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Sufferance Is Pleasure
In early England, Sir Tomas More wrote about an imaginary endemic paradise, called Utopia in the book having the same name. Ever since, “utopia” becomes synonymous of imaginary perfect place of happiness, and many peoples have dreamed and portrayed some utopias in different literature works. However, not everyone has the same optimistic views on the feature. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley both wrote their foreseeing of the future in <<1984>> and <<Brave New World>>. They portray the future as dictatorship and brainwashing. Even though the two actors have fundamentally different views about how and why the two distopian worlds, well described by their mottoes, are created, the two fictions describe societies with great similarities in term of effects on the citizens.
The two worlds described in the two novels are very different, both in social structure and in moral systems. <<1984>> describes a totalitarian dictatorship in which both material goods and thoughts of its citizens are strictly controlled by the state. The aim of the ruling party is to achieve power, pure and absolute power; the mean is sufferance and terror. <<Brave New World>> compared to <<1984>> is very different. The aim of its society is human happiness by shallowing the people’s mind by saturating their brain with body pleasure and mass meaningless entertainment. The purpose is appealing, but the consequences of the meaningless pleasure are not less devastating.
<<1984>> is a distopian. The absolute dictatorship and the endless war ravage the whole society: Oceania. The motto is “War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength” (Orwell, 6) The police is omnipresent like the poster of Big Brother, symbol of the party in power. No one has any individual freedom or privacy, because every party member are constantly watched by the means of telescreen and spies. A single misappropriate behavior can result in fatal consequences: vaporizing. Therefore, all citizens are under unlimited control of the party. The fact that everyone is under constant fear of being denounced and vaporized keeps people under constant paranoia. The main character, Winston, even thought of killing Julia, his lover, by the fear to be spied and denounced by her. The interpersonal relationship is completely destroyed in <<1984>>. “No loyalty except loyalty toward the party; no love except love for big brother”(Orwell, 280) could exist. There is no intimate relationship between any two persons, not even inside a family. Winston’s disastrous marriage is the example: there is no love between the two person, and having sex is doing the duty toward the party. Children are as indoctrinated as adults and become fanatic spies. Each child is a spy in the family. Children who denounce their parents are frequent. Even Parson, the imbecile party believer is denounced by his daughter, and is ironically proud of her. The destruction of any interpersonal relationship based on trust and love is complete and absolute. The more perverse consequence is the limitation of intelligence. First, language is limited by the use of Newspeak. The vocabulary is reduced. As result, Winston can have thoughts but is incapable of formulating them structurally. Science is limited as well as speech. The objective empirical thinking is eliminated except for restricted subjects such as war. Double think and crime stop are mental techniques developed in order to blindly believe and accept the reality as the party dictates. “The reality only exist in minds, in the Party’s mind” (Orwell, 292) as O’Brian pointed out. The human intellect, such as critical thinking, is completely eliminated. <<1984>> is a pessimistic future. In this world, both human feeling and human intelligence are restricted or eliminated.
<<Brave New World>> has different approach. In this world, where “everyone belongs to everybody” (Huxley, 24), the aim is to achieve eternal happiness and eliminate all negative feelings. The goal of the society seems to be utopian, but the consequences of the society on the people have great similarities with <<1984>>. First, in this society, people can’t create any stable relationship with a person. The family structure is destroyed since babies are mass produced by means of hatching instead of natural breeding. The notion of mother is obscene and laughable. The only relationship between a man and a woman is the sexual relationship. Complete sexual freedom is abused in such degree that any relation longer then some month is considered abnormal and unhealthy. The brainwashing is achieved, not through strict surveillance or brutal force, it is achieved scientifically with hypnopedia and conditioning. Moral values are taught by repeating them while the children are sleeping. The endless repetition make them accepting these abstract rules without having any chance to questioning them. The actions of a person is the product of an automatic response without thinking critically. The scientific progress is stopped like in <<1984>>, and the only scientific book is produced is the cocking book or instruction book. Art, literature, music, theatre, movies are all synthetically produced and the content of these are shallow and stupid. John the Savage, who reads Shakespeare commented that these products are empty and stupid. Their only purpose is to entertain, not to wake up any imagination or educate. The world controller Mustafa Monde admit that these entertainments don’t have any values. Therefore, the human intelligence is limited in this society: intelligence can lead to thoughts which could result in negative feeling, such as sadness and melancholy. Therefore, even thought this society has way more honorable purpose, its influences on the people are the same then in the <<1984>>: distortion of interpersonal relationship, and limitation of intelligence.
<<1984>> and <<Brave New World>> describes fundamentally opposite worlds. One is for sufferance, one is for pleasure. However, the two societies have the same negative consequences in term of human nature on the citizens: the natural healthy interpersonal relationship is changed and the intelligence of the person is limited. The both societies have one similarity indeed, and is the reason why they have the same pernicious effects on the citizens: the lack of individual freedom and the lack of democracy. In contrast with a democratic society, in which the people is granted with maximum freedom, it is obvious that only democracy can lead to the self actualization of the person, which is the greatest achievement for a human being.
In early England, Sir Tomas More wrote about an imaginary endemic paradise, called Utopia in the book having the same name. Ever since, “utopia” becomes synonymous of imaginary perfect place of happiness, and many peoples have dreamed and portrayed some utopias in different literature works. However, not everyone has the same optimistic views on the feature. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley both wrote their foreseeing of the future in <<1984>> and <<Brave New World>>. They portray the future as dictatorship and brainwashing. Even though the two actors have fundamentally different views about how and why the two distopian worlds, well described by their mottoes, are created, the two fictions describe societies with great similarities in term of effects on the citizens.
The two worlds described in the two novels are very different, both in social structure and in moral systems. <<1984>> describes a totalitarian dictatorship in which both material goods and thoughts of its citizens are strictly controlled by the state. The aim of the ruling party is to achieve power, pure and absolute power; the mean is sufferance and terror. <<Brave New World>> compared to <<1984>> is very different. The aim of its society is human happiness by shallowing the people’s mind by saturating their brain with body pleasure and mass meaningless entertainment. The purpose is appealing, but the consequences of the meaningless pleasure are not less devastating.
<<1984>> is a distopian. The absolute dictatorship and the endless war ravage the whole society: Oceania. The motto is “War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength” (Orwell, 6) The police is omnipresent like the poster of Big Brother, symbol of the party in power. No one has any individual freedom or privacy, because every party member are constantly watched by the means of telescreen and spies. A single misappropriate behavior can result in fatal consequences: vaporizing. Therefore, all citizens are under unlimited control of the party. The fact that everyone is under constant fear of being denounced and vaporized keeps people under constant paranoia. The main character, Winston, even thought of killing Julia, his lover, by the fear to be spied and denounced by her. The interpersonal relationship is completely destroyed in <<1984>>. “No loyalty except loyalty toward the party; no love except love for big brother”(Orwell, 280) could exist. There is no intimate relationship between any two persons, not even inside a family. Winston’s disastrous marriage is the example: there is no love between the two person, and having sex is doing the duty toward the party. Children are as indoctrinated as adults and become fanatic spies. Each child is a spy in the family. Children who denounce their parents are frequent. Even Parson, the imbecile party believer is denounced by his daughter, and is ironically proud of her. The destruction of any interpersonal relationship based on trust and love is complete and absolute. The more perverse consequence is the limitation of intelligence. First, language is limited by the use of Newspeak. The vocabulary is reduced. As result, Winston can have thoughts but is incapable of formulating them structurally. Science is limited as well as speech. The objective empirical thinking is eliminated except for restricted subjects such as war. Double think and crime stop are mental techniques developed in order to blindly believe and accept the reality as the party dictates. “The reality only exist in minds, in the Party’s mind” (Orwell, 292) as O’Brian pointed out. The human intellect, such as critical thinking, is completely eliminated. <<1984>> is a pessimistic future. In this world, both human feeling and human intelligence are restricted or eliminated.
<<Brave New World>> has different approach. In this world, where “everyone belongs to everybody” (Huxley, 24), the aim is to achieve eternal happiness and eliminate all negative feelings. The goal of the society seems to be utopian, but the consequences of the society on the people have great similarities with <<1984>>. First, in this society, people can’t create any stable relationship with a person. The family structure is destroyed since babies are mass produced by means of hatching instead of natural breeding. The notion of mother is obscene and laughable. The only relationship between a man and a woman is the sexual relationship. Complete sexual freedom is abused in such degree that any relation longer then some month is considered abnormal and unhealthy. The brainwashing is achieved, not through strict surveillance or brutal force, it is achieved scientifically with hypnopedia and conditioning. Moral values are taught by repeating them while the children are sleeping. The endless repetition make them accepting these abstract rules without having any chance to questioning them. The actions of a person is the product of an automatic response without thinking critically. The scientific progress is stopped like in <<1984>>, and the only scientific book is produced is the cocking book or instruction book. Art, literature, music, theatre, movies are all synthetically produced and the content of these are shallow and stupid. John the Savage, who reads Shakespeare commented that these products are empty and stupid. Their only purpose is to entertain, not to wake up any imagination or educate. The world controller Mustafa Monde admit that these entertainments don’t have any values. Therefore, the human intelligence is limited in this society: intelligence can lead to thoughts which could result in negative feeling, such as sadness and melancholy. Therefore, even thought this society has way more honorable purpose, its influences on the people are the same then in the <<1984>>: distortion of interpersonal relationship, and limitation of intelligence.
<<1984>> and <<Brave New World>> describes fundamentally opposite worlds. One is for sufferance, one is for pleasure. However, the two societies have the same negative consequences in term of human nature on the citizens: the natural healthy interpersonal relationship is changed and the intelligence of the person is limited. The both societies have one similarity indeed, and is the reason why they have the same pernicious effects on the citizens: the lack of individual freedom and the lack of democracy. In contrast with a democratic society, in which the people is granted with maximum freedom, it is obvious that only democracy can lead to the self actualization of the person, which is the greatest achievement for a human being.
死)
