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Anthony Vasta
Ms. Conaway
3
rd
Period
30, April, 2014
The Body Politic and Brave New World
Why is it that a dystopian society can be a great illustration of what a Body Politic is and
how it affects the people of that society? In corporate structure, The Body Politic are the groups
of people that have influence in a decision. (Merriam-Webster p.1). One will see how Brave
New World defines the Body Politic along with how the Body Politic can combat with different
societal classes, also giving the reader an immense clash between science and religion. Aldous
Huxley, author of Brave New World, weaves his views on political involvement within the
scientific and religious communities through the words of his novel. Religion has an influence
over daily life and social customs while science begins to characterize logical thinking and
efficiency on how well people live their lives day by day.
The Body Politic can be expressed as a group of persons, considered as a collective unit,
politically organized under a single governmental authority that affects humans in a society or
culture. Brave New World presents the separation of societal classes all governed by ten World
Controllers. The author of this novel demonstrates how the classes are broken up from birth.
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Oh no, I dont want to play with Delta children and Epsilons are still worse.(p28). Embryos
are bred to play a specific part in this dystopian world, brainwashed and conditioned from
childhood to live in their designated, one of five, castes: Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, or Epsilon.
In the story, human embryos are bred by the Hatchery and they produce thousands of identical
organisms. Here, the audience can see how politicians regulate a rapidly growing scientific
community. The divisions of people show how globalization has evolved this dystopia. The
term globalization is most often used to refer to the increasingly rapid and intensified circulation
of finance, commodities, people, signs and symbols on a global scale. (Globalization and the
Body Politic p.1). The body politic and globalization intertwine with each other by the way the
people of a community work together with their government. Webster defines the body politic as
a corporation (p.1). The way government works in Brave New World, the World Controllers
keep the castes branched out with the Alphas being bred to help govern the dystopia. Another
way to describe globalization is as a process of intensifying global social interrelatedness,
whereby space and time are compressed and previously separated locations [are] brought into a
new proximity (Globalization p.1), which means, the more that people are cloven or broken
apart, the more culture can spread. The social aspect of people shifting can give politicians a
different view on how they want to govern their public bodies. Globalization and the body
politic can both be seen as a passkey meant to unlock the gates to all present and future
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mysteries as described by Francis and Taylor Online (p.1). The future of what tomorrows
people will become, is in the hands of the people today.
Politicians govern the way people live their lives by implementing rules and regulations,
but why is that? Is it possibly to keep order and prevent chaos? Well, political or even religious
views can be based on genetics. Researchers ask the question whether genes really do affect
behavior (Body Politic p.1). Similar to Brave New World, are our governors and political
leaders specially bred to think a certain way? Could it be that even the people look at them
differently and choose to stay separated because of our own beliefs? Depending on who you ask,
some people view politicians that are in office as doing a civil duty to rule the community.
Retrospectively, men like Richelieu and Louis XIV and Napoleon are more admired for the
brief glory they achieved than hated for the long-drawn miseries which were the price of that
glory as explained by an un-named author (Aldous Huxley p.2). Even though these politicians
had a negative influence on the world, they achieved quite a bit for their own individual body
politics. But was it genetics that made them this way? Well, Father Joseph, a priest, believes his
intention was to combine the life of political activity with that of contemplation (p.3).
Father is trying to mesh religion with government. Brave New World shows the reader a world
without religion and wants the people of its society to rely solely on science which is what the
audience can see here God isnt compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and
universal happinessOur civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness.
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(p.234). The people of Brave New World have chosen to believe in their way of genetic altering
over religion.
Religion seems to play a major role in any part of the body politic, along with Brave New
World. The church, in a way, can be classified as its own body politic. A church has rules,
governors, and those who chose to be governed by the rules of that church. Indifference to
religion, as a public matter, is of recent origin, not much older than the American Republic
itself (p.2) is saying that conflict within religion is older than that of Americas own body
politic. Religion, and the views that come along with it, make a person who they are. According
to Michael W. McConnell, religion is connected to conscience, character, and loyalty (p.2)
meaning that whatever practices a person so chooses to follow, it could reflect on their own
personal behavior. Religion is such a strong body politic that it can prove to be a persons
lifestyle or even relate to how that same person might act in a certain situation. Brave New
World shows the Savage fighting for what he believes in when Mustapha Mond tries to dictate
and tell him what to believe. The Savage knows that God exists and the world controller refuses
to believe in such a thing. In his eyes, technology is what creates man and not some mystical
force from beyond. Even though some people are religious, they also follow politics. The pope
himself has given communion to pro-choice politicians (p.2). This shows that the different
types of body politics can mix. A religious figure like the pope has put himself in a concoction of
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religion and government affairs. Statistics show that in this last presidential election, Catholics
[constituted] roughly a quarter of the electorate. (p.1). Regardless to what people put their
beliefs in today, they will still be a part of something much bigger.
Even scientist today are trying to get out of the lab and help to play a role in whatever the
world is doing at the moment. They are starting to go public with their findings such as
[concerning] themselves with bacterias negative role as pathogens (p.1). In Brave New
World, the reader can see the principle of sleep-teaching, or hypnopaedia, (p.25) playing a part
in advancing the dystopian world. Most importantly in the novel, the audience will observe the
principle of mass production (p.7). The Hatchery can produce up to thousands of identical
twins at a time. Like Brave New World, scientists are already now starting to play a role with
politics. According to the Congressional Research Service, the technically trained among the
435 members of the House include one physicist, 22 people with medical training, a chemist, a
micro biologist and 6 engineers, (Cornelia Dean p.1). This shows just how much more the
scientific community is trying to play a part in government affairs. Whos to say that later on in
history, more than half of congress could be medical doctors or prestigious professors? Studies
show that, for the time being, In American public life, researchers are largely absent, (The
New York Times p.1). In America, the community would greatly benefit if more science majors
would intervene in the daily lives of the people occupying the country. Just imagine how
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different life would be if every scientist surfaced with some type of strange new theory that could
prompt the advance of human beings. The citizens of todays society could already be cruising
on hover boards or taking pills that are equivalent to eating whole meals.
Medical science has been improving its technologies, while following a code that their
community is governed by. Medical practitioners follow a moral creed that tells them how to
treat patients and how to think, when inventing new technologies to help these patients. Brave
New World integrates what were at the time of its writing more or less foreseeable technological
innovations with Enlightenment notions of social and political perfection. (Brave New World
and the Body Politic p.1) This article is talking about how Brave New World was ahead of its
time with its technological predictions, showing the audience things like mass production and
brain washing, which helped to advance the dystopian society. The Director of the Hatchery
from Brave New World tells the tour group, So we allow as many as thirty percent of female
embryos to develop normally, (p.13) This is an example of how much control the people of
Brave New World have over the embryos being bred. Aldous Huxley is also showing the reader
how advanced this civilizations medical technology is. Another article tells how recent
remarkable advances in neuroscience (New York Times p.2) gave us implantable brain
chips. These brain chips can help with Parkinsons and some futurists think brain chips are the
future to learning. Can you imagine instead of sitting in a class for hours in a day for only
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minutes? You will practically be able to download a Calculus chapter or even a new language in
only a few seconds a day. In addition to these medical advances, cures for all known illnesses
could in fact be possible.
Aldous Huxley once said A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for
modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. Readers might imagine that this
could mean that politics shouldnt involve themselves with science. It could have effects that
could hurt a society. Politics also play a major role in Brave New World, allowing the audience
to see what could happen if the government had too much control over science and religion. The
readers can see a great example of what a body politic is by reading this book. In essence, his
novel, Brave New World, displays the Body Politic in a dystopian society, giving the reader an
almost tug-of-war feud between science and religion.







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"Body politic." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 6 Oct. 2012. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.economist.com/node/2156419

Conroy, Robert, Steven Kern, and Manasa Gopal. "Kern Augustine Conroy & Schoppmann, P.C.
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Dean, Cornelia. "Groups Call for Scientists To Engage the Body Politic."The New York Times.
The New York Times, 8 Aug. 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/science/09emily.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.

Humphries, Courtney. "Seed Magazineabout." The Body Politic SEEDMAGAZINE.COM. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. <http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/