Brave New World Chapters1-3

There are many things in both Utopia and Brave New World that are similar in concept and actions. Religion is the first thing that seems to have parallels and it sticks out in my mind because it is very controversial in both works. In Brave New World the new religion of Fordism is simply a knock off of Christianity. It takes concepts and images already accepted in Christianity like the cut of crosses, Our Fordship, etc.. and is simply a renovated religion. It is obviously easier to modify something like religion instead of completely change it. However, in Utopia the presented religious belief is that any religion is acceptable as long as one believes in a higher deity or belief. However, throughout the book many references are made to Catholicism and there are occasions of criticism for other religions. The "government" in Utopia knows that all citizen perceive their society as diversified; nevertheless the truth is obviously that criticism still exists. This is like Brave New World in the fact that appearance is different than reality. Both civilizations put on a front about religion and then practice or steal something else. Utopia being secular and Brave New World being core consistent with the original religion. There are also many similarities between social hierarchy and social class. In both societies people are content with their social standing. Although Brave New World has social classes, all people are satisfied with their level and can't imagine being anything different. These are only a few of the similarities in Chapters 1-3, but there are surely many more connections throughout the reading.

One of the good things in Brave New World society is that at least everyone is content with their lives. Although they were genetically mutated to be that way, being content with lifestyle plays into the idea of representing success with other items besides money. Although the monetary system in Brave New World has not been touched on, the social standing says a lot about what people think is their job and how they judge how they are successful at their job. People are content with their assigned job and carry it out to the best of their ability. The only problem I have with that concept is the fact that their jobs are predetermined. People should be able to determine their career based on individual qualities and strengths.

The thing that bothers me most about Brave New World society is that people are manufactured and leaders are playing God with biology. This idea plays into other problems like predetermination, human cloning, genetic engineering, and biological tampering. But the biggest problem for me is that the leaders play God with biology, and the choose who lives and dies. Not only do they chose who lives, they choose what kind of person is made. People are harvested instead of born. Inhuman practices of biology for the purpose of manufacturing certain people for society is disturbing. Sadly enough, these practices are possible for our future. Talk of human cloning and genetic mutation to rid of incurable disease are already apparent. I realize that this book is an extreme hyperbole of what could happen, but the elementary of some of the ideas is possible.