Brave New World By Huxley

Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World out of fear of society’s apparent lack of
morals and corrupt behaviour during the roaring twenties. Huxley believed that
the future was doomed to a non-individualistic, conformist society, a society
void of the family unit, religion and human emotions. Throughout the novel,
Huxley predicts many events for the future, most of which concentrate on a
morally corrupt society. The most important of these predictions include:
greater sexual freedom, over-population, brain-washing/sleep-teaching, and the
use of mind altering drugs. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World warns of a possible
future dystopia, based on social attitudes and medical advancements of his time.

Huxley’s future dystopia is created largely by perverted sexual freedoms, which
in turn cause corrupt individuals, entirely lacking ethics and morals. Sexual
promiscuity appears to be a much more frequent activity now then it was in the
Thirties. Critics blame “…the advent of the pill for declining morality
and indiscriminate sexual activity.” Many believe that each time medicine
reduces the risk of unwanted diseases and pregnancies, society, on the whole,
will increase its sexual activity. Huxley’s prediction of promiscuity is based
on his iron law of sexuality: “As political and economic freedom
diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase.” A current
example of Huxley’s belief is China. China is the last remaining communist
regime, it also suffers from having one fifth of the world’s population within
its borders. Needless to say, China’s large population is a direct result of a
very sexually active society. Aldous Huxley’s fears of the future caused him to
write about sexual freedom and the resulting over-population in Brave New World.

Over-population is another problem which is addressed by Huxley, and is the
direct result of sexual freedom. The fear which Huxley addresses concerning
population control is: “Food supplies cannot grow as fast as people can,
and population growth in underdeveloped countries will jeopardize the world
order.” Simply stated the growing population of earth will consume more
than it will be able to produce, unless some form of regulating births can be
created. This is an obvious truth today, as millions of people are starving each
day. The brave new world that Huxley speaks of, is a warning to mankind
concerning its destruction of the laws of nature. For example, marriage is
forbidden, as well as, pregnancies, and mothers are non-existent because
possible children result in abortion. In Brave New World over-population is
solved by society’s ability to produce as many or as few humans as are necessary
to keep the population at equilibrium. The solution is test-tube babies or
“bottled babies” as they are referred to in the book. Effective birth
control of such a large population is difficult to achieve, especially in a
society where people are encouraged to be sexually active with numerous
partners. Today, the world is facing over-population head on, with mixed
results. Abortions are not readily accepted by most, and birth control in third
world countries is virtually impossible. Huxley realizes the problem with mass
birth control, and solves it by making seventy percent of the female population
sterile, while only thirty percent of the women remain fertile. By leaving
thirty percent of the women fertile, Huxley is able to show that even though
birth control on a large scale is difficult, it is possible to achieve. Through
the religious use of contraceptives, pregnancies rarely occur, however, when a
pregnancy does occur it results in an immediate abortion. Huxley’s fear of
over-population and the control of so many people is an obvious concern which
comes to light in Brave New World. Brain-washing is suggested by Aldous Huxley
in the form of manipulating individuals, rather than the masses. While
brain-washing and sleep-teaching are different (the former being done while the
subject is awake, and the latter being done while the subject is asleep), both
methods employed by Huxley, act upon the subconscious to obtain the same final
results. Prior to Brave New World, Huxley researched the Russian psychologist
Ivan Pavlov and his experiments on dogs. The Pavlovian dog was subjected to
highly stressful conditions, this was done to teach the dog how to react to
certain stimuli. The end results of these tests were dogs who had been broken,
became mentally insane. Prime human examples are the veterans of the world wars,
where victims became incapacitated from intense stress and fear (known as
“shell shock”). Huxley suggests that teaching under such stressful
conditions can also be considered torture (in its most refined state). Huxley
once wrote, “The effectiveness of political and religious propaganda
depends upon the methods