Artificial Happiness In Brave New World

The theme in the Brave New World revolves around attaining total happiness, rather artificial happiness and a sense of fulfillment by the state for its people. This is achieved through three different techniques, the first one being biological and psychological conditioning, the second one is through promiscuous sex and the ultimate one by the use of a drug called soma, which can affect people around the world without any side effects. In today’s society with rising tension, ever increasing cases of mind-related impairment, and regular use of banned drugs looks like that today almost every person, young or adult is in search of some distraction, any distraction, even if it is a drug like soma. Soma is the reason that today’s society functions.
Soma is supposed to be used for evading all kinds of distress however little it might be. It fills the gap, if any, after the use of the first two techniques. Since all the citizens are fulfilled and satisfied with soma, they never question the government. People in today’s society have the satisfaction to control emotions. The story is mainly about, the World State’s population, the powerful influence of science and technology on society, and the use of religion in controlling the society. It guarantees a society without “unhappy” people. In the process of attaining so-called happiness and fulfillment, the people little realize that they are becoming a slave of their own creation, the drug soma. In Chapter 6, Huxley uses “a gramme is always better than a damn…progress is lovely” (Huxley 90-100) to signify the development of happiness and positive feelings in Lenina’s society and her being the habitual source of this quote.
Lenina and Bernard visit the Savage Reservation, where Lenina finds the materialistic sources lacking for "progress." Hypnopaedic phrases create the illusion of living in a never-ending advancing society. Since childhood, we are made to believe, almost as 'sleep-learning' that being happy, at whatever cost should be our ultimate motive, our achievement. Any kind of negative feelings at any point in our life is not welcome, and one should do everything and anything to avoid them. The irony is that Bernard is the one who is responsible for these hypnopaedic phrases, but when he tries to escape its reasoning, he is cornered by people around him who take it literally. This reflects some of the basic principles of today’s society, the use of soma to control negative feelings, the identification of happiness as the ultimate goal, however short-lived it might be, the caste system and the use of conditioning to create dedicated employees who are always happy and love their job, the importance of localization than the universe as a whole, and the development of technology and science for the foundations of the good life prevalent in a big way in the present society as well. It also suggests that in society, people take soma seriously, and are never
angry and do not really care about anything, and they go through the same monotonous tasks of feeling good daily, almost like they are being fed happiness in their daily diet. The end of Chapter 3 shows how Huxley believes that the students do not work for profit or gain, but only because they are told to work, they search for unlimited sex and soma rations that, gives them a perfect distraction from work "…there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a weekend, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon..." (Huxley 55-56) to describe people’s difficulty and controversy around the World State. It seems that soma is so effective a drug that it is hard to control it mainly because of its ability to distract. Power or authority is threatened mainly because of dissatisfaction, of those it defeats, so the World Controllers have eliminated dissatisfaction. The purpose of using the drugs for both populations is to satisfy each other. The majority of the people in the World State proceeds to use it for the same reason. People have problems and difficulties, and would do anything to overcome them, also to the point of addicting themselves with drugs. All of the characters, even the high authorities, truly believe in the distribution and consuming of soma. They also recommend its consumption to the local inhabitants to condition the minds of their citizens and emphasize that soma is necessary for the world. At the end of Chapter 17, the conversation between John and Mustapha Mond is that "And if ever, by some unlucky chance… Christianity without tears—that’s what soma is" (Huxley 237-238).
There are protagonists aplenty in this world, who try to convince others that unhappiness or discontentment is the root of all evil, all problems our society is facing today and that the one and the only solution is 'happiness', utter bliss, not even a trace of discomfort or discontent should exist. Even religion is not spared. In today's society, the human race is neither scared nor reluctant to take refuge in religion and use it for its own selfish means. The drug soma has been compared to a medicine referred to in ancient Hindu mythology. The aforementioned drug is a distorted version of 'amrit' mentioned in Hindu mythology, which is capable of curing any disease and is supposed to give one immortality. Instead of being used in formal religious ceremonies, it is used whenever a slightly unpleasant emotion appears. Whether it is soma or any other drug, they are used nowadays in our society as a source to create an artificial world, a make-believe atmosphere, an oasis of never-ending happiness, a pool of contentment driven by luxury, sex and anything materialistic. Anything negative, any hindrance to happiness is simply blackened out and blurred from one's vision. Soma, in reality, is little more than a narcotic drug used by the people, a tool for 'escapism', overdependence on it can
have adverse effects. In pursuit of happiness, stability, people tend to lose their moral values, ethics, their innate emotions, which can be a big loss to humanity. The drug soma symbolizes the influence of science and technology on society and the people living in it and their misuse in creating a hallucinated society, where people live at the mercy of machines and drugs. It is time people realize politicians are taking advantage of our ambition, our aspirations and making people dance at their own tunes, making people act according to their free will. One should take educated decisions and understand the perils of it in the long run and not look for the short-term gains. The truth is superficiality cannot exist forever, as it has no solid base. These are short-lived. We need to use our education and understand and respect the coexistence of 'the good and the bad', happiness and sadness' and take in stride whatever comes in our life. 'Every end is a new beginning'.