{"id":209,"date":"2023-12-11T14:09:20","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T19:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/?p=209"},"modified":"2024-02-07T12:42:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T17:42:25","slug":"you-are-losing-your-freedom-brave-new-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/11\/you-are-losing-your-freedom-brave-new-world\/","title":{"rendered":"You are Losing Your Freedom: Brave New World."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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You are Losing Your Freedom: Brave New World<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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You Aren\u2019t As Free As You Think<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all have our share of trials. We all have burdens. But thankfully, we don\u2019t have nearly as many as our ancestors did. Most of our problems are small ones\u2014 first-world problems. We have more access to good food, clean water, shelter, and entertainment than anyone else. If we step back from our daily stress and struggle, we realize that we live in what almost seems to be a utopian-level existence. But luxury has a variable effect on people. It doesn\u2019t discriminate by race, gender, or any other unimportant factor, but its impact on people depends on how they react. And, naturally, the majority of our population reacts poorly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t need some iron-fisted ruler or a terror-hungry extremist to lose your freedom. Not all tyranny is hard power. Of course, we like to think that we\u2019re free. We like to perceive ourselves as \u201cin control.\u201d Of course, nothing says \u201cFreedom\u201d like waves of people self-administering hundreds of dopamine hits while scrolling for hours on Instagram. Nothing says \u201cFreedom\u201d like the marketing on the side of Burger King: \u201cYou know you want it,\u201d \u201cYou deserve to treat yourself,\u201d with lines of weak, sullen zombies waiting for their overly sized, overly addictive meals to thrill their tongues. Nothing says \u201cFreedom,\u201d like almost every man in America secretly spending hours in shameful searches on Porn Hub. You are losing your freedom, and it’s happening in a predicted fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brave New World<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 1932, Aldous Huxley wrote \u201cBrave New World<\/a>.\u201d It is an undervalued work, especially in our day and age. When most people think of Dystopian Novels from the 20th century, they think of George Orwell and his deep-cutting novel \u201cNineteen Eighty-Four.\u201d But while Orwell warned against Totalitarianism and illustrated the misery it could bring the world, Huxley\u2019s novel explores the idea of individual freedom and what it really means to be free. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dystopia Huxley writes about is called the \u201cWorld State.\u201d The World State artificially breeds its citizens. It predetermines its peoples\u2019 social classes by purposefully stunting certain citizens’ growth while they incubate\u2014classic dystopian government behavior. But the World State isn\u2019t interested in keeping its people dejected and miserable. In fact, they strive to make their people as happy as possible. And they\u2019re pretty successful. Their citizens are very happy, content with whatever social class they happen to be a part of, and satisfied with how their government treats them. To the citizens of the World State, it\u2019s like a Utopia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the principal sources of their happiness is a sort of \u201cmiracle drug\u201d called Soma. It causes euphoria with no hangover. It provides the people in Brave New World with the best experience the world has to offer. The World State teaches its citizens the rhyme \u201ca gramme is worth more than a damn.\u201d Soma will release you from all of your problems<\/em>. All citizens of the World State have an escape from negative emotion at any place, at any time. And they feel free from reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World State also teaches that \u201cEveryone belongs to everyone else.\u201d All of the women are either on birth control or sterilized to pursue promiscuity as conveniently as possible. The government encourages everyone to have sex with everyone that they want and everyone that wants them. Sex is recreational. The World State frees its people from responsibility. Free from commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Slave to Happiness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Huxley must have had a time machine to visit the 21st century. His government is called the World State, but he might as well be writing about Americans in the 21st century. Constantly chasing highs, fleeing the clutches of responsibility. We\u2019re Free! Free from commitment, pain, hard work, reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course, we aren\u2019t free. We are only a slave to something much worse than responsibility or commitment. Like the characters in Brave New World, we can hardly function in society without multiple dopamine crutches – social media, nicotine, alcohol, pornography – supporting us emotionally. What tight shackles we have bound ourselves to! How miserable we are without constant highs! What type of \u201cfreedom\u201d is that? What does this \u201cfreedom\u201d help us accomplish? Does this \u201cfreedom\u201d make us stronger? Smarter? More productive? Wealthier? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happier? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a lie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all know this. We get intense happiness from social media, from food, from pornography, from drugs. We all know how fleeting it is. We all know the spiral people tumble down trying to chase these highs. Never being satisfied, no high as good as the last. We are spending MORE time on social media, eating MORE food, finding MORE intense porn, and taking MORE potent drugs. These things will consume us, making us a slave to \u201chappiness.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aldous Huxley hit the nail on the head. If you haven\u2019t read Brave New World yet, I encourage you to give it a go<\/a>. Aside from his scarily accurate depiction of our society, he has an easy writing style and thoughtful insights into human nature. And even though Brave New World hasn\u2019t been the most popular dystopian novel in the past, it might be one of the most relevant to us right now. Don\u2019t fall victim to the soft powers of our age. Don\u2019t think that all of the media, all of the dopamine, and all of the sex have no impact on you. Be watchful, and heed Huxley\u2019s warnings. Don\u2019t lose your freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Works Cited<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World<\/em>. HarperCollins, 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You Aren\u2019t As Free As You Think We all have our share of trials. We all have burdens. But thankfully, we don\u2019t have nearly as many as our ancestors did. Most of our problems are small ones\u2014 first-world problems. We have more access to good food, clean water, shelter, and entertainment than anyone else. If […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[30,29,28,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339,"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelaymanslantern.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}