A Passage From A Good Book

[houndartemis]

“In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.”

“All right then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.”

“Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live

Comments

[houndartemis]

'KAY.

Mustapha Mond is one of ten World Leaders. Specifically, he's the leader of Western Europe in an age where the "civilized" world is a purported Utopia, with technology and medicine at their height. People live only for pleasure, kept constantly happy due to government stimulation, psychotropic drugs (to take away bad memories/thoughts and allow them to hallucinate), and are required to be given adrenaline once a month so they can experience their "ration" of fear and rage. They're kept orderly, happy, and above all subdued-- there is no individualism. There is no value given to music, art, family, religion, higher learning or the pursuit of dreams. Profession is predetermined. The concept of love is considered barbaric and disgusting. Sex is just another activity, like golfing. It has no meaning, it's simply another pleasure that the people indulge in promiscuously without thought or feeling. There are no relationships, and people do not give birth-- rather, there is a sort of human hatchery where babies are grown from embryonic and seminal samples and their genetics are heavily monitored and engineered in development.

John the Savage, by contrast, is from The Savage Reservation, a place where people live without government "benefit" and so are removed from the societal values and institutionalized dehumanization. He's brought to London as a 'curiosity' and is appropriately horrified at the complete lack of meaning and passion among the people. In this particular passage he's basically claiming freedom (and all its' inherent dangers) over the society's mass-produced euphoria.

It's a good read.