How do we preserve our humanity in a world that is becoming more and more preprogrammed and insensitive?
"Soma is always there to calm anger, to help you make up with your enemies, and to help you be patient. This used to be possible only through great strength of will and after years of character building. Today, you swallow two or three tiny pills and that does it!" (A. Huxley, Brave New World)
Nina Karlström - 27.09.2019 @ 16:42
How do we preserve our humanity in a world that is becoming more and more preprogrammed and insensitive?
by Tímea Karmacsi and Ágnes Dancs, DNG Budapest/ Hungary
Nowadays it is a really big problem that people only care about themselves, about their electronic devices and unimportant things. We think that the book „The Giver” highlights the most important things in our lives and how to keep our humanity and what truly matters like love, emotions, memories, human relations and experiences.
„The Giver” from Lois Lowry is about a world in which people live in perfect harmony without drugs, force and unfairness. This sounds good, but they don’t remember anything from the past, and they don’t have any memories and emotions. So, they live without humanity.
In that world all of them have a duty and they have to perform only that, so they live a really monotone life. The protagonist is a boy, Jonas, who was chosen to be the successor of the giver, who guards all of the memories from the past. His duty is to keep the memories and pay attention that all of the bad historical events (wars, hunger, massacres, etc.) won’t repeat in the present. Then Jonas realizes that this world without memories, emotions and good things (music, dance, colours, joy) is so insensate and monotonous. After that he decides to bring the memories back to the people, because in the present they live just like robots.
An artificial world is also represented in the book „Brave new world” by Aldous Huxley. The most important things in the society presented in the book are not things such as family, love, or success but the mass manufacturing of human lives and setting up a caste system, which is the most significant aspect of the society. Not only is the lowest caste produced to live a life of slavery, but they are expected to enjoy this lifestyle. They are pleased from every point of view, especially because they have constant access to soma which makes them feel good.
We can ask ourselves if it is worth living in such an artificial world, where everything is „perfect” and highly advanced. Is it worth it to give up our human virtues and our humanity for a world like this?
We think that these books make us think of why people should pay attention to not getting under the influence of the outside world and thus keeping our humanity.
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Ágnes Dancs - 14.11.2019 @ 21:35
I really liked your article. I definitely share your point of view that we have to preserve our humanity. Personally, I think always being perfect and balanced became very important in our society. Still, we also have to be able to be angry and to deal with difficult situations or enemies. In addition, dealing with problems and enemies forms our character and living in an artificial world is probably very monotone and boring.
Moreover, I think if you don't know any harm, like unfairness and force, you would never appreciate the good things in your life.
The book "The Giver" sounds very exciting and worth reading.
Charlotte Wittlich - 03.12.2019 @ 16:04
Hi Tímea and Ágnes!
Thank you for writing this article because i think it touches a really important subject most people shrug off. It's frightening how most people place e.g. their phone over relationship with others or how they seem not to notice that the person next to them needs help. The books you mentioned, from my point of view, are very closely related to the subject. I love “The Giver”. I’ve watched it so many times, I know some passages heart! I've also read the books, but to me, the movie is one of those rare productions which have become better than the books they're based on. I especially like it that all the people see the world black and white whereas Jonas sees it in colour. I think it symbolizes life drained from emotions and memories.
Another sci-fi book which was one of my favorites when I was younger was “The Hunger Games” which presented to you a society which was divided into twelve districts ruled by people from the capitol. The people from this ostentatious city were used to luxury and superabundance. They were self-centered and sure of themselves being superior to the inhabitants of the districts, they almost seemed inhuman! I think similar beliefs are a threat to humanity, and definitely a problem we need to deal with.
Marianna Gawron - 27.12.2019 @ 15:51
I agree with the opinion that society in the novel "Brave New World" has lost a part of their humanity. They don't see the wrong in poisoning embryos to condition people to become the lowest class or in the fact that they are taking pills to feel happy. As Charlotte wrote in the comment above- soma helps those people to get rid of such feelings as anger, that are unaccepted by society, to fit in the social norms. The people who notice that are Bernard and John- who don't quite belong there, those phenomena disturb them. I haven’t had a chance to read “The Giver”, though it sounds like an interesting example for that topic. Memories and stories from the past definitely make us more humane. They give us a chance to understand other people better. I think that the "Harry Potter" book series introduced us to one of the most interesting visions of sharing memories- through a Pensieve. It allows Snape to show his memories to Harry in the hope that he might understand his behaviour towards him and perhaps forgive him.
Martyna Kołek - 11.01.2020 @ 11:12