Brave New World thoughts

[user_1919]

Hello all,
I have just finished my FSE for English. We were asked to choose a book that has been challenge or banned. I chose Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. We were asked to do an essay on it and describe whether or not we think it should be banned or not. Also a few other things. I have a presentation on friday, and I am excited to present my ideas to my class. The last 10 presentations have been about that book, "Go ask Alice", and many people now have the WRONG view on drugs, but anyways...

After writing and analyzing the book for a long time, I have some thoughts that I would like to share. As most of you know if you have read the book, it's based largly on social conditioning. There is many other main topics covered but this is what I wanted to discuss. I also want to mention that I have read The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind and would like to intergrate this into the discussion.

No matter what, we humans cannot escape social conditioning. No matter where you go, you will have the social pressure of some time of society. Before societies were established, the Bicameral man walked around this earth, listening to hallunicated Gods that would make decisions for them because they had no free thought. I believe we still do not have free thought, rather that the collective thought of our culture is who we are. Social conditioning plays such a big role in who we are. One can live outside his or her culture in their beliefs, but no matter what you are still being conditioned by your culture.

Could it be so that your culture dictates who everyone in the culture is. Because when you really break it down, how much different are you from others in society. I know individuals on this forum have much different beliefs than normal society, but you would be suprised at how much you are similar to everyone else. So what I was trying to get at, could it be that as civilization was created, social structures were created, and the hallunicated voices and visions that the bicameral man experience disappeared that we has developed some type of collective thought where you think as a whole with your society. So generally we have no free thought, it is more less just the thought of how our society thinks. This is also a very general explantion. I am not trying to single out very specific thoughts, more less actions that individuals carry out. If that makes any sense...lol

Anyways, let me know what you think,

PEACE & LOVE

 

[random]

Well, first of all, wish that that presentation goes great. It's a great topic, and book too!

As was said, no matter what we do, we are always conditioned by our cultures.

Meaning, even if one decides to go live as an hermit. That decision was conditioned by your culture.

We have to start putting aside words like 'You' or 'I/Me'. Such notions only exist so we can point out our egos. When is said: 'I' , 'you' or 'me', it's being pointed out the egos. Not the self. Not Who We Are. It's only being pointed out that thin cloak that we all have. Every ones, cloak, different from the other. With different experiences, different knowledge and emotions. Yet, the structure that holds it, the cloak (ego), it's the same.

What is trying to be said here, is that one can't escape his own organism. We can't escape or run away from our own body. Our collective Body. Our Self.
We are pieces of the body. Of the structure. Complex patterns with no end. Just creation, every single moment.

And the problem is, we are attached to our egos. We are attached to false values. We think our egos will last forever and ever. They don't. They were false creations that, through time, kept growing like a disease. And we keep identifying with that cloak, instead of looking and seeing what we are. Looking and seeing that the egos are only a desease, that can be easily transcended, if we start acting from what we are and always will be. One Pure and Blissful Counsciousness, infinitly Wise and infinitly Creative.

So, ofcourse it can be agreed that we are influenced by our cultural counsciousness. By waves of energy, that we tend to see them or perceive them as our free will. How identified with the ego one can be to think that one possesses free will? There's only collective will.

Imagine 7 billion independent free wills. (this picture is pure abstraction, but bare with this logic) It's like 7 billion 'independent universes' trying to communicate with each other. It just doesn't exist.

There's only one singularity, and it's Now. Creation. Vibration. Energy. Light. Darkness. Sound. Silence. Energy.

that we has developed some type of collective thought where you think as a whole with your society

We didn't developed anything. IT always been collective Oneness. We are just too distracted playing hide and seek with the self (with ourselfs actually). Ocupied feeding the ficticious "will" of the ego.

Wish it goes nice with that presentation. And good thoughts!

 

[????????]

We are like bees and ants. Theres is indeed a collective unconscious that needs to be acknowledged to be able to be free.

 

[Meduzz]

Have you read brave new world revisited? Now THAT's horror!

 

[user_1919]

Have you read brave new world revisited? Now THAT's horror

No I have not yet. I plan on reading it in the near future.

Thanks for your answers. What I was trying to describe is very complex for me to put into words, but I have slept on it. Maybe from our the start of our existance, we are becoming more and more independent. The bicameral man as being not indepedent at all because he has no free thought, but rather listened to God's speaking to him. But as cilvilization was developed, those voices disappeared, and this theoretical thing called society was put into place. Picture society as someone or something and it is just the set of beliefs, laws, etc that the culture believes in. Now instead of man listening to hallunicated Gods, he has culture to depend on. Maybe these God's built some type of social structure where man could somewhat 'think for himself' when in the presence of a society. Once society was established, there was now a set of beliefs, rules, laws, etc beng projected down upon the memebers and new memebers within. This is why social conditioning is so powerful, because it does develop who you are. And as socities get bigger, and expand, all the cultures will merge, under one set of belief, and maybe that is what 2012 will be, the merging of cultures. All beleifs of each culture intergrated into one super culture. Let's hope this doesn't happen, because it only conditions us to be more of a zombie and follow more different rules and regulations. I wonder how one can break free from his or her culture and live as a pure human being. I think the only way would be isolation, in which the hallunicated God's will come back. I think it is time for a very high dose, and some thinking

PEACE & LOVE

 

[Guest]

W00t, BWN !

We studied this book at school, and (eventhough ) it became one of my favorite ! Good choice here, there's litteraly tons of different aspects you can focus on for your presentation !

Have you read brave new world revisited? Now THAT's horror!

What is it about ? I wanted to read "The Doors of Perception" for quite a while, but I totally forgot about this one, even though I read about it in the preface of Brave New World a long time ago...

 

[skrudge]

I wanted to read "The Doors of Perception" for quite a while

do it! seriously, you won't regret it. Groundbreaking for its time. It's a pretty short book, so it won't take much of your time.
I've got BNW lying here, still have to read it... It upped on the to-read list now

 

[user_1919]

Good choice here, there's litteraly tons of different aspects you can focus on for your presentation !

Yes I think I am going to focus on the power that social conditioning can have on an individual and then take a present day example....our drug laws and beliefs. I want to explain that people believe that ALL drugs are bad and they have NO reason why, but then I want to go into detail that some drugs can casue very bad effects due to addiction, but drugs like LSD, Psilocybin Mushrooms, Marijuana can have very positive therauptic benafits, and that the government conditions students and adults that ALL drugs are bad, when infact there are some good ones that are illegal.

PEACE & LOVE

 

[Meduzz]

What is it about ?

It's an essay Huxley wrote in 1958, 26 years after BNW. It's about how the technological improvement, exponential population growth,... in those years lead to an acceleration of society towards BNW. It's horror because when you read it now, we are even more close than in 58.

Take overpopulation for example... When he wrote BNW there were a little less than 2 billion people on earth. When he wrote BNW revisited there were over 3 billion people....

And overpopulation is a major issue in the essay so far (I'm only half way now...)