<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" > Huxley and Brave New World</h1>
Brave New World is a dystopian novel, which, together with British writer George Orwell's 1984 and Russian writer Zaminiya's "Us", is the most classic dystopian novel of the 20th century. The author of the book is called Huxley.
Huxley was an Englishman, British modernist novelist, who was born in a scholarly family with both a scientific tradition and a humanistic spirit. His grandfather was Thomas Huxley, the author of The Evolution of Heaven.
Huxley, who came from a scholarly background, developed a dual interest in science and literature from an early age, and organically combined the two in his creative career. In his dystopian novel Brave New World, he focuses on the suppression of humanistic rationality by science and technology, and makes a bitter satire on scientism.
Huxley's Brave New World portrays us with a different world and cosmology:
In a future world dating back 600 years, material life is very rich, science and technology are highly developed, people are subject to all kinds of constraints and education that are satisfied with the status quo, all of which are unified by standards, and people's desires can be fully satisfied anytime and anywhere, enjoy the days of food and clothing, and do not have to worry about the pain caused by life, old age, illness and death.
"The people live a stable life, want something and have something. They will never ask for what they don't get. They are rich, they are safe, they never get sick, they are not afraid of death, they are happy, they do not know passion and aging, no father and mother to give them trouble, no wife, children and lovers to make them passionate."
In this world, people are no longer natural reproduction, but through technology using test tubes for embryo breeding. In order to make the world orderly, there are rulers and the ruled, laborers and laborers. At the same time, in order to facilitate the rule, so that those who are ruled do not resist, the human beings who will appear during the embryonic period have been proportionally distributed in number, and the ideology of these people has been set in advance, so that these people will develop according to the predetermined plan as soon as they are born. These people are divided into five classes, from highest to lowest: Alpha, Beta, Gammer, Deta and Epsilon.
Alpha was a natural ruler and intellectual, and the following of Gammer were manual laborers, and Epsilon did not need human intelligence.
Because all thoughts are controlled by technology, people here have no self, no feelings, no pain, and there will never be contradictions, so they look peaceful. The so-called family, personality, emotions, freedom and morality are all absent, there is no real emotion between people, and human nature is ashes under the grinding of the machine.
In this book we can see two things: technological domination and the totalitarian world. Let's start with what technology dominates.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="35" > technical dominance</h1>
Technological dominance is easily discovered in Brave New World, and the beginning of the novel creates a high-tech world for us, with exquisite cloning techniques, perfect conditioning plans, excellent embryo breeding, and so on. Science and technology have brought unprecedented social prosperity and developed materials, providing people with enough material conditions that people do not have to worry about life, houses, cars, money, food, everything, do not have to worry about unemployment, poverty and hunger, and do not have to worry about illness. You can also enjoy a variety of entertainment projects, and live comfortably and happily. Every day after work, you can also travel around the world in a private supersonic plane, and people don't have to worry about aging and decadence: everyone here is young and beautiful, well-dressed
In short, all the anxieties and troubles you encounter in today's society are not in Brave New World.
The high degree of unity between the various strata of the population and the existing system, the eradication of hunger and poverty by the developed productive forces, and the high-consumption commodity economy have brought people to a highly uniform system of commercial consumption.
The comfort and peace brought by science and technology make everyone imperceptibly assimilated, alienated, and enslaved, and become a screw in the high-speed operation of developed capital and industrial system.
1. Human reproduction through technology. Every newborn is born in a bottle, they no longer have parents: an egg forms an embryo and eventually grows into an adult.
2, through technology to control each person's degree of development and model shaping. To rule is to rule, to engage in social science, to engage in social science, to engage in labor, to divide labor in society is clear, everyone performs his or her duties, and there are clear hierarchies and classes.
When people are in infancy, they begin to be trained with "conditioned reflex" stimulation, so that different levels of babies form preferences that match their identities, and all think that their class is the best class.
3. Achieve control over society through scientific and technological means. For example, the monitor conducts all-round monitoring, and the information and big data carry out accurate analysis and control.
4, even if people still have pain and contradictions, there is a pain eliminator called instigation of hemp, when people have a sense of pain, eat a pill of abstinence, the pain will completely disappear.
5, even if there are "fish that slip through the net", lonely and unsociable elements, such as Alpha Ham Hertz, Max, etc. in "Brave New World", they are considered abnormal phenomena in the New World. Those with such tendencies will be seen by the rulers as dangerous elements that have the potential to destabilize society, and they will be expelled. Exiled to the "island of the barbarian zone".
In a way, in the new world, everything is brought about by technology. When science and technology develop to a certain extent, science and technology can completely dominate mankind, and the ruling class will achieve domination of mankind by operating science and technology.
Technology has also promoted the development of social productive forces, and the rapid development of productive forces has brought mankind a high-material civilization society. When people's needs are met, their rationality of critical rebellion is dissolved, and there is no criticism, dissatisfaction, and resistance.
The end result? Towards a totalitarian world.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="32" > totalitarian world</h1>
The control of science and technology over human beings in Brave New World is actually the control of totalitarianism over human beings, and the division of hierarchy in the creation of the inhabitants of the world nation is the expression of totalitarianism.
The totalitarian world is a world of absolute obedience, in which all people will only obey and be enslaved, without thought, without resistance, but with labor. In the totalitarian world, countries have no hospitals, no police, people do not get sick, there are no contradictions, so they have no soul, no love, no hate, no fear of death, no sickness.
In a totalitarian world, social order is achieved entirely by political or state power, private space is compressed to almost nonexistent, and freedom is minimized. It means that all aspects of private and public life are included in all processes of domination.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="30" > reflection</h1>
Huxley's Brave New World depicts a technology that controls everything, where humanity is abandoned, the spiritual world is barren, and people indulge in a happy life that is fast and cheap. It reveals the horror of universal alienation in the real world, opposes the totalitarian world, calls for the return of the humanistic spirit, awakens us to think deeply about social issues, fully recognizes and understands the value of human beings, and jointly creates a society full of human brilliance, harmonious ideals and sustainable development.