Friday, July 31, 2009
Controlling Population Growth
As I read through Brave New World, I notice how the population growth is controlled by the government. I do think Huxley's prognostic on how the world would deal with population growth is fairly accurate. Now of course we don't have the "Bokanovsky" process and birth rates being controlled in "Human Hatcheries". But the world today does consist of many abortion centers, with millions of babies dying every year. We also have the use of condoms and birth control pills. Many countries in the world have also encouraged family planning. These solutions have led to families and couples being relieved of having to care for children and helping them become more focused on their own lives. In some cases this would benefit mankind, which is the government's goal in Brave New World. A classic example of this is in China with their strictly enforced one child policy. This has helped China become economically stable and eventually to an economic powerhouse it is today.
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I agree that today we have all sorts of ways to help control population growth but none of it is near as perfect as the operation they have in Brave New World that can control and predetermine the exact amount of babies needed to fulfill the "iceberg model" that allows their society to be stable. Though in the Brave New World society there is freedom from having to care for a child, it is hard to apply it to the modern age. One case is the third world countries that are exceedingly poor and require a high birthrate so that the extensive hard labor inherent in those countries can be fulfilled as well as the parents being supported in old age since the governments their sometimes don't have enough money for retirement pensions. Another case is Japan where many of the adults are similar to the ones in Brave New World and forego the child caring process but this leads to future problems as their population decreases while their policy of restricting foreigners still holds firm. Both of these cases represent the controversial sides of population growth and it is possible for the society of Brave New World only because of the total control the Ten Controllers(government)wield as well as the advanced technology.
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