entertain

In order to achieve a stable society, happiness and pleasure need to be controlled. Humans are conditioned in the ‘womb’ to be happy with their fate. Depending on their situation, the embryos would be subjected to intense rays of light to condition them into working in the sun. As they mature, conditioning continues. Infants receive electrical shocks and their eardrums are pounded with screeching noises to make them associate botany and books with pain. Toddlers are taught to celebrate and feel apathetic about death, and are regularly sent to a hospital of dying people every weekend. At the hospital, they are given chocolate eclairs so that they will not feel despair and mourn. As they sleep, audio voices whisper into their ears about what they should feel and how to live. As growing kids, they are encouraged to experience sexual pleasures with a variety of their classmates. Those who refuse to obey during this activity are considered abnormal and sent to a psychiatrist. By the time they are adults, they are completely brainwashed to work in the assembly line that mass produces the next generations’ population.

Reproductive technology replaces the roles of parents, the words ‘mother’ and ‘father’ become associated with smut. This book is definitely interesting to read and made my imagination twist. It shows a civilization totally opposite from mine, but also a possible future. In a world where producing the numbers of population is a competition, where figures of embryos being created is to be proud of — this is Brave New World.