I am sorry for the delay, young people. I was looking for a quotation from chapter 16 or 17 for you to respond to–was initially thinking of something about conditioning to relate back to BrockC1′s post about generational differences like I said I was going to do, but had trouble deciding on just one quotation. I fumbled and thought, considered and fumbled again, and then realized what I should do: I am going to ask you to pick a quotation and to respond to it. So, here you go:
Assignment #5: Select a quotation from chapter 16 or 17 to respond to, type it out (and put the page number), and then respond to it. It’s a tricky assignment, as I think you will discover, but let me make it trickier yet: try to find a quotation that relates in some way to our tech turnoff experiment. If you can’t quite find a good quotation for that, just pick something worth considering and then give us your all on it. Okay, go for it.
PS. Be smart tomorrow night. Nothing stupid. Nothing unsafe.
Assignment #6 will be posted tomorrow, but you don’t have to respond to it until Sunday night.
“Because it’s old; that’s the cheif reason. We haven’t any use for old things here.”(219) We’re constantly looking for the bigger, better, faster, stronger, more advanced, less difficult, and more reasonable things. In a lot of ways it is just in the desire to advance ourselves but at what point does it become an obsession? I can tell you that I have an iPod that, not only do I not use anymore, but that has probably somewhere around 50GB of unused memory capacity. Why don’t I use it anymore? Because Apple Inc. released the new iTouch with wif capabilityi and I suddenly had no use for the old one. Yes, I admit, I am part of the group of people I have been criticizing for the past week during this tech turn off but I never claimed to be perfect. In our search for the latest thing, it is easy to lose sight of the most basic values and principles that are not so shiny and exciting but are even more important. The Brave New World has lost sight of many values that we carry with us today and have carried with us throughout the centuries like the importance of family and the concepts of loyalty, faith, and basically anything they can’t see clearly in front of them.
“Art, science- you seem to have paid a fairly high price for your happiness,” p. 230
The things we give up to be happy mayactually open our eyes during the tech turnoff. We are forced to give up tech and in doing so we could find a whole world full of new things to do
“Seven and a half hours of mild, unexhausting labour, and then the soma ration and games and unrestricted copulation and the feelies.” (Huxley 224)
This doesn’t exactly tie into the Tech-Turn Off experiment, but I think it does apply to modern society. A look at today’s “norms” reveal a scary similarity to the Brave New World: the easily-accessable anti-deppressant, video games, and constant sexual reference keep people steady in what they do, and unchanging.
Quotation: “Bernard sank…’…understand it.’” (pg. 219)
Response: I think this quotation is ironic because throughout the whole story, Aldous Huxley makes us think, all the way up until pg. 219, that the government were the ones who “banned” all books. However, the actual truth was that the society got rid of books, not the government. I think that Huxley put this into the story on purpose because maybe he thinks that it’s really going to be this way in the future and he’s trying to warn us not to blame everything on the government because they’re just doing their job and enforcing the rules (just like the society is doing their jobs and deciding what they want the government to enforce).
-”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 to little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.” There was a long silence.
-”I claim them all,” said the Savage at last. pg 240
I really like this quotation in the book. You have asked us in class if we would live in Brave New World-happiness- or our lives full of unhappiness. Huxley gives us what we think we want, and yet the world seems awful. I think often times we don’t even know what we want, and once we have it, we want something else, something more. I believe there is purpose in the longing we feel for others, not always getting what we want, and having bad things happen to good people. It is those things that make the first kiss, the joy when something goes your way, and the good things that much better. We wouldn’t appreciate anything if we didn’t have the bad. Like the Savage, I claim the right to be unhappy- but I also claim the right to find happiness in things.
“Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can’t.” (pg.228)
Mustafa is making a bold statement by saying this. He is saying that if we know what is true and beautiful we are sacrificing our happiness as Helmholtz and John do. I believe this relates to the tech turn-off because of how we use technology to stay informed of the truth in our world. While we do link our technology usage to our happiness we also use it to stay informed of all that is occuring in our world. We can turn on the tv, check facebook, or receive a text that informs us of something that is occuring next door or across the world. So in that sense our technology is keeping us from becoming the Brave New World because although we seem to create happiness from our technology use it also keeps us infomed of the truth and beauty of the world that can cause unhappiness.
“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery.” pg. 221
This quote stood out to me because it seems that people who are really experiencing bad luck, misfortune or a tortuerous life draw more attention to themselves than people who just take life in stride. The unfortunate people are so miserable they want everyone to either join them or compensate them for their sorrow. People who live simply may think they are happy, but without technology it seems they are more lonely and detached from the ever expanding wave of communication. Having access to technology gives you the choice to interact the way you feel comfortable.
“Violent Passion Surrogate. Regularly once a month. We flood the whole system with adrenin. It’s the complete physiological equivalent of fear and rage. All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences.”
“But I like the inconveniences.”
“We don’t,” said the Controller, “We prefer to do things comfortably.”
“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” (pg. 240)
I feel like this relates directly to the Tech turnoff because the technologies are our comfort in life. With everything in the Brave New World like soma, orgyporgies, and feelies they no longer have to deal with any ‘inconveniences’, just as we do with our own modern technology. However, I feel that John may actually be finding comfort within God, poetry, real danger, and even sin. So maybe he is not claiming the right to unhappiness, but the right to reality.
“But I like the inconviniences.”
“We don’t,” said the Controller. “We prefer to do things comfortably.”(240)
I think this is so true. People want to do everything as is easily possible. People don’t actually want to work for anything. Like in the brave new world they want the reward without any of the work. this also correlates to this week because in a way we are being inconvenienced by our lack of technology. So many people are saying it is really hard, myself included, to do this challenge and i think that it is because we have grown up trying to find the easiest and most comfortable way of living our lives. I don’t think that this is good for society but that is what people are doing now.
“One believes things because one has been controlled to bleieve them.” ch 17 pg 235.
This theory has bothered me since we talked about it in class that one day, mostly because its so true, but i dont want it to be. It made me wonder what kind of person i would be if i grew up in a different family. What if i went to a different school. Lived in a different state? would i like the same things and be the same person if i had grown up differently. Theres definately proof that my life have been influenced by my family’s values and beliefes as well as life style, which almost makes me feel condition. but at the same time i dont feel condidtioned because i like who i am and the way i live. but is it because i’ve been conditioned to like it? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh this seriously messes with you mind!
at the same time i do believe their is evidence that controdicts this. for example, my brothers and i have some similarities, but we do vary on some ethics and values. is that because we were raised during different years and we were influenced by our culture at the time of our childhood? or is it because we do have free will to go agaisnt the “conditioning” and believe and be whatever we want? i would like to think it is the second one.
yes maybe we are conditioned. but we do have the option to go agaisnt it, while the brave new world does not as much.
“Because our world is not the same as Othello’s world. Your can’t make flivvers without steel-and you can’t make tragedies without social instability. The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get…”
The list continues, describing their “perfect” world, which is comptely irony. Is that what humanity really stirves for? Or is it the proccess of getting there that makes us content. What is happiness anyways and how do we truly find it. This quotes really got me thinking about our significance here on this earth, and the whold proccess of happiness and fear of death and old age and “blissful ignorance of passion and old age”. A world without passion is meaningless, and I think sadly, that is where we are headed. Our world is slowly turning into the Brave New World, maybe not that exact world, but a different version, and I’m afraid it might be too late to fix it.
“Christianity without tears – thats what soma is.” (pg. 238)
This quote relates to the turn off week because it’s about the old being replaced with the new, the previous craze being replaced by the new one, and also, soma is much simpler than Christianity, all the piece of mind without the crushing guilt, which is similar to how new technologies take out the difficulty of life.
“Art, science- you seem to have paid a fairly high price for your happiness,” p. 230
i think this may pertain to a quotation from tyler durden(fight club) “the things you own end up owning you”
no matter what it is and how much joy it brings you everything has a cost.
“‘Happiness has got to be paid for. You’re paying for it, Mr. Watson-paying because you happen to be too much interested in beauty. I was too much interested in truth; I paid too.’” (page 228)
In this quotation, Huxley says that there are three basic factors that make up human existence. In essence, humans always long for truth, beauty and happiness. However, Huxley argues that they cannot coexist. When people long for truth, they find that truth is messed up and the more they find, the more their happiness goes by the wayside. When someone longs for beauty, they realize that their is a lot of “non-beauty” in the world too. This also discourages their happiness. Only when someone is completely ignorant to the outside world can they be “happy”. But then again, one must then define happiness as the lack of understanding of ugly truth rather than the attainment of satisfying knowledge. So maybe, real happiness can exist with truth and beauty, but that might require us to long for a new kind of happiness, one that doesn’t require ignorance.
“we are god’s property. is it not our happiness thus to view this matter?” (Pg 232)
There are some people who believe in God and can honestly say that humans are his property. In the Brave new World they had gotten rid of religion, they made a president “God.” The sense of religion had been turned into something it never was and now that they have realized what these creators are doing, they began to question what is real and what is not. Everything that they should be happy about is because of all the training. There isn’t anyone who isn’t happy all the time, unless they don’t take soma.
pg 221 “Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. and, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.” I agree with this quote. It seems to me that with all these technologies we are striving for happiness, but if we continue with it we might end up like the Brave New World. I feel like given happiness is no fun if you don’t work for it.
“But that’s the price we have to pay for stability. You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people call high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art. We have feelies and the scent organ instead.” (pg.221)
I think that TV, more then any other screen technology of today, has been making true art become irrelevant and less interesting. The reason art and music are true masterpieces are because they tell stories of the past and they capture the mood and feelings of the time period. TV is just something that is easy to settle for because when watching TV there is less of a need to think about the meanings and interpret what is trying to be conveyed. TV for the most part is filled with reality TV and sit-coms. Humans are a species that tends to take the easy way through things. Music and true art are a lot harder to understand. They also, in comparison with TV and such, are so low tech that they seem to becoming old fashioned. Many people would rather play around with technology then sit and listen to a symphony or explore an art museum.
” Art, science- you seem to have paid a fairly high price for your happiness, anything else?” (pg 230)
I think that in order to be happy you need to look at what TRULY makes you happy. Whether it be art, science, sex, money, freedom, ect. I think you need to experience what it is like to go without in order to know the impact these things have on our everyday lives. I know I never realized how much I depended on different types of technology just to get me through my day. I also know what a relief it was not to have to worry about the unnecessary consequences of using these technologies. I am a believer that you will never know how much something means to you until you have had it taken away, even if it was just for one week… While I realized how much I depend on technologies, I also realized that I can go without and life will go on. We look at under-developed countries that don’t have the same privileges we do when it comes to technology and think oh those poor people. Maybe we have it all wrong, maybe they are the lucky ones that don’t have to deal with the hassles of technology. I think there needs to be a compromise. Americans don’t need to rely so heavily on such mindless entities when we could be using these technologies to help others. Others such as those who can’t afford to put food on the table, or for that matter a table at all. Our- meaning Americans’- focus is wayyyyy off.
“Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness” (pg 228).
I think Ford can be compared and paralleled to technology in our world today. Technology’s whole purpose is to comfort us and make things easier. Why send a handwritten letter when you can send an email and it gets to them instantaneously? Why stop everything to call someone when you can text them and still do whatever you were doing? And through all of the comforts technology provides us, it makes us happier. We as humans love to be taken care of… it’s how were were raised. Ford believing that people should have the luxury of comfort and happiness, directly parallels with the purpose of technology.
“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” (pg. 240)
For most people to read this today it seems very ironic to what we want. Dont want Comfort? I want Danger? Poetry? Sin? We look at most of these today as problems for us. It messes with your mind to think of a society so perverted that you crave sin and discomfort. This somewhat relates to the tech turnoff because our technologies are what make us comfortable It was impossible for most of us to even give up those comforts for even a week! How much long will it be until we cant stand our own comfort?
“Beauty’s attractive, and we don’t want people to be attracted by old things. We want them to like to new ones” pg. 219.
This statement is almost the epitome of society today. We are a very judgmental culture that always at first glance judges by the appearance of things. That is why everyone wants to get the best looking cars, or clothes, or phones. Each day there is some new technological advancement that everyone wants to upgrade too, because of it’s looks and the persona it gives off. In the Brave New World people are condition to be repulsed by non- beautiful things. Today not much is different in the fact that when we see something that is not as beautiful as the things we own, we are somewhat repulsed by it. A difference being that sometimes we can get over the repulsion and not hold us back from pursuing that person/ thing.
(From Huxleyan Warning)
“For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.”
I feel like this has a lot of relevance to our technology turn-off. Many of us are just like those in Brave New World. We use technology without even realizing it’s afflicting. I know several times, I would respond to a text message only to realize several minutes that I “broke the turn-off rules”. It’s become so sub-concious to us that we fail to realize its effects, just like the members of the Brave New World don’t even realize they can’t think for themselves.
“Because it’s old; that’s the cheif reason. We haven’t any use for old things here.”(219)
I think thiis precisely describes our society today. i mean who even uses tapes or records anymore? its old news. It’s only been probably 5 years since the Ipod Mini came out, and who even has one of those now? theres the ipad, the iphone 4G the Droids. our society always wants the next thing, whats newer up to date and “better” how much better it actually is is relative but the fact that its the “new thing” makes everyone want it more than the new thing they got 4 months ago.
“And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears—that’s what soma is.” This quote is really interesting to me because it compares Soma; a drug that covers up the truth with the fuzzy feelings of happiness, with religion. Huxley seems to be fearful that something as meaningful and powerful as religion will someday be replaced by a shallow meaningless pill. I don’t necessarily think that will ever happen, but I do think that soma and religion have ways of deluding the public for the purpose of control.
I’m using a quote from the Huxley warning …” the fact that before our eyes technology has altered every aspect of life in America during the past eighty years”. I found this really interesting to think about. The fact about how much has changed in the past eighty years. If we were to tell someone back then that things like facebook or cellphone would be around and be able to do what they do would be unthinkable for them. Now kids think its normal and wait for the next new big thing to come out. Kids dont write papers and more and teachers ask for things to be typed. Eighty years ago handwriting was really important and something people practiced. It’s wierd to think about how much things have changed. With that, its crazy to think about how people have changed to. Thing come easier now and people dont alway have to work as hard as they once did. Technology is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our lives.