Escapism: The Final Frontier

In all of my reading, dystopian novels have become a favorite of mine. To see the prescient views of geniuses from the past can be both impressive and frightening: Orwell’s depiction in 1984 of a government that eliminates privacy and keeps constant surveillance on all of its citizens; Fahrenheit 451 envisioning a world where literature is replaced by television shows revolving around nothing of meaning long before the days of reality TV. The list goes on, but none have had as lasting of an effect on me as Aldous Huxely’s Brave New World.

Written in 1932, Huxley’s dystopian novel describes a world that has been completely structured to allow humans to completely indulge themselves at every desire by using their new technological advances. Kids are conditioned and brainwashed from a young age to dislike things that stir up emotion: books, music, nature, art, religion, and long term relationships with family and lovers. These relationships of lovers have been replaced with daily one night stands or orgies. The world is run around a new drug called Soma. Whenever someone feels even slightly down, they can just take a hit of the drug and such emotions will disappear. The user becomes stoned and happy. In sum, the people of Brave…