Brave New World
Where Green Beans (GMOs) Rule the World
Brave New World Quote
The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning (D.H.C.) said this quote while speaking to newly arrived students who were taking a tour of the conditioning center. The Director is explaining what conditioning does to its patrons, so each person will be "happy" with being in their caste. This quote relates to ta dystopian society because there truly is no free thought. The D.H.C. states "all these suggestions are our suggestions!" The people who live in Brave New World do not have their own opinions or ideas, they have already been pre-made for them which will stay with them until they die. The conditioning in the Modern society has taken away a person's identity by not having their own thoughts since they are the thoughts and ideas of society. This quote relates to today's world because as children we have been conditioned and had suggestions instilled in us at a young age. In America, we enjoy saying that we have our own freedom, and our own thought, but society has conditioned us at a young age to raise our hands when we have a question, to listen to our elders, to be polite, to not accept candy from strangers, etc. Those are all examples of things society has taught or conditioned us to do in life. Though these are very handy, they are still not our own thoughts. Furthermore, our parents have conditioned us on which political party we should take, or whether we have a religion or not, or whether we need school after high school. They have made suggestions that affect our suggestions we make in life.
Dystopian Paragraphs
Dystopia is a society or place whose imperfection is extreme. Though we might picture a society similar to the book The Hunger Games or Divergent when we think of a dystopian society, the world in which we live in has similar characteristics to a dystopian society. In the world we live in there is war, poverty, overcrowding, disease, lack of action, and fear of technology (Summers; CBS News). I believe we live in a dystopian society because of these shared characteristics.
Middle Eastern countries are feuding between each other and against other countries around the world. The United States is slowly trying to get out of a war against Iraq, and might have a war against Iran. In Africa, the majority of the people live in poverty (CBS News). The majority of the continent is made up of Third World Countries. The people are without clean water, electricity, food, sanitation, proper housing, and much more. Earth’s population is currently at a little over seven billion people. Combining China and India’s populations totals over half of the world’s population, making their countries densely populated and overcrowded. Diseases such as AIDS and Malaria are lethal to everyone. Also, with so many people in the world, we are slowly destroying the natural habitats of many different animal species on land and in water. However, not enough people are trying to help save these animal’s homes which hurts planet Earth, creating pollution, deforestation, and global warming.
In more modern places such as Western Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia, the fear of technology taking over looms over us as a potential future disaster (Summers). Technology has become “smart” with Smartphone’s, smart-TVs, smart-computers, and smart appliances! We live in an age of technology that is changing the way everyone lives. There is fear that one day our computers could potentially become smarter than a human being, which would enable computers to take over the world and rule mankind. Though that statement is very science fictional, there are people who fear that this could happen. Also, technology has taken over part of our lives. We use technological-trivial items such as Smartphone’s, reality TV, video games, and social networking sites to entertain us. We get lost in these objects and forget about reality, replacing real life with a virtual life. Technology would also one day to clone humans. This would allow people to synthetically create a life using syringes and microscopes, making us act as if we ourselves are God. We would be able to manipulate body parts to any will and way we want.
Furthermore, the world we live in could never be a Utopia, which inches us closer to a dystopian society. To have a utopian society, there can be no war, poverty, famine, unhappiness. There isn't a way to be able to please everyone in the society, which wouldn’t allow the society to be a Utopia. It’s impossible to make everyone happy since everyone has their own ideas and opinions on what happiness is. Moreover, in the novel Brave New World, the characters had to use “soma” to escape their reality, but if they lived in a utopian society they wouldn't need synthetic drugs to escape which is ironic for a utopian society. People use drugs to escape from reality all the time. They use drugs such as alcohol, weed, LSD, cocaine, meth, etc. to flee from reality.
In conclusion, I believe that the world we live in is a dystopian society. The world shares common characteristics of dystopian societies such as poverty, famine, war, oppression from technology, and many others. Though the society we live in doesn’t take it to an extreme as books such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, and 1984, our society has very similar characteristics that could define as a dystopia.
Theme Song
"Who We Are" by Imagine Dragons would be an excellent theme song for the movie adaptation of Brave New World. The lyrics, "Taking down names/In my book of jealousy/Jealousy" describe how the singer is filled with envy towards others around him. In the novel, Bernard is filled with jealousy throughout the entire novel. He is jealous of the other Alpha pluses because they are never made fun of or picked on. Bernard is very short for an Alpha and people taunt him. Also, he is ridiculed for always being alone with himself. In the Modern society, being alone is taboo. Furthermore, Bernard becomes jealous of Helmholtz's friendship with John Savage. He envies Helmholtz for being able to create such a quick friendship with John while Bernard is still trying to become friends with the savage.
Also, in the novel, if you don't fit in with Brave New World's society perfectly, then you are considered a outcast, a savage, a crazy person, and they aren't welcomed in the Modern society. "We were never welcomed here/We were never welcomed here at all/No" and "They say we're crazy" from the song describe how John Savage feels after being able to see the Modern society. The dystopian society in which Brave New World lives in makes everyone lose their identity and creates certain expectations that everyone should uphold, otherwise you are considered crazy.
Dystopia
Equal
Conform
No Identity
Drugs
Pain
Pleasure
Utopia
Undesirable
Oppression
Misery
Futuristic
Disease
Famine
Poverty
Apocalypse
Darkness
Propaganda
No Free Thought
Delusional Utopia
Not Unique
Distrust
Fear
Dehumanized
Shakespeare Investigation
In Hamlet, Hamlet is pondering whether or not to kill his Uncle when he is asleep. This quote from Shakespeare fits this part in the novel because at the time John is expressing his abhorrence of Pope through Shakespeare's works. John actually takes Shakespeare's words so much to heart that he commits the actions that Hamlet was thinking of doing. John walks up to Pope while he is sleeping and stabs him multiply in the shoulder. John was given the idea of murdering Pope through the play Hamlet. This quote is significant because it shows how much influence Shakespeare has on John. John uses ideas that he gets from Shakespeare, and he is able to better express himself from Shakespeare's plays.
Against GMOs
“GMO foods are genetically modified organisms that have had new genes from other organisms added to their existing genes.” (Duvachelle) GMO’s are found in our food that we eat. Most American crops and livestock have GMO’s present within them. Though there are some pros to having GMO, I believe that GMO’s are more harmful to us rather than beneficial.
Though there are beneficial parts to having GMO’s since they are insect resistant, and would help battle malnutrition in developing countries, GMOs have been found harmful to rats (Lin). The studied concluded that GMOs put the tested rats at a higher risk for liver and kidney problems compared to the rats with a diet without GMOs. Rats act as a warning sign for ourselves and other animals if we all have food containing GMOs. Furthermore, GMOs have not been tested thoroughly enough on people to see whether it will negatively affect our health. GMO usage is rapidly growing in America’s crop and livestock industry, yet GMOs have not had enough time to be safely tested.
Also, GMO foods have significantly increased allergic reactions in people. GMOs mix and add proteins that are not originally found in the plant (Kantor). People are then at risk when they have allergic reactions from GMO food. Severe allergic reactions can lead to death if not treated immediately. Moreover, GMO foods have antibiotic features already in them, making them immune to viruses and disease. Eating food with antibiotic features present in it can make actual antibiotic medication less effective (Duvachelle). With a possible resistance against antibiotic medication puts people at risk for new diseases and viruses such as strep throat, pneumonia, ear infections, bronchitis, etc.
Another risk that GMOs pose for us is that they could potentially escape into the wild. Herbicide resistant genes could mix with wild weeds, creating a very powerful weed that would be resistance to bacteria. The bacteria could then grow stronger and the weed would be hard to kill off. Furthermore, if GMOs mix with other wild plants, it could create population explosions and crashes which would harm the different ecosystems that different species live in. The roller-coaster of population size of a species could cause a habitat to collapse because there wouldn’t be any stability. Animals that have a predator-prey relationship wouldn’t be able to rely on one another for food and for evolving over time. It could potentially lead the species to becoming extinct without stability within the habitat it lives in. Moreover, “GMOs can lead to monoculture, which is dangerous because it threatens the biological diversity of our food supply.” (Lin) Without genetic diversity, the plants would be somewhat “inbreeding” which could cause mutations in the plants, possibly making them inedible for people and animals to eat.
GMOs have more cons when compared to the pros. GMOs are not safe for human consumption when there hasn’t been enough testing done on it. Also, studies have shown that rats become ill due to GMOs in their diet. GMOs need to be monitored more closely and labeled because it has created new allergic reactions in people.
Dystopian Hero in Today's Society
Food for Hunger
Everyone so bring your mother, father, brother, sister, best friend, friend, enemy, teacher, coach, sponsor, grandparents, aunts, uncles, anyone!
WHAT IS THIS?
Help the starving and impoverished have a nice warm meal. We will start at Katniss' Soup Kitchen so we can get everyone into different groups. We will then be going around to local restaurants, cafeteria's, and any other eateries to see if they would like to donate food to homeless shelters. We would also have a food can drive so we can ship the cans overseas to other countries that don't have enough food for its people.