As I near the end of reading Brave New World, there has always been a lingering thought in the back of my mind which pertains to how society determines what is taboo and what isn't. If society were to strive completely to any idea, regardless of how morally wrong we may perceive it today, they would succeed.
In other words, if the society of Brave New World could successfully take the sexual taboos today and turn it into everyday conversation amongst a group of co-workers, what could stop them from turning any other taboo like pedophilia into a normality? The book itself questions the very foundation of the concept of objectivity, which is defined as possessing objective truth independent from that of a third-party, essentially. It questions if we as people are truly conditioned by the higher-ups what is right and what is wrong.
The character that does seem to demonstrate the idea of objectivity is Bernard Marx, who finds himself in an awkward situation talking about what we perceive as sexual taboo in an atmosphere where that isn't the case, but even then, that is how we perceive it because we are taught that is taboo. Determining what is right and what is wrong is difficult when taking into account how we are even supposed to come that conclusion. Are there objective truths? Or is it up to us to ultimately decide?
-Jaeden Sahilan
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ReplyDeleteThis post is very interesting, and thought provoking. I believe that the leaders are what decide what is taboo, and can normalize things but only to a certain extent. There are some things that i believe would naturally be established as morally wrong such as murder.
ReplyDelete-Julissa Martinez
That's the thing though, what is "naturally established" is what the social elites could control if they had ever wanted to that is. When all of society backs up the notion that murder is okay, it's safe to assume that the people born into that society from then on will tolerate it as such.
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