Brave New World Setting Essay Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World (1932) is set in a futuristic World State that prioritises consumerism and technological advancement over individuality and genuine emotions. The novel’s exploration of a society filled with mass production, instant gratification, and social control provides us with an opportunity to compare the relevance of Huxley’s vision with the challenging realities of our time. Despite being written almost a century ago, our world is already similar to how Huxley envisioned it. In this respect, the novel is eerily prescient. In the opening chapters of the novel, we are introduced to a world where God has been replaced by “Ford,” an allusion to the pioneer of mass production, Henry Ford. To honour Ford, crosses have been replaced by T-shapes, (for the Model-T Ford car) and time is not marked by the traditional Anno Domini but by A.F (After Ford). This switch in allegiance is mirrored in the present, in our time, where consumerism and the pursuit of instant gratification have also taken precedence over spirituality. Huxley’s deliberate emphasis on mass production resonates powerfully with our modern fixation on material desires, illustrating our inclination to favour instant gratification and comfort rather than finding satisfaction in the religious and philosophical resources of human civilisation. In the World State, several proverbs are used to enforce an “instinctive” sense of consumerism onto its citizens. One of which is “Ending is better than mending.” This hypnopaedic (repeated messages delivered to people during sleep) phrase suggests that it is more convenient and economically favourable to discard and replace items rather than investing time and resources into repairing them. In our world, this slogan mirrors the culture of planned obsolescence and conspicuous consumption that dominates modern consumerism. Products are intentionally designed to have limited lifespans, manipulating buyers to upgrade to the latest version. This leads to an endless cycle of desires that are never satisfied. By examining this teaching, we can see similarities in the throwaway culture and consumer-driven mindset that persist in our contemporary society. Throughout the novel, we learn about a miracle drug named soma, a key plank in the World State’s brand of subtle authoritarianism. Soma is a narcotic that grants instant happiness to its consumer. Early on, we hear several hypnopaedic phrases that outline soma’s purpose. One of them is “a gramme is always better than a damn.” This phrase implies that it is better to take soma than to confront something negative. In Brave New World, soma is an escape from reality, numbing the “unstable” emotions of human life. Larger doses of soma cause what are called “soma-holidays,” which is a reference to holidays in our world. However, there is a clear difference that separates the two. While our holidays are temporary, citizens of the World State have unlimited access to soma, which equates to unrestricted access to holidays. The World State claims that soma has no side effects, yet this is another form of manipulation. Mustapha Mond (one of ten World Controllers) describes soma-holidays as “all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; [with] none of the side effects.” In the novel, soma is a symbol of escapism, and represents the inability to face hardship. As the narrator notes, “soma raises quite an impenetrable wall between the actual universe and their [people’s] minds.” It is an important tool for the World Controllers, as it misdirects users’ attentions from natural emotions towards illusory happiness. Mond later describes soma as “euphoric” and “pleasantly hallucinant.” When people consume soma, they surrender their intelligence to the drug, and no longer control their thoughts. Once they encounter something slightly unpleasant, they feel “entitled” to soma. We can draw a parallel to our contemporary world, where we too feel as if we deserve a “holiday from the facts” after a long daywhether that be in the form of digital entertainment, prescription drugs, or even casual sex. Soma is an integral part of the World State, just as materialism is in our society. Just as in our world, where technology and material desires often tempt us away from experiencing genuine emotions, Huxley’s soma reminds us that while escapism may offer temporary refuge, it is the courage to confront and navigate through adversity that ultimately shapes our individual and collective growth. The World State’s structure exemplifies subtle authoritarianism that connects society together. It operates through a hierarchy that allocates predetermined roles to its citizens. Its rigid social class system separates humans into five classes. From there, they are given specific jobs. People are unable to move between the classes, confining individuals to their assigned position. The hypnopaedic teaching “everyone belongs to everyone else” explains that seclusion and introspection is forbidden in the World State. Individual desires and aspirations are sacrificed in the name of “social stability,” leaving everyone with no real purpose. The web of conformity is further tightened through the World State’s emphasis of community over individuality. In the phrase “when the individual feels, the community reels” the individual is overshadowed by the collective mentality of the World State- to keep everyone happy and maintain stability. This manipulation is facilitated by hypnopaedic teachings. In the World State, hypnopaedia is the persuasive repetition of phrases and teachings delivered during sleep. While complete equivalents of hypnopaedia do not exist, there are various modern-day technologies that are similar. One of these technologies occurs through the media. Advertisements, movies, TV shows, and social media often present certain ideas, values and phrases repeatedly. When we are exposed to the same messages frequently, they become implanted in our minds. This means that even if we are not actively paying attention to messages that we receive in the media, our minds are still processing and storing this information subconsciously. When certain behaviours are consistently portrayed in the media, they become normalised. Oversaturated media exposure over time often leads to a gradual shift in actions, ideas, and attitudes. These may not even be true, but because be have seen or heard it from others, we assume it is correct. As Huxley brilliantly points out,“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.” We never believe anything from instinct, but because we have been taught or influenced by something external. The ability to form these beliefs on our own is exactly what our society lacks, and exactly what we need to develop in order to preserve our humanity. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World weaves a tapestry of parallels between its setting and our contemporary world, illuminating the subtle yet powerful forces that shape both societies. The novel's illustration of soma as an escape reflects our constant search for distractions and sense gratification. Additionally, the use of subtle authoritarianism through strict social classes, conformity and community-driven ideals resonates with how our media often influences us to think and act in ways against our will. Huxley’s prediction has already become somewhat true, not 600 years into the future, but in just under a century. When I consider all the evidence above, I understand that Huxley’s work is not just a simple prediction- but an accurate foreshadowing of darker times. I fear that as readers, we consider Brave New World as an extreme, overly-dramatised novel that is only slightly relevant to the present. In reality, the novel is a disturbingly detailed example of what our civilisation will surely become- a technological, materialistic society with a nonexistent sense of what it means to be human.
