1.	World State’s Control: Society is ruled through regulation and conditioning.	2.	Technology’s Role: Used to maintain social order at the expense of freedom.	3.	Conditioning: Individuals are molded to fit roles, eradicating choice.	4.	Individuality Denied: Personal identity is sacrificed for collective stability.	5.	Soma’s Use: A drug pacifies citizens, preventing dissatisfaction.

In Brave New World, society is governed by the World State, where the ruling powers maintain control through strict regulation and conditioning. The government sacrifices freedom and individuality for stability and conformity, creating a population that is docile and content. 	“Community, Identity, Stability.”

The World State’s Control

Soma is the World State’s answer to unhappiness—a drug that dulls pain and discomfort, providing an artificial sense of contentment. It keeps the population pacified, ensuring that they never question the status quo. 	“A gramme is better than a damn.”

Use of Soma

The novel contrasts the controlled, sterile world of the World State with the Savage Reservation, where people live naturally and experience true emotions. This contrast highlights the cost of the World State’s artificial happiness—emptiness and a loss of humanity. 	“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin.”

Contrast Between Worlds

In the World State, sexuality is separated from reproduction and used as a tool for social stability. Promiscuity is encouraged, and deep, emotional connections are discouraged, preventing the formation of personal bonds that could threaten social cohesion. 	“Everyone belongs to everyone else.”

Role of Sexuality

When the individual feels, the community reels.

Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.

Technology is a cornerstone of the World State’s power, used to control reproduction, manipulate emotions, and maintain social order. From the Bokanovsky process to the use of soma, technology ensures that citizens remain obedient and happy, but at the cost of true freedom. 	“All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny.”

The Role of Technology

From birth, individuals are conditioned to accept their place in society. Through sleep-teaching (hypnopaedia) and Pavlovian techniques, citizens are molded to fit predetermined roles, ensuring social harmony but eradicating personal choice. 	“We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons.”

Conditioning & Social Stability

Huxley critiques consumer culture by depicting a society where consumption is endless and encouraged as a civic duty. This relentless focus on consumption is another means of control, ensuring that citizens are always distracted and never question their lives. 	“Ending is better than mending.”

Critique of Consumerism

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Brave New World presents a chilling dystopian vision where the pursuit of happiness and stability leads to the loss of individuality, freedom, and true human experience. Huxley warns of the dangers of sacrificing too much for the sake of comfort and order. 	“The more stitches, the less riches.”

Dystopian Vision

But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.

1.	The World State’s Control	2.	The Role of Technology	3.	Conditioning and Social Stability	4.	The Denial of Individuality	5.	The Use of Soma	6.	The Contrast Between Worlds	7.	The Role of Sexuality	8.	The Critique of Consumerism	9.	The Dystopian Vision	10.	The Search for Meaning

Topics You Will Experience Today

The World State suppresses individuality in favor of collective identity. The motto “Everyone belongs to everyone else” exemplifies the eradication of personal relationships and uniqueness, reducing individuals to mere cogs in the societal machine. 	“When the individual feels, the community reels.”

Denial of Individuality

6.	Worlds Contrasted: Artificial happiness versus true human experience.	7.	Sexuality’s Role: Used to prevent emotional bonds, maintaining social order.	8.	Consumerism Critiqued: Endless consumption as a means of control.	9.	Dystopian Vision: Sacrificing humanity for comfort and stability.	10.	Search for Meaning: The inherent human desire for more than mere contentment.

Despite the World State’s efforts to eliminate dissatisfaction, characters like Bernard Marx and John the Savage struggle with the emptiness of their lives. Their search for meaning highlights the inherent human desire for more than just comfort and stability. 	“I want to know what passion is. I want to feel something strongly.”

Search for Meaning

A dystopian world where comfort costs freedom, *Brave New World* questions the price of stability.

When Aldous Huxley wrote his famous novel Brave New World, he did so with the sincere belief that the dystopian world he created was a true possibility given the direction of the social, political and economic world order. Written almost thirty years later, Brave New World Revisited is a re-evaluation of his predictions based on the changes he had witnessed in the meantime. In this twelve-part essay, Huxley argues that society is moving toward his dystopian vision even faster than he had originally assumed, and provides his own suggestions on how to bring an end to this decadent decline.Brave New World Revisited condemns symptoms of modern life such as overpopulation, propaganda and extreme government control while providing a staunch defence of individualism. Despite being published over fifty years ago, the problems identified in Brave New World Revisited are still startlingly relevant, lending a chilling creditability to Aldous Huxley’s unsettling predictions. HarperTorch brings great works of non-fiction and the dramatic arts to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperTorch collection to build your digital library.

ALDOUS HUXLEY

Similar ideas

Microwaves and Smartphones Cause Cancer

Save it for another day

8. Reading expands your vocabulary, so you’ll sound like a genius.