impurity of his quality. Due to the provocative language used by some of Huxley’s more conservative characters, like John “The Savage”, who vocalize their disgust for the sexual promiscuity taking place, this novel is best suited for the more mature and objective reader who will not be tempted to mimic the words that are used to express repulsion during these climactic scenes.

Interestingly, Huxley also brings attention to the risk of pity driven political decision making through one of his main characters, Helmholz Watson, an “alpha”, who takes pity on the classes “below” him and is simply annoyed by the level of power he holds over them. Although it is unclear whether his pity was deliberately designed to mock socialists and democrats in the audience, it becomes exceedingly difficult for readers to view pity as a virtue as the story progresses. And though it is easy to recognize the tragedy of this story from a scientific perspective, the real tragedy seems to remain in the truth that most of the people who could potentially identify with the “epsilons” in this story, will never reach literacy levels high enough to either read this novel or comprehend its significance in a way that could help nurture their virtue within, thus, saving them from a life of prostitution and/or other damaging pursuits. There will be some alphas, betas, gammas, and deltas however, who will be able to recognize the tragedy in the “epsilons” life and, at the very least, sympathize with the injustice of these predetermined fates.

Worryingly, this simulation is not unlike the intelligence based social hierarchies many

of us currently live in, complete with alphas, betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons who power our matrix with their “usefulness”. The despotic state that Huxley depicts in Brave New World will hopefully cause discomfort for readers, some of whom may even be inspired to think deeply about the danger of science without clear ethical boundaries. Huxley reveals his philosophical nature through his distinctly anti-Aristotelian setting and his vulgar portrayal of ancient Western prophecy that was able to predict the degradation of democracies. Ironically, it is the controlling atmosphere of this “brave” new world that helps us to acknowledge the uncontrollable nature of human intelligence and the soulless human disasters that can and do occur in result of this control.

If Huxley’s primary purpose for writing this book was to cause pity among his more

experienced classes of readers, then he achieved it in spades. However, if he assumed that

these groups of readers possessed the levels of courage necessary to then link this sense of pity to democratic rule and discover how this democratic rule would eventually dissolve into a totalitarian state (not unlike the one he portrays) and take meaningful action, then unfortunately, I think, he assumed too much. For to do this, one must first be able to feel emotion, which is not as common of an ability among the “intellectual” classes as one might think. However, it does allow for some of the “lower” caste members to look at their fate in a different (hopefully brighter) light and challenge that fate if it feels unjust.