08 January 2013

Brave New World Cultural Artifact #1



The Truman Show and the Matrix made me recall a certain book that I once read that has similar grounds to these movies. That book is the "Brave New World." This takes place in London where there is a facility that create the perfect human beings to do that they are supposed to do and unable to think for themselves. They did this because the women are unable to give birth anymore and this was their only option of their survival. Despite this is their last hope, there are those who are unhappy because they can think for themselves unlike their other counterparts. 

Right off from the bat, these scientists crossed the line of creating human beings, even though that was the only way to survive. We are only human and have no rights to play as God, because we already have a God to take that job. Despite the women unable to give birth in the story, another issue of the life of the empire is to remove freewill. This removes God’s love out of our lives.  God gave us freewill and life to do what we like to do. God did not control Adam nor Eve to not to eat the forbidden fruit at the time, but he lets them eat it anyway.  God doesn’t want us to be robots, but to the people in the Brave New World, this is for the human race. This can be seen in both ways of the Empire and the Kingdom of God from two very different perspectives.  The Kingdom of God supports that this is wrong for us to populate wrongly and brainwash the offspring for a better world, on the other hand the empire wants to create a better world that will make everyone to live happily. 


1. If the time comes where our situation is similar to the Truman Show, the Matrix, and the Brave New World, How can we obtain freedom and happiness?

2. How will our relationship with God change when our lives are endangered? Will it break apart? Or Reinforced?

2 comments:

  1. Good connections with the Matrix and the Truman Show, Joseph. I appreciate your point about free will. It will be interesting to see someday if this kind of situation occurs what humans choose to do about their survival.

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  2. Joseph, I definitely remember reading this book in high school, mostly because of the strong reaction I had to it. I couldn't believe that would take something as sacred as a human (and everything that defines us as humans) and make it into just another commodity, meant to be controlled and manipulated by the society. With medical technology advancing as it has, it worries me that we are perfectly able to create other human beings, and I too question how we will react when times of crisis come. I also agree with you in that God meant for humans to have free will, even at the expense of allowing sin. However, there is also the moral question that if you knew of a way to set up a society in which everyone would be peaceful and happy, why would you not take that opportunity? I feel like Huxley does a very good job at conveying the idea that creating such a controlled world such as this is not a desirable goal, even if it does improve the community temporarily. Because we are human, I do not believe it is possible for us to ever set up a perfect utopia on our own. But I do believe we are capable in participating in the rebuilding of shalom. If we stick to God’s blueprints rather than trying to create our own, I believe people will be much better off in the long run.

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