Incapacitation of Individualism
“Murder kills only the individual and after all, what is an individual?” In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the concept of individualism is portrayed as foreign to the solidarity of the new world. This is seen from the caste system to the perspective of marriage. The new world functions from the motto of “everyone belongs to everyone.” This society is like communism in the sense of there is no person, place, or item belonging to one person, but everything is widespread among all people. Being an individual contradicts the motto established by the Controllers, which would keep the new world society from functioning properly. Causing dysfunction because everyone could change their abilities and personalities, which gives people the ability to be nihilist. The measures of suppressing and extracting the ideology of being an individual is a great precaution taken by the Controllers. Huxley demonstrates through the new society, much like the Communist, the need for the individual is irrelevant, and acts as a roadblock for the betterment of a perfect society.
If everyone does belong to everyone, then there is no space for anyone to be themselves, but one is a microcosm inside an entire body which keeps the new society working. One way to hurdle over this obstacle of individualism is by removing the intangible ideas of individualism. Names were not a choice, but instead were chosen under a certain guideline, and there are only a certain amount of names able to be chosen. Usually are associated with a person, names are a form of individualism, by stripping away the privilege of having different peculiar names, everyone becomes the same. Being unique is frowned upon because everyone should try to be like each other. Everyone with in the new society referred to John as the “Savage” because his name was considered a culture shock to them. From names and their connotations being restricted, the simple emotions of humans were being silenced. Human emotions tend to cause people to act irrationally, and irrational behavior sometimes causes conflict within groups of people, which can also lead to uprising and rebellion against authority. Once emotions are deprived of, then the mass people will all act like robots and follow a strict structure. The dehumanizing of death and the grief associated with it takes away our compassion. Under emotions comes love, since “everyone belongs to everyone” sex has become nothing more than just a hobby or a nonchalant experience, instead of monogamy which requires two people with emotion to turn sex into a meaningful endeavor. Without love, there is no need for marriage, so the concept of marriage and love has all gone out the window. Also, the sentiment of family has been erased from the new society. Belonging to a certain group exemplifies a form of individualism from other groups, and that what families are. No one person can belong to another. As many people are born, the state is allowed to controls and decide each person will play in society. “One egg, one embryo, one adult - normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress.” Implies that multiple people are better than one person, which also infer that one person should be absorbed into the greater population. The normality of one baby being born has lost its sense of individuality, but has become another tool in the tool box. The idea of one person has been replaced with the idea of 96 people, which takes away the identity of that one baby, and instead of gaining individuality, it gains them a diluted identity. It takes two people to make a baby, but with decanting the process is dehumanized, and instead became a matter of science. This identity is diluted by live birth
