In A Brave New World, soma is a crucial and interesting part of the society. Soma, although widely used in the society, can be considered both beneficial and detrimental. On the one hand, as Bernard and John the Savage have said before, it creates a fabricated sense of happiness. Otherwise, people love soma because it brings them bliss and happiness taking small amounts of it regularly. I wanted to talk about the benefits and downsides of soma in this society.
First some background, soma is like a drug coming in small (usually half-gram) tablets. The characters often describe soma as something “delicious”. Lenina and Henry have taken soma alongside coffee. During the Ford service, they indulged in a “loving cup of strawberry ice-cream soma” which to be honest sounds pretty good. In these examples, soma is almost demonstrated to be like a dessert. In terms of its effect, every time anyone is feeling unhappy or discontent, they are encouraged to take some soma. “half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon”. Soma is so potent that it can take people on literal “vacations” and stifle any negative feelings. Like when Bernard said that “after two grammes of soma the joke seemed, for some reason, good”.
Soma is basically a highly potent drug. In A Brave New World’s society, there is no negative stigma or persecution that comes with the use of soma unlike the drug scene in the US. I wonder whether this openness to using soma makes people happier when they use it because they don’t have to worry about adverse consequences. This reminds me of a relatively new policy in Norway in which they decriminalized drug use. The government set up drug administering stations and even sent people home with manageable amounts of drugs. This led to a drastic decrease in crime, overdoses, and I would guess probably a higher satisfaction rate from those using the drugs as well. I wonder whether the openness to soma in this society is part of the reason soma is beneficial to the citizens. I think that the fact that people can choose to constantly stay in the euphoric state is largely beneficial for the society because it demotivates other modes of relieving negative emotions like anger and hate. This can help alleviate potential conflicts and keep everyone’s satisfaction relatively high. It could also be argued, however, that the constant use of soma can bring people to become desensitized to happiness. If people are constantly using soma to keep themselves in a euphoric state, people are going to crave more beyond the existing feeling of soma. What do you think? Is soma the ultimate solution to societies happiness or actually causing adverse consequences?
Soma probably isn't the way to create a utopia because personally I don't feel like BNW is a utopia. It's more like a society pretending to be one because everyone isn't truly happy, they're just manipulated to be. The same thing goes for soma, it's not really making them happy. I don't know if they can become desensitized to happiness because I don't see any evidence in the book but that just might be because they don't let anyone take enough to become desensitized. The amount of soma to take to do that might just be really big or maybe they designed soma to prevent that from happening. The only downside I saw to soma was that it can shorten your life if you take too much, like Linda, but if they don't see death as a bad thing it doesn't really seem to be a downside.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if everyone was constantly on soma, and on cloud 9 ,then everyone would essentially be robots. Sure it might get rid of most negative feelings, but I am afraid it also might get rid of what makes humans unique. For example if I go up to 2 people who are both on soma, what differentiates the 2, how do their personalities differ, and how would I tell? They would both probably act the same dreamy way due to soma.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the notion that soma is a drug that has just desensitized the society in BNW to happiness. Throughout the book, we see characters like Lenina take soma when they are in situations they are confused, or frustrated, by. Immediately we see them completely forget about the situation, until it comes up again in the future, leading them to take more soma. What is experienced by them doesn't exactly sound like happiness to me. It almost seems like a pause button. Everything stops, but it never gets dealt with. Without ever having to actually deal with any problems, how can someone truly know what happiness feels like; what solving your own problems that have been plauging you time and time again feels like?
ReplyDeleteCompared to other drugs, soma is definitely more appealing. I like your point that throughout BNW, Huxley uses descriptions that make soma sound pleasant. Strawberry-ice-cream soma would be a hit in our world, if it were real.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, though, I think soma just makes people sedate. It doesn't really create happiness. Rather, it suppresses negative feelings, regardless of whether those negative feelings are meaningful or would be better dealt with (as Ahmad points out). Drugs in general can make people feel good for a little while but it doesn't last, and the underlying problems don't go away. Soma, for all the hype about it having "no negative side-effects", is a hollow replacement for real happiness. (Plus, it makes people die sooner, so there's that.)
I think that soma can contribute to the happiness of a society but is not the big answer to it. In a world other than Brave New World, I can see the potential of soma becoming a problem rather than an asset. People could potentially become addicted to soma, much like Linda after she came back to 'society.'
ReplyDeleteI can see why so many people in this society are drawn to the benefits of soma. who wouldn't want a chance to instantly put themselves in a better mood? However, I also think there are some extreme downsides to using soma as much as they do in BNW. they are extremely dependent on the drug and I honestly don't know if anyone in their society could survive if they took it away. Overall, I would say that soma has an understandable appeal but ultimately it isn't a very solid solution.
ReplyDeleteWhile soma does seem like a fairly utopian depiction of drugs (though not without its downsides), I think that widespread use of it would produce an insincere society. Soma holidays would distance people from reality, and unless you were happy enough without soma, there would almost certainly be times when you would indulge in the drug, which would essentially make you into a different person. With that said, I think that I would probably take soma in a world that was desensitized to drugs. As artificial as soma happiness is, my brain would most likely be unable to process the difference. If there were no social stigmas or significant side effects, soma would be truly utopian for those that wouldn't be bothered by their loss of individuality/identity.
ReplyDeleteSoma has unarguably helped the society in Brave New World eradicate a lot of the discontent and unhappiness that everyone naturally feels every now and then, but I don't think that soma is the technique that would be used in a true utopian society since it creates a sort of "fake" happiness. I think a true utopian society would still allow people to feel moments of slight sadness because I think it's impossible to eliminate all unhappiness without turning to a method like soma.
ReplyDeleteI think that the problem with a policy that's goal is to de-stigmatize drug use is that unlike soma, real-world drugs have some serious negative side effects. There is a reason that people who get addicted to drugs often have their lives destroyed by it. If you can imagine that your happiness rides so heavily on something, and that thing is fairly expensive, you are going to be pouring your money into a hole. I feel like the problem with drugs in our world is not because people make other people feel bad for taking them. In my opinion, it's because drugs are often highly addictive, detrimental to your health, and can very quickly make you spend a whole lot of money. Even if soma were real, I would say that a society where happiness is controlled by something that can easily be taken away is one that is set up for an abusive, manipulative relationship between people with power (money, governmental status, etc) and the "common people." If happiness is reduced to a physical food item, I can't imagine the social problems that would follow. Our society is unbalanced enough as it is with money, which can only buy happiness to some extent. If happiness could literally be bought or sold, I would expect society to look like this: there is an elite that is always happy, and everyone else is either rarely happy, or is constantly being manipulated by the elite to get their half gram of happiness. So I would say that even without the negative side effects and dangers that make real-life drug use a bad idea, I would say that turning happiness into a commodity is not a good way to run society.
ReplyDeleteI think that the points you make about soma are very valid and interesting to contemplate. Ultimately, I have to agree with Kristine's argument about how, in the context of BNW, soma is a blessing that the World State's people rely on to maintain their contentment. And maybe for these people, that's best for the time being? However, I too am not confident that the drug would actually be meaningful in a true utopian society simply because it does not promote normal, healthy human emotions. Personally, I am terrified by the idea of soma. It feels too artificial and industrial for me to trust let alone rely on for my happiness.
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis on soma, and how BNW views it as a positive thing whilst we view drugs generally as a negative thing. Honestly, I don't think soma is good, even if the side effects are negative. I think people would feel better if they could achieve authentic, true happiness on their won, without the use of drugs. In general, I wouldn't go for medication or technology to fix my sadness, but rather if I can figure out why I'm sad and fix that on my own, its better. Plus, I think people should have the experience of feeling happy in their own lives naturally.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't take soma, as a matter of principle in regards to my human values. I'm not saying that external modulators of emotions are bad. Some people need them, in their pursuit of life. However, I think soma goes in the opposite direction. It's a blanket drug, ignoring need and subtleties, covering all of human experience in an empty high. I wouldn't water down my human emotions or experience for the sake of doing away with pain and suffering. For me, its tradeoff is too great a price to pay.
ReplyDeleteI think probably a big part of why it's so accepted is that the government literally encourages and glorifies it. I think what you said about the situation in Norway is super interesting, and I had never heard of that before. It seems a little different, because instead of being actively pushed on every person, drugs are just facilitated by the government. But still, I thikn it's a really good example of the government being a key player in the destigmatization of drugs. Going even further though, and you pretty much mentioned this, but soma really functions as a tool used by the world state to pacify and manage the society. THat's something that I found really interesting, although from an ethical standpoint it's pretty terrifying.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above comments. I strongly believe the government is just pushing people to take the drug to desensitize them. It seems like it's their way of distracting the people from realizing how twisted their society really is. Although it might seem ideal to take Soma because of the consequence-free high, I personally think it's kind of ethically wrong? I think it's better to find what makes you happy instead of taking a drug to forget about all your problems.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
I agree with your examination of soma, and how Brave New World views it in a positive light whereas our society view drugs generally in a bad light. Personally, I don't think BNW's use of soma is good, even if there are so few negative side effects. I think feeling authentic, true happiness on their would make people feel much better without the governments help or the use of drugs. Additionally, I think people should have the experience of feeling natural happiness in their own lives instead of just drug induced pleasure.
ReplyDeleteSoma seems to be a great tool to almost numb the citizens of the society to a point where they can’t think for themselves. It definitely helps the government maintain control of their society and keep everyone in check. I personally think that the excessive use of soma is the people of BNW’s answer to pain and sadness even though it doesn’t provide true happiness. Some induced happiness is the only thing that the people of this society know and it’s sad to see them all falling for this drug.
ReplyDeleteI like your points about how the consistent minor benefits of regular soma use lead to drawbacks emotionally. It seems like everyone is pretty machine-like in the range of emotions they express. They only show what they were programmed to, which is a mild happiness/apathy. It doesn't seem worth it to me to be apathetic in that way especially when it sacrifices things that are so important to the human experience, like strong emotions.
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand why the people of the World State don't take soma more often. I feel like the contrast between the feeling of taking soma and not taking soma would make not taking it feel really bad. And if there aren't really huge consequences of taking it, I feel like they should just take it 24/7.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think taking soma erases your identity. There's nothing wrong with having bad feelings in your life, its just part of being human. If you take that away, you lose a part of yourself. I think soma is ultimately a tool used to control society. If everyone is happy 24/7, they're not gonna rebel or stand up to the government. As such, I probably wouldn't take soma.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the question in the title: no, I would never take soma, and I don't think anybody else should either. Humans are special because of our brains, so it makes no sense to me to alter our brains on such a massive scale. In a world where mind altering drugs had no obvious negative side effects, I would still be against them. They take away the humanity of those who use them.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I would ever take soma. It's just too risky. The uncertainty of soma scares me. Emotions and feelings play a huge role in being a human. Taking away those two things honestly takes away our identities. I can't imagine a life without any genuine emotion. Great blog post Albert!
ReplyDeleteI don’t think I will ever try something like soma because in spite of the euphoric feeling it provides, you are incapable of thinking for yourself. And without independent thought process and questioning the status quo, human race will not progress. Sure it can be used for alleviating chronic pain or other medically essential needs, but using it on people as they did in BNW is definitely unethical.
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