Brave New World - Is Individuality a Threat to Society, or a Gift to So

As man has progressed through the ages, there has been, essentially, one purpose. That purpose is to arrive at a utopian society, where everyone is happy, disease is nonexistent, and strife, anger, or sadness is unheard of. Only happiness exists. But when confronted with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, we come to realize that this is not, in fact, what the human soul really craves. In fact, Utopian societies are much worse than those of today. In a utopian society, the individual, who among others composes the society, is lost in the melting pot of semblance and world of uninterest. The theme of Huxley's Brave New World is community, identity, and stability. Each of these three themes represents what a Brave New World society needs to have in order to survive. According to the new world controllers, community is a result of identity and stability, identity is a part of genetic engineering, and stability is what everyone desires to achieve. These themes are represented in the bo ok by the symbolic meaning of the phrase "Children are from bottles" and the hypnotic phrase "Everybody belongs to everybody else. For a better understanding it is useful to explore these themes in detail. Community refers to the thought of one whole unit. Everyone is connected, by their actions toward each other in every day life, sexual desires, and what they do to remove the feeling of horrible emotions. This connectedness and lie, and its effects can be seen in the character of Bernard, a person who hates what society has become. The year is A.F. 632 (After Ford; Ford is the equivalent to God in Brave New World and with the available technology, citizens are mass produced. But have an underlying theme in common. The stability of this brave new w... ...ch.† It is this willingness of man to make the same mistake twice that in 2000 the ideas in Brave New World do not seem that far off base. Most people thought that with the collapse of the Soviet Union it would put an end to the suffering and an all-controlling government. But with an influx of clones, test tube babies, government controls of television, needless violence, and the search for the perfect mood altering drug. Who is to say that Brave New World is not earth in fifty years? As more people lose their individuality they become connected with community. It is with this connection that they begin to let others control their lives and humanity is already headed in that direction. Brave New World should not only be seen as a great piece of science fiction. It should be seen as a warning. Of what can happen when people live up to the influence of outside sources.

Commodity Fetishism

Karl Marx introduces the concept of commodity fetishism which is our society’s obsession with the consumption of goods and services. It is in Marx’s opinion that this is used to mask the exploitation of the working class as they become obsessed with consuming. We use capitalism as a system of exchange value, for example we exchange our labor in order to afford food to survive instead of producing our own food. The prices we see when we walk into a store represent the human labor required to produce the product and the approximate use value one would achieve using it.The use value is simply the amount of utility we gain from consuming or using a good or service. Now, I travel very often on business trips with my father’s investment company; recently we went on a trip to Boston with Mackenzie Investments. We stayed in a world class hotel and were treated to box seats at a NFL game, this was paid for; Marx would refer to Mackenzie’s business functions as havi ng an exchange value.The company will subsidize our travel costs as well as provide goods and services to satisfy our wants in order to build a relationship and in turn receive our business. The use value we receive from the consumption of these commodities will also impact how we view Mackenzie. Perhaps a person in attendance at the football game detests the sport while another adores it; each person will value the experience differently as it provides different utility to each person.Our relationship between ourselves and Mackenzie is not based on an intrinsic level but rather on the giving of commodities, we will only briefly talk to the fund managers of the company so it’s hard to build a relationship on anything but what they provide us with. This relationship has the ability to be built on the giving of goods and services due to the capitalist society’s commodity fetishism. We will observe the working class where more and more people are working in factories and large corporations to produce more commodities for people to buy or services to use.While the lower class is trapped in a cyclical labor to consume cycle (in other words living pay check to pay check like 47% of the Canadian economy (globeandmail)) the rich are reaping the benefits. The workers must consume because this is what society tells them to do, they must labor in order to consume so the workers labor, be it mental or physical they are becoming a commodity themselves because they are for hire. They sell themselves and their labor to their boss who sells what they produce and in turn makes the profit.This relates directly to the alienation earlier discussed by Marx. The workers become alienated from the product they are producing for they will not use it, they become alienated from self because they are not in control of their actions, often they will also be alienated from people in their be it in their own office or at their station in a factory. The drive behind our societ y seems corrupt and vague; we observe the prices of goods and services but do not account for the hardships of the workers producing them.We often see ads about children overseas in sweatshops being exploited but what about our own people who slave away 9-5 at a job they hate producing goods they do not consume for the sheer benefit of the monetary gains of their boss Question: Now that we have uncovered the true nature of capitalism how can we change it? Is there any way to help abolish the fetishism which takes advantage of the working class and benefits the rich?

William Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew - 845 Words

William Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew The Taming of the Shrew could either be seen as offensive or acceptable to women dependant upon the era of which they lived (16th century-the period of Shakespeare, or the 21st century). Act 4 Scene 1 is a main focal point to debate whether the play is seen as offensive to women. In Shakespeares time, women were not treated humanely but more like objects. Men were seen as the superior sex of which had complete control over women and could marry who ever they wanted. The women had no say in who they married. Basically the two sexes were not treated equally. Also women could not go to school, but had to stay at home to cook and clean. Men could also bet on the behaviour of†¦show more content†¦Throughout this speech Petruchio is revealing his plan , which he hopes will tame Katherina. This quote means Petruchio still isnt feeding Katherina and wont until she submits, therefore she will never look upon him. This could again think be very offensive as Petruchio is not treating Katherina as a human, but as a bird of prey (wild hawk). Other examples of how badly women were treated at that time can be seen in Act 2 Scene 1; Then tell me, if I get your daughters love, What dowry shall I have with her to wife? Petruchio-Act 2 Scene 1, Line 118-9 After my death, the one half of my lands, And in possession twenty thousand crowns. Baptista-Act 2 Scene 1, Line 120-1 Not only is Katherina being tamed but before hand she is being auctioned off by her father to the highest bidder. These quotes show Petruchio asking what he will receive if he wins the love of Baptistas daughter (Katherina), and Baptista replies half his land when he dies and twenty thousand crowns because of her temper. So overall Baptista is happy to get rid of Katherina and Petruchio is happy to get his wealth. This could be seen as offensive to women because they are also shown as objects fit for auction. Also Petruchio and Baptista are only thinking of whats in it for them and their benefits with no consideration to Katherinas thoughts at all. Baptista doesnt give his daughters any freedom as shown in Act 1Show MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeares Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, The Taming of1100 Words   |  5 Pages William Shakespeares Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, is an embodiment of the context in which the text was shaped, the Renaissance. The Renaissance period was a time of progression, primarily in the areas of art, science, humanism, religion and self-awareness. The Renaissance focused on taking elements of the past including religion, art and science and adapting them to make them better. 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