Twenty Piddling Little Fountains

In Alduous Huxley’s Brave New World, the natural fulfillments of human satisfaction are manipulated and replaced by cheap substitutes. The concepts of family and monogamy are now disgusting. The complexity of the relationships, the emotion one must expend to maintain these relationships, it is all seen as too many limitations on mankind. How can one get what they want when they want if they are tied down to a relationship? Things must come easy and fluidly, with no hardships or obstacles. The students have never even heard of the term insurmountable obstacle. They have been specifically designed to know what they want, to want simple things, and to know the exact way they should achieve this. They have been told what to feel since early childhood through a constant stream of brainwashing tapes played in their sleep. They have been conditioned to believe that all the impulses, feelings, and desires they have are indeed natural, but even more, they are to be expended as much as possible in the most basic and easiest ways possible. “Everywhere exclusiveness, a narrow channeling of energy and impulse” (40). Feelings and desires should never be channeled towards one person, or one group of people. When we all belong to everyone else, individuality is erased, and the ability to build special connections with people is made impossible. All of this is achieved through the shaping of society’s values. A nice, virtuous young girl let’s as many men have her as she can, so as to not appear strange and immoral. The government establishes these standards in an effort to leave humanity in a constant state of cheap, surface level, but still effective, satisfaction. They are left in a constant state of euphoria so that they never realize the depth of what is missing in their lives as intellectual thought and meaningful relationships are made impossible.