My Essay on BNW (Grade 12)

Chinese government has been trying to build a harmonious socialism society these years. They wish people in that kind of society can live in harmony with each other, making the political, economical and cultural development. The various parts of the society should be in a state of mutual co-ordination. It seems that this idea is similar to the motto of the brave new world: COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY. There are certain ways the governments use to control the society.
In the state of brave new world, people are born from bottles and conditioned to five castes. Everyone has his or her own duty. What they should do is to work hard and try their best to make the world perfect. Everyone is satisfied by the living condition; everyone is a good and happy member of society, and there are no conflicts of interests.
        One of the preconditions of a society that can work well is “the optimum population” , just like the iceberg, eight ninth is immersed in the water—the common people; one ninth is above the water—the elites. In the state of brave new world, the Alphas have the highest IQ, and they can become the leaders even the controllers of the world; the Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons are more stupid, and they are the “common people” in the state. “Not philosophers but fret sawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone of society.” It implies an important conclusion: a society that is consisted of the people who have the abilities of reflection must be collapsed. It can also be understood as Obscurantism, to make the people stupid in order to control them more easily.
        The most famous example of Obscurantism in China is the Cultural Revolution.
        The Chinese Cultural Revolution was launched by Chairman Mao Zedong on May 16, 1966. He said the workers, the farmers, and the soldiers were the backbone of the society. And the teachers, the thinkers should be knocked down.
And the similar things happened in Qin Dynasty hundreds of years ago. The Emperor of Qin ordered to burn out all the books and kill thousands of intellectuals.
We can see that, for years, governments from all parts of the world have been trying to build a society that can serve their turns.
Another way to maintain the perfect society is to eliminate the individuals that have bad affections to it.
John goes to the vestibule of the hospital to prevent people from getting soma, and publicize the freedom. However, obviously this freedom is against the idea that the government of the state of brave new world praises highly of. And later Helmholtz joined him and shouts out the freedom. No doubt, this is a kind of antisocial behaviorin this society. Later Helmholtz is sent to the Falkland Island, and even Bernard, who is just the friend of Helmholtz and John and does nothing wrong in the vestibule, is sent to Iceland. And John chooses the old lighthouse as his hermitage.
This is not hard to remind us Alex in Clockwork Orange. Sinful Alex is sent to have an experiment of Ludovico’s Technique. They give him a brainwashing, and he experiment makes him become a less harmful man to the society.
        The government always make the peaceful semblance, and think of all kinds of ways to restrain the willing of people to pursue the freedom.
        Although in the state of brave new world, people are living a kind of “free life” (e.g. the liberation of sex, the free willing of taking soma), since people are made out, they have been conditioned to think in certain ways. They lose the ability of thinking, judging the right and wrong, and they do not have their own views of the world or the sense of worth. And the brainwashed Alex in Clockwork Orange is also similar to it, and the difference is that when Alex wants to commit a crime, the strong feeling of vomit stops him doing that. But there is till the idea of committing a crime in his heart. Although we know that this idea is negative, it is his own willing, it can represent the “freedom” in a sense. The government uses this way to repress the willing of people. This is a kind of reflection of totalitarianism.
What is the meaning of the being of society? The society is consisted of people. People try their best to make their life better, and indirectly, make the world better. However, the government is anxious to get the result of the perfect society, and always try to make it for making it. They try their best to clean up, cover or sweep out the unharmonious factors in the society, or to conform the thoughts of the citizens in order to make them better to be controlled. Although these actions can make the society seems to be harmonious and peaceful, in reality, it is not so. The problem that how to build a totally perfect society has been studying by amount of statesmen and philosophers for years. There are still a lot of things to be thought of and studied.