The dystopian story that is Brave New World, provides an interesting
narrative on a future society that resembles nothing like our own. One key
aspect of BNW’s society is the excessive use of soma among its many
inhabitants. Soma seems to provide an effect like that of many modern recreational
drugs such as marijuana and opium, but it doesn’t come with any of the harmful
effects. Furthermore, the World State encourages the use of soma as it helps the
control people’s possible discontent by nulling their senses. What would happen
if a drug like soma had become available to us? What would our society do in
response and how widespread would it become?
The closest thing that we probably have to soma is either
opium or marijuana. While each of these drugs have very widespread use, they
carry detrimental health effects which is why their use is frowned upon by
society. Imagine a world where either of these drugs provided its effects
without damaging an individual’s health. The most obvious difference would be
that the use of the drug would not be frowned upon by the public to the extent
that these drugs are today. However, I can’t see that any encouragement to
their use either as it makes individuals less self-aware and they’ll lack the
ability to think for themselves as individuals today do. However, for drugs as
addicting as the ones mentioned above. I don’t think that the public would put
up that much resistance to it, especially if it has no health drawbacks. For
most, it would probably be too much to give up resulting in very widespread
use.
In
addition to soma’s effect on the public, we must consider how a modern
government might use it. In BNW, soma is used to control the
population by nulling their ability to think for themselves. In addition, the World
State is the supplier of soma and because of its addictive nature, the
population in BNW has developed a positive relationship with the government
through soma. Today, I can easily see a situation where the use of a drug like
soma would be encouraged by the government as a method to help consolidate control
over the population, especially in more authoritarian regimes. In history, many
of the revolutions have occurred primarily because of the general public’s
discontent with the governing body. If the governing bodies across the world
could use something like soma to get rid of this discontent and keep the public
in a dream like fantasy land, then it would much easier for them to gain power
and evolve into the World State that we see in BNW.
What do you think our world would be like if we had a
drug like soma?
-Krishna
You mentioned how governments could possibly use soma to keep the public content and rid people of conflict. Initially, I thought that this would be a good idea because who doesn't like being in a euphoric, happy state, but it does open doors for potential abuse. Imagine a scenario where the government is exploiting all of its citizens for resources and prosperity and any discontent is quelled with soma. You could create a mindless working class that is constantly harvesting resources and the people implementing the soma would reap all of the benefits. It does seem to be troubling. As a final thought, would this last scenario I outlined really be dystopic? Everyone is happy whether that be from material wealth or soma-induced euphoria.
ReplyDeleteI think that if our world had soma, people would be encouraged to take it. The government would just do whatever they wanted to the general population, and no one would stop them because they're all in a euphoric state of happiness induced by some drug. I also think that society would cease to progress since no one would be trying to change the world for the better. It would be a really, really dark place.
ReplyDeleteIf our world had soma, society as we know it would self-destruct and disappear. If all citizens are in state of mindless euphoria they are no longer productive members of society and all progress will come to a screeching halt. There will no longer be philosophers, writers, and engineers instead there will be an unskilled population willing to do nothing to help each other. Our world would most likely become a BNW.
ReplyDeleteI think even if there were very few drawbacks or no drawbacks there still would be social stigma surrounding Soma. Tons of things carry social stigma in our society despite not really being bad, and i feel like there would be a strong push back against Soma because it would have a drawback, it would be reducing citizens to mindless addicts looking for a fix.
ReplyDeleteI think the point of Brave New World is that parts of the World State are indeed supposed to resemble our world and spook us into changing our ways according to what Huxley points out. I think our world with soma could resemble the World State especially in authoritarian regimes. But the World State differs from our world in that they already have infrastructure in place to make sure everything keeps running and productivity stays high. If soma usage gets to the point where productivity drastically slows down, I have to imagine that government will try to crack down on soma usage, just to keep the trains running on time and stuff.
ReplyDeleteOur modern world already has many addictions/distractions, which includes drugs. I would argue that there is already something similar to soma in our society today. What do you think about the relationship between soma and video games? Personally, whenever I play video games, someone needs to help me stop playing. Even scarier, what if the government used video games to control us? I just don't see why soma needs to be in the form of a drug. Great post Krishna!
ReplyDeleteSoma scares me so much. there are certainly analogies to opoids and pain killers but the thought of society regulating every emotion with soma is so disturbing. it seems to take away the humanity of thought like bernard said. But that is my personal view. maybe one day soma will exist!
ReplyDeleteBased on the current situation of our world in the context of opioid crisis and other drug addiction problems, I think if Soma were available in our world, it will be used heavily. This can adversely affect the productivity of our society. It can be used for treating chronic pain by responsible dispensation by qualified medical professionals, but any other use of Soma will go out of hand pretty quickly. I also think that the politicians in our world can easily provide soma for public consumption to suppress dissenting voices. I think our world has enough drug related problems already.
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