“What is the meaning of truth?”

I asked myself this question several times when flipping through the pages of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This dystopian novel led to me pondering and reflecting on several ideas: self-identity, fake happiness, and the ideology of freedom. Huxley constructed a world ruled by a seemingly equal, free, happy, and what some might consider a flawless dictatorship. However, these are all illusions created by the government to achieve a collective, stable society with no sign of individuality or truth. 

At the novel’s beginning, the “manufacture” of humans in the world is introduced. Babies are “produced” inside bottles  via assembly lines in a facility known as the “Central London Hatching and Conditioning  Center.” They are divided into strict social castes based on their physical and mental ability, ranging from Alpha to Epsilons. Their lives are predestined. Individuals all have their prescribed roles and are brainwashed to enjoy them; social classes are unchangeable, and people are engineered to accomplish what they are required to do without desiring things outside their caste. Brainwashing and hypnosis start with babies; the essential ideas of the brave new world are implanted, forming a deep root in their subconscious. Those are all efforts to reach the motto: “Community, Identity, Stability.”

With the aim of a stable community, individuality and uniqueness are banned. It is emphasized through sleep teaching and hypnotizing that conformity is important, since they are all part of a whole rather than separate individuals with their own identities. This would be the biggest obstacle to the so-called “stability.” From the start in the “human producing factory,” most people are duplicates of each other, to the brainwashing education and suppression of individual thoughts, the controller is trying to eliminate and wipe out self-identity. Gathering and blindly following others are encouraged, while solitude is a sin. Kids are trained to abhor flowers (nature), Shakespeare (literature), and science to prevent them from developing personal interpretations and instead, focus on their social duty. Whenever an individual is self-conscious and starts to contemplate their lives, such as the characters Bernard, Helmholtz, and the savage — John, they are considered eccentric and sent to the isolated island to keep the society’s consistency. It is extremely worth reflecting on a world without personal uniqueness, where everyone is the same, to pursue that “stability and equality.” Should that be our future goal?

“Everybody’s happy nowadays.” This is another firm belief the civilization of the brave new world holds. Emotional suffering does not exist as long as people get access to the drug “soma,” which helps them leave all the problems in reality behind and not to think about the misery and anxiety, only the endless happiness ahead.

This kind of joy achieved by drugging oneself and escaping from reality to avoid facing the truth about their situation is false. Social construct and avoidance cannot provide true delight, as one must struggle to find their own. In the brave new world, “everyone belongs to everyone else.” There are no deeply formed relationships, no concept of monogamy, marriage, motherhood, or family. Only superficial sexual relationships exist, with no deep emotional bonds or attachments like love. All people have is temporary, self-centered happiness instead of strong emotions that could be everlasting and heart-shaking. It’s true; a world without sickness, aging, negative emotions, a stable society, and access to everything people want and need sounds appealing. But the real happiness caused by the pursuit of science, truth, inner wealth, and spiritual love is all absent in this society.

Overall, with the lack of individuality, freedom of thought, and, most importantly, truth, due to the dictatorship, despite the delusion that the world seems to be perfect, people are happier than ever as their materialistic desires are satisfied, the genuine and strongest emotions could not yet be experienced. Moreover, when everyone is identical, has no creativity, new ideas, or judgments, and do what they are taught to, are they still humans? Or are they just simply robots under the disguise of a human body?