“Brave New World” – Aldous Huxley

A world run by Organization for the sake of Organization. There is no free will, everybody is happy.
The desired population is created in the laboratory – test-tube babies! Huxley’s brother, Julian, a scientist was astonished that Aldous had worked out the science of how to do this (their grandfather TH. Huxley was a famous scientist – the populariser of Darwin).
“Brave New World” was written in 1930. Huxley and others were aware then of the dangers of over-population and talk of eugenics was topical.
Size of population and also a class system according to intelligence was controlled in the laboratory e.g. a moron was created by adding alcohol into the test-tube.
No one was born; they were decanted from their bottle. Sleep teaching was used (this idea seemed a possibility at the time of writing) but there was little need for further indoctrination. T.V. had been discovered but Huxley doesn’t pick up on it as a further means of Propaganda. There is no need; human potential has been limited in the laboratory and the infants enter a world where desire is regulated according to needs.
People don’t really do what they like- they have no choice – they like what they do. There is no beauty, only consumption, no one spends time alone.
The fun starts when two members of the alpha class visit a savage reservation and discover a young man, “The Savage” His mother has given birth to him when she was stranded on the island many years ago. (Alpha’s were allowed to stay fertile so as to supply eggs for the laboratories) The savage has one source of information of the outside world, the works of Shakespeare – left behind from an earlier age.
The title “Brave New World” alludes to “The Tempest”. The response of the Savage is that of Miranda to marvellous strangers, “Oh brave new world that has such creatures in it!”
“Brave New World” is a satire of our time. Huxley had set it way into the future but it is happening now. It has a different way of controlling the world (keeping people happy) than Orwell’s “1984” which is controlled by fear. “Brave New World” is about people who think they are having a great time but in fact are doing what we’re programmed to do.