Artificial Emotions in a Brave New World Novel

Drugs in a society take away the most important value of a person, their individuality. The novel Brave New World encourages society to use drugs so they can experience happiness and forget about the things that make them upset. Though, just like in the novel, instances like these happen in the real world where people take pills, smoke, etc. to experience the feeling of numbing their thoughts and becoming someone they’re not. The individuals needs and importances are much more valuable than using drugs to escape from reality.

The novel Brave New World focuses largely around the community’s needs over an individuals, in ways like providing soma to establish the community’s stability. An individuals needs should be favored over those of the community to give each person their individuality, and the opportunity for others to seek better things for themselves. For example, when Bernard explains to Lenina, “I’d rather be myself, Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly”(Huxley 89). During this scene Lenina attempts to convince Bernard to eat a soma infused sundae so their date could be more exciting, though this conveys that Bernard would rather be himself than under the influence and lose his individuality becoming someone he isn’t. Bernard advocates the idea that being under the influence of soma restricts people in a society from being different or themselves. Furthermore, leaders like Mustapha Mond stretches the “hypnopædic proverb” that, “everyone belongs to everyone else”(Huxley 40). Whilst this time Mustapha Mond was explaining to the group of students that it’s unorthodox to be with one person and to have a mother and father, everyone should be constantly meeting new people and having sex. This illustrates further into the idea that the government doesn’t support the individuals ideas but the community’s ideals. As well as making sure that any pondering idea against the state motto is induced with soma, keeping an individual’s ideas peripheral to the motto. Overall, the individual’s needs/importance is more important than the community’s needs and ideals.

In addition to the subject, an individual’s importance should be favored over the community’s importance, the use of opioids should be used for a discrete situation, not to be prescribed which can make it easily acquired by the community. Relatively similar to soma in Brave New World, “Opioids attach to receptors in the brain.–Once attached, they send signals to the brain of the ‘opioid effect’ which blocks pain, slows breathing, and has a general calming and anti-depressing effect”(www.naabt.org). This demonstrates that the effect of opioids on a person can numb their thoughts, and remove users from a state of pain and depression into a happier state of mind, which is most likely the main reason why overdoses happen with opioids. An individual should not have to abuse drugs to seem or experience happiness and/or relief; they should seek out help rather than put their lives in danger. Furthermore, statistics say that, “ More than 130 people died every day from opioid-related drug overdoses in 2016 and 2017, according to the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)” (www.cnn.com). This exemplifies the detrimental effects opioids can have on an individual’s life; opioids should only be used in a contained environment under supervision and only in a severe medical situations. Opioids are not for an individual to lose their sense of self and be something they aren’t to relieve their thoughts. Ultimately, the use of opioids should be used to help an individual’s problems not for a community to misuse. An individuals needs should be superior to the ideals of a community especially when it comes to a drug that could end someone’s life.

Although there are those who believe that the needs of the community are more important than those of the individual because drugs in a community could be beneficial in a variety of ways. Some benefits of opioids are, “opioids are used mostly to treat moderate to severe pain, though some opioids can be used to treat coughing and diarrhea” (www.drugabuse.gov). This indicates that opioids could be beneficial to help treat common instances, however there are other medicines that can fulfill the same treatment. Also, referring back to Brave New World soma is, “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant”(Huxley 53), the drug does have the same detrimental effect as opioids if a user does become addicted. Statistics show that, “The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that half of young people who inject heroin turned to the street drug after abusing prescription painkillers, also that three in four new heroin users start out using prescription drugs”(www.cnn.com). This illustrates that unsupervised use of opioids can turn for the worst if opioids aren’t used in a supervised environment, letting the individual lose their individuality to a drug that can make them become someone they aren’t. Therefore, even though some may disagree, in the end the individual is always superior to the ideals of the community and drugs should not be used to make someone feel or seem that they are happier.

Overall, a community’s importance sits below the importance of an individuals. Everyone in a community is just as important as another and drugs shouldn’t hold someone from their identities and individuality. In the Brave New World community no one has their say on how they feel in society and if they do, they’re washed away with soma. As well in real life people use drugs, like opioids, to erase the unpleasant thoughts that linger in their minds. An individual’s importance in a community is crucial as well as their sense of individuality.

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