In the final chapters of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, at the climax of the story, the Savage finally meets the Controller and has a philosophical and theological discussion that brings out the implications of engineering and conditioning humans to create a perfect society. While the brave new world is free of pain, suffering, violence, and need, those who inhabit it have been dehumanized and turned into slaves for the elite. Much of the debate between the two characters echoes much of what we are currently facing in our world today. Do we want a world free of suffering and pain, maintained by totalitarian control and various forms of drugs and entertainment, or do we want freedom and full expression of humanity along with all the messiness that it entails?
In the brave new world old books and ideas are forbidden because they disrupt the well-ordered society that has been engineered by the elites. Tragedies require social instability. Without social instability there are no tragedies, so most old literature would not be understandable to those who have been engineered and conditioned to obey the new world order and who live in a society where everything that can create discomfort has been eliminated.
While beauty is attractive, the elite don’t want people to be attracted by old things; they want them to like the new ones, even though the new things are stupid and horrible. The Controller states: “You can't make tragedies without social instability. The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's soma. Which you go and chuck out of the window in the name of liberty, Mr. Savage.”
However, by eliminating all that causes pain and displeasure, the brave new world has eliminated all that makes us human. In the new world order there is no Truth, no Beauty, no Love, no Passion, no Freedom, no Choice, no Hope. By engineering out all negative thoughts and feelings, the elites have created a world that is inhuman. They have been genetically engineered and psychologically conditioned, that "they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave.”
By eradicating all misery and conflict, mankind has been relegated to a bland existence. The Controller states: “Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”
It requires a delicate balance to engineer and condition each level of society in order to achieve maximum productivity while maintaining social stability. For example, only so many humans are allowed to be Alpha pluses, otherwise there would be civil war or the elites would get their throats cut.
Instead of executing dissenters, they are sent to remote islands to pursue their own desires and exercise their will. Since they are secluded from civilization, they have no impact on society. Even science has to be controlled, so that only authorized studies and findings are allowed, otherwise war would eventually break out.
Religion also had to be totally eradicated from society since it depends on pain, misfortune, and lack to thrive, so it also creates instability. In the brave new world there is no lack or loss to be compensated, so there is no need of religion. And when there is some displeasure, there is soma, the drug that keeps all the citizens happy. Since the elites think that people were conditioned to believe in God, they can now be conditioned to not believe in God. In the brave new world, the happy, hard-working, goods-consuming citizen in perfect and has no need of God.
Since industrial civilization is possible only when there is no self-denial, self-indulgence is encouraged or demanded in order to keep the wheels of prosperity turning. And since there are no wars or misery, there is no need for anyone to be noble or heroic. In fact, in the brave new world, soma, the happy drug, is Christianity without tears or sacrifice. Instead of virtue obtain through self-denial, the civilized man indulges in vice and eradicates all pain and discomfort through conditioning and drugs.
To demand Truth, Beauty, Love, Freedom is to demand danger, pain, suffering, and unhappiness. The climax ends with the exchange between the Savage and the ControllerController:
"But I like the inconveniences."
"We don't," said the Controller. "We prefer to do things comfortably."
"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."
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen to-morrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." There was a long silence.
"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.
Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome," he said.
While modern society is dehumanizing in many ways already, and it has been pushing God and Truth out in order to free men to pursue their passions unfettered, the events of the last two years show that the endgame has always been a worldwide totalitarian society where all aspects of life are carefully regulated by the elite. Much of what is happening today was warned about in Brave New World and other books, such as 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. We have to decide whether we want to be "happy" or fully human.
Without pain and suffering, we become shallow, selfish, self-centered, egotistical jerks. Without opposition, self-denial, and struggle, we become weak and slaves to vice. Only those who have suffered can truly love and care for others. Only those who have struggled can truly be virtuous. God created and redeemed us to become fully human, overcoming sin and self through Christ and the indwelling Spirit. Every time Man has tried to create a Utopia, he has ended up creating a Dystopia. Man is incapable of creating a perfect society because those trying to create the perfect society are fallen and sinful. Even the most righteous humans can only create a sinful, broken society. Only Christ can create the true Utopia, and it will be populated with those who have been transformed by him and empowered to live righteously and lovingly. Apart from Christ, there is no Utopia. Any promise made by Man to create a perfect society is a lie and will ultimately lead to a dystopian nightmare. We are on the verge of that happening globally, and every human being will be forced to make a choice between Christ's way or Man's way. History tells us that Man's way is doomed to fail. Choose wisely.
