Ricardo Talavera

Moore

Expository Reading and Writing Course

14 April, 2017

Control Over Freedom

In todays society, technology and entertainment manipulates and controls us making us

incapable of thinking consciously. In Aldous Huxleys novel, Brave New World, there exists a

society where everyone is in tune with their technology and their entertainment. They are

controlled by very different customs that we have in our society. They live on sex, meaningless

relationships, and shallow connections. In this tumultuous period we live in there are many

factors that intervene with our everyday lives. Many people strive to be the best they can be,

however they dont climb up the ladder of betterment through the most virtuous ways. Thats

why we ask ourselves, have we become immune to real life and have we become immune to the

real stimulus we receive from people and have we become blind to whats really happening in

the world?

In Aldous Huxleys novel, the people in the society are very shallow and they dont hold

strong relationships and they often see people as just another. The people in the World State are

obsessed with sex, but in more depth they are obsessed with the drug that gives them pleasure.

The drug, soma, induces pleasure and even more importantly, it prevents the people from

speaking freely and thinking. One of the World Controllers says its, "Euphoric, narcotic,

pleasantly hallucinant." (36) Its very similar to the way people are controlled in our society with

social media. Theres so much censorship in our very own society but at the same time, theres

only certain censorship whenever the government wants to censor something. Its actually
become a serious disease in a way, people no longer hold respect for others, they are blind to

world events and much like the people in the World State, they arent truly living.

Theres also a strange and very odd way people connect in the World State. People are

very shallow and even though they are divided by different classes, they still are every

emotionless. People in the World State are very short minded and they arent as evolved as you

would think they are. They may be smart, however they are only trained to do one thing in the

world. Its very similar to a manufacturing line. People in the World State and our very own

society have become self centered and very much careless. The way the people are created in the

World State and the way the people are raised here in our society may be completely different

but somehow we all become slaves to the thing that makes us happy. In the World state people

are obsessed with sex, they have no morals, they couldnt care less about people and to think

about it, its not much different than our society. You look at the people in todays society and

they have become greedy, self centered, and obsessed with social media.

In many ways, weve also becomed conditioned and controlled by todays technology as

well as the way we bite into it. One of the many problems people have is the very fact that

theyve become this. Just like the World State hates to see families, ugly people, Parents, in our

society, the majority of the people dont want to see the ugly. They want to omit the truth and I

think its why we think we are so entitled to our phones and technology. In conclusion, many of

the factors that make our society the way it is, is the fact that we have lost some of the values we

hold dear and at the rate we are going, its not going to end so well. There are in fact many good

things that happen to us and its not all bad. The most profound connection we have with the

world state would be the way we are attached to any type of entertainment.