BNW essay

Yay we are finally done reading Brave New World! I thought that this was the most interesting book that we have read this year, but it definitely was not my favorite. Okay for the Brave New World essay I am planning on comparing our society to the World State. The sources that I plan on using are Sir Ken Robinson’s video and Neil Postman’s technology article.

In Robinson’s video he makes many parallels to the novel. One being the way that our education system is set up. He believes that "schools are still organized on factory lines" which he thinks is outdated and not very effective. He also says that there are "only two types of people, academic or non-academic, smart people or non smart people." This is very similar to BNW because the citizens are conditioned for different roles in society. They are not seen as an individual, but as a whole. Just like the students in our society who are educated in “batches.” Another similarity is the use of drugs. In the video he talks about the recent “epidemic” of ADHD. Now it is very common for students to be drugged in order for them to be able to pay attention better in class and to get a better education. This is similar to the use of soma in BNW. The citizens are urged to take the drug whenever they feel unhappy so that their emotions do not get in the way of production.

Another source that I plan on using is Neil Postman’s technology article. In the article he argues that thought-worlds disappear by “redefining what we mean by religion, by art, by family, by politics, by history, by truth, by privacy, by intelligence, so that our definitions fits its new requirements.” In BNW they do some of these things. One example is how they worship Henry Ford. Another thing is how they redefine family and make it nonexistent.