Monday, August 3, 2009
Individuality?
Individuality is everything in our society. In Brave New World, they make that all disappear. Or at least attempt to make it disappear. But let me ask this question: if the society really wants individuality to be eliminated, why not get rid of the caste system? Then the only individuality would be “failures” such as Bernard who is small and not like the other men in his caste. Why did they make the caste system then in the first place? To make people without intelligence, simply work to exhaustion and yet continue not being awarded? It’s different for the higher castes. They get better jobs and rewards. This idea appears to me more individuality; at least in a group kind of way. Why make different castes if they want everyone the same? In any case, you are the same and yet you’re not -same within your caste, different with the different castes. It reminds me of the Indian ways, if you were at the bottom you were not allowed to inter marrying with a higher caste. Or in Europe if you were born of royalty, by law, you were only suppose to marry another person of royalty. These are my thoughts; please tell me if you agree or disagree with me.
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I think that the reason that the society didn't eliminate all individuality is because they knew it wouldn't work out too well. If all individuality was taken away, how would people do the different jobs needed to run the utopian society? Some people would be required to know, if not more, then different things than others. But I do agree with you Jessica, if they were striving to eliminate all individuality they would make everyone equal, thus making everyone the same, and eliminating differences.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you ask, because the exact question is answered later in the book. The answer you will read in the book will give you more understanding as to why there is a caste system. I also think a caste system is inevitable, unless it is filled with clones with limited minds.
ReplyDeleteIf by individuality you mean the separate castes, then yes, I suppose there is some individuality in the society. But the Controller discouraged too much individuality because it could create a disturbance within their civilization (as Jon and Helmholtz did). They already tried to create a civilization where everyone was equal (the population consisting entirely of Alphas), but the people grew corrupt with the desire for power and a civil war broke out between the Alphas. The population dwindled and the experiment was covered up. So in conclusion, they found this method of separate castes to be much more efficient, and the only reason it's working is because of conditioning and soma; everyone is conditioned to be content with the status they have and soma removes all negative thoughts. If it weren't for these two crucial factors, the utopia would have ceased to exist centuries ago.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with your thoughts, that the world Huxley created failed to make everyone similar. All of the levels of Alphas and Gammas etc. are different but inside these levels they are the same, they are the people they were made to be inside of their systems. Bernard was an out cast as a result of someone not paying complete attention to their job which is why he is different, not because he chose to think differently on his own. John the Savage did not choose to be an out cast in his land but was made that way as a result of Linda falling into the hands of the Savages. It all happened to them by accident, they did not choose to be different.
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ReplyDeleteI disagree with you on that. I think that the main reason why Huxley created the caste-system in the book, was merely to point out the bad side of genetic engeneering, since the government would decide who's smarter, taller, better looking, etc. The only purpose of the castes is to differenciate and assign different occupations to certain groups of people.
ReplyDeleteThe castes are different among each other, like Alphas to Deltas, but only intellectually and physically. Both, Alphas and Deltas belong to a group from which they cannot get out, a group where they identify themselves with others, and have the same points of views and aren't allowed socially to think outside of these.
Those who do think differently are either outcasts, or the so called "Savages" and are not viewed as either civilized, or even mentally healthy.
The definition of individuality is the qualities that differenciate one individual from another. Therefore, one can assume that mind-sets are part of these qualities. Just because an Alpha is in a different caste than a Delta doesn't mean that they have different points of views about the World State, families or decanting-bottles.