Post Reading: Brave New World

         Fear and ignorance are both ideas that live in our head. I feel that ignorance however is more detrimental due to fact that you are not in the know about how you are controlled.
         In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley the citizens are under an illusion that the world that they live in is a perfect world. The truth about their government is that anything that could bring them knowledge or realization is taken from them. The government has taken away people’s right to read, have religion, or even have a natural human relationship including sexual reproduction. To me this is should be feared more because in this form of government you would be too ignorant and blind to even realize what was happening to you and why any of it would be wrong.
         In the novel they’re many things that take place that aren’t accepted in society today. They have the idea that Henry Ford is somewhat of God and should be worshipped and this is believed because religious texts were prohibited under the government. In the society of Brave New World the use of the drug soma is present when the characters face internal conflict and wish to be free from their thoughts. The drug however isn’t illegal in their government, this is because it makes it easier for the government to control the mind of the people which makes it less likely for rebellion. Since drugs are abused by the citizens the high of the drug causes a fake happiness and this makes the ignorance from the citizens increase. In the novel children are allowed to perform in sexual excursions and is passed off as being play today we look upon this in disgust. Many people today have knowledge to know that sexulizing children is not right but in their society they see nothing wrong with it because this is what they are taught and supposed to believe. Babies are also subjects to tests from the moment that they are born they have beliefs that are meant to be engraved in their minds. Without the freedom to think for themselves as adults a caste system is created between the different classes of people and what they feel is right and wrong.
        I feel that the author's use of ignorance being happiness can be seen in living today. It shows that the things that we find happiness and brilliance in can be dangerous and harm us. People like Lenina were always blind to everything and believed that the idealistic world that lived in was honest and true. In the end without knowledge, people are unfairly controlled and stripped of their rights.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

-Albert Einstein