Happiness in a Brave New World

Brave New World is all about happiness and what the human race will do to attain it. The premise of the novel is that at some point humans found themselves so dissatisfied that they revolted to create a world in which they could be happier: the World State. In the process of reaching happiness, humans sacrificed much of what made them individuals. In this world, there is no such thing as pain, but also no such thing as love, and no such thing as learning from experience. There are no parents to abandon their children, but also no parents to love their children. There is no such thing as being lonely, but also no such thing as enjoying solitude. There is no class struggle, but also no chance of self-betterment.

In the process of attaining eternal happiness, society lost the ability to feel extraordinarily so (or extraordinarily anything). Conditioning drives it all, telling people how to feel and what to do in order to live without sadness. What many people miss is the truth. Scientists aren’t allowed to advance too far for fear of putting people out of work. Movies and books can’t be too emotionally impactful or controversial for fear of offending someone or making someone feel sad. All pain points are systematically eliminated from the world, and for any that may remain, there’s soma. After all, “a gramme is better than a damn.”