The implication of soma has made it impossible for people to be faced with adversity. Soma, being as heavily sedative as it is, makes it near to impossible for people to think for themselves. Soma provides the brain-dead mob with an escape route for any unpleasant feelings, leaving them feeling as if they were happy, when really it is just blurring of the truth. For example, after the death of his heavily sedated mother, John, “The Savage,” is disgusted with the citizens of the World States dependency on Soma.As John finds the line of people waiting for their share of Soma, he says, “‘Listen, I beg you,’ cried the Savage earnestly.
‘Lend me your ears…’ […] ‘Don’t take that horrible stuff. It’s poison, it’s poison. ’ (185). Since John was never influenced by the World States conditioning, he is able to see the destruction being done. John makes an attempt at emphasizing the issue at hand, but the citizens are blinded by their addiction. Since the implication of soma has gotten rid of any truth in the World State, adversity and struggle are no longer found.
Therefore, we can make the connection that no one in the World State is truly happy, when really they are too sedated to think any differently. As the novel progresses, John meets with Mustapha Mond to speak about John’s recent outburst. Mond, being a World Controller, has strong views in that social stability is all that matters and John on the other hand, sees the world much as we do today. Within Mustapha and John’s conversation, Mustapha states that, “And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts.
And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to you to your enemies, to make you patient and long suffering. ” (209-210). As we look at this quotation, we can confirm that in the eyes of the World controller, the truth does not matter. The goal for the World controllers is to achieve complete social stability, and the only way to succeed is to eliminate the truth. Soma plays an important role in this elimination, as it acts as the fail safe for whatever unpleasant emotions fall through the cracks. Therefore, this further proves that without adversity in the world, one cannot truly experience happiness.
The state uses biological science and psychological conditioning in order to make each citizen perfectly happy with the role they have in life, and therefore, they do not want anything he or she cannot have. Conditioning is something that starts as early as inside the test tube where children are created. In the very first piece of the novel, the Director leads a group of students who are touring the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. Within the tour, the director says, “And that,” put the Director sententiously, “that is the secret of happiness and virtue – liking what you’ve got to do.All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny” (12).
As we look at the different levels of the social pyramid, it is obvious from our standpoint that the higher tiered individuals have it much better the lower ones, but yet there is no uproar or unhappiness within the those lower tiered individuals. This is what really makes us see the way conditioning is utilized in the World State. When the Director uses the word, “inescapable,” it shows us that the Director will sacrifice all truth and freedom in order to achieve social stability.Therefore, we can conclude that if the lower class were able to see how they were manipulated throughout life, they would no longer be as happy as they were made to be.
Conditioning proves to be more influential in the later parts of the novel. When Lenina and Henry are on their way to their date, they see a puff of smoke come out of a crematorium, and have a short discussion about happiness. After Herny states, “Everybody’s happy now,” Lenina follows it up by saying, “Yes, everybody’s happy now,” echoed Lenina.They heard the words repeated 150 times every night for 12 years” (65). Conditioning is an important piece for the World Controllers desire for social stability as makes the citizens unable to question their own feelings.
With this, the controllers are able to ensure that happiness will be the only feeling that citizens will have to deal with; making sure adversity and suffering are out of the question. Ultimately, this shows us that conditioning is another tactic to get rid of truth is order to achieve the false sense of happiness.
