Consumerism
Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” can be considered a blueprint for a dystopian society, i.e. an imagined society that lacks respect for humanity and is undesirable. Published in 1932, the novel is set in the year 632 AF. Huxley’s thoughts were undoubtedly shaped by post-occurrences of the First World War, the fascism and the Soviet empire, the Industrial Revolution, and the Great Depression of 1929. In a rapidly developing world that is driven by technology, Huxley takes a dig at the technological advancement and progress and presents a conflict of humanity vs technology in Brave New World. The novel is a satirical literary piece that uses humor, imaginations and exaggeration to criticize the progress of technology at the expense of humanity. Themes such as technological advancement, individualism, totalitarianism and consumerism feature heavily in Huxley’s Brave New World. This essay will address the technological advancements that are discussed by Huxley and how they impact on consumerism.
In consumerist societies, people dispose of plenty of resources, energy and time-consuming. Consumerism is the belief that happiness, to a large extent, is dependent on one’s level of consumption and particularly, their appetite for material goods. Ironically, the title of the novel “New Brave World” describes the new possibilities going into the future that will be made possible by the technological advancements that are again driven by the huge appetite to consume. In other words, consumption and material possession are at the centre of defining the society’s level of happiness. The United States is nothing short of a hyper-consumerist society. Endless advertisement across all media platforms, urging people to buy things- “consume” has become the toll of the day. The advertisements envision “the good life” and are meant to depict what it needs to become happier and this set in motion the path for more consumption. Huxley portrays a society in which individual happiness is defined by the individual’s ability to meet the defined society’s economic values that characterize prosperity. The society in the Brave New World has been conditioned to live in ways that support consumption. In the Meter 170 on Rack 9, the Director tells the boys “… that is the secret of happiness and virtue-liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: Making people like their unescapable social destiny (Huxley 16).”
Consumerism in Brave New World is akin to western civilization today where people are primarily driven to work because of worries of lacking. From a young age, people in the Brave New World are conditioned through hypnopaedia teaching to consume more. The Brave New World motto “community, identity, stability” is considered as the “grand words’ and essentially makes it clear that the community is built around stability, in this case, economic stability. The phrase “The more stitches, the less riches…” is taught to the citizens of this imagined state where the emphasis is put on throwing away damaged goods and instead opting to buy more. In the process, the objective of consuming is achieved, which translates to more money in the economic system. Technology enhances production. The more there is to produce, the huge the appetite to consume. Besides, if production is high, it means people have alternatives and therefore, are continually replacing old and broken possessions to show their influence and economic stability.
The medical advancements in Huxley’s Brave New World depict drastic similarities of the advancements in the society today. In much retrospective, I think Huxley managed to prophesy a time when technology would dominate society and how that domination would lead to erosion of moralities, values and cultures, otherwise observed in a utopian society. The mentality in Brave New World and indeed in today’s world is that the society can only progress through invention. In other words, the invention is considered the critical purpose of humankind. Mr Foster captures this line of thought when he admits to the boys that “…out of the realm of mere slavish imitation of nature into the much more interesting world of human invention (Huxley 13).”
The society has centred its happiness on the principles through which invention succeeds, i.e. objectivity, efficiency, and progress. The Bokanovsky Process, according to the Director, has enabled the multiplication of human beings at a rate never done before. According to the Director “…a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, and will divide (Huxley 4).” Scientific methods brought about by technological advancements are deemed more efficient in conceiving as opposed to the natural way of giving birth. The perspective of Huxley’s society is that human conception would be efficient if the people were conceived as consumers. The DHC in response to one of the student’s question in the Infant Nurseries notes that “the idea was to make them want to be going out into the country at every available opportunity, and so compel them to consume transport (Huxley 23).” The Director is, however, quick to point out that the idea of compelling the decanted individuals conceived through the bokanovsfication process to go out and consume transport backfired because they were also conditioned to love nature. “The love for nature” according to the Director, “keeps no factories busy.” The Director goes on to mention how the failure prompted them to think of an economically sounder reason for consuming transport having removed the love of nature from the equation. Huxley demonstrates how technology progress motivated by the desire to consume would dominate humanity and essentially dictates their choices.
The production and consumption of manufactured goods bring with it a lifestyle of drugs and sex. Huxley’s imagined society lacks solitude and has no time for spiritual reflections. The only religion that people in the Brave New World believe in is production and consumption. The people follow the principles of Henry Ford, the inventor of the Model T. The significance of Ford in the society is perhaps most demonstrated by its use in providing a dating system in the novel where A.F and B.F are shortened forms for “After Ford” and “Before Ford.” Society is purposely occupied and focused on working to meet their ever-increasing needs-consumption such as sex and the Soma drug mentioned by the author.
Huxley depicts a society that has no choice. Dependence on consumerism has led to the loss of individuality. People are, to a large extent, defined by what other people think or say of them. The society in the Brave New World has been enslaved by consumerism and stripped of their emotions. In Huxley’s society, there is a lack of consciousness, and complete disregard for the natural order of things blindly pushed by the need have a consuming society. Huxley writes “Throw them away when they’ve got holes in them and buy new (Huxley 121).” The phrase can be contextualized in terms of people in Huxley’s imagined society being unable or not wishing to deal with the reality of their life. Similarly, in today’s world, ads have been utilized to push for demand against supply prompted by technological advancements since the industrial revolution. Besides, it is the older people who have the greatest tendency to fix their broken things as opposed to the millennials who opt to buy new things and get rid of old and broken items.
Consumerism fostered by technological advancement has led to erosion of values, cultures and happiness. The society in Brave New World lacks artistic creativity and has their individuality suppressed. The people are conceived through laboratory-grown clowns that are conditioned to consume. The Directors notes “We conditioned the masses to hate the country. But simultaneously we condition them to love al country sports. At the same time, we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport.” There is an apparent attempt by the state to use technology not only to condition its citizens to conform to a particular way of life but also to supply and distribute resources. People in Brave New World ascribe to no religion but only to “consumerism.” Huxley’s use of the phrase “We haven’t any use for old things here (Huxley 219) depicts the situation in today’s society where people mostly the youths have lost regard for the old.
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