Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

Format: Physical Book.

Finished: 4/9/2023

What’s it about: In a future (unknown how long due to a new dating system), all discomfort has been removed by a world authoritarian government, at least partially owned by “science and progress”. There is no longer “live birth” and instead all humans are made in lab settings. Different levels of humans (alpha betas, alpha pluses, epsilons, etc.) are made to do various jobs of varying mental difficultly. Any discomfort can quickly be relieved by soma, a drug similar to an opiate. Additionally, because there is no live birth any longer, having sex with generally everyone is encouraged, as “everyone belongs to everyone.”

Main takeaway: Huxley’s view was that the future would be dominated by a desire for pleasure, or more so, a desire to rid the world of discomfort. He’s not far away from some of what we have already seen in 2023.

We removed sadness with soma (antidepressants), broken down the walls of sex (sexual liberation and freedom), and blunted the need to be alone (phones, internet). The only people who seem to understand the issues, are a select few who are different (the running joke is one of our main characters accidentally had alcohol in their test tub during creation), and the “Savage”, a boy rescued from a reservation which is a sort of amusement park / museum for the Londoners.

A few striking comments at the end of the book point to the authoritarians as internationally blunting science for the sake of “things to keep order” and removing god, because “why would you need god if there is no suffering?”

Maybe because I’m coming off the hangover of The Comfort Crisis, but to me the takeaway is simple. More comfort doesn’t always equate to a better society. And god forbid we let some authoritarian decide it for us!