I just finished reading Aldus Huxley’s “Brave New World.” (I’ll change the graphic in the sidebar today, so you’ll be up to speed with my reading.) One of the disturbing aspects of the world Huxley creates is the sexual behavior of the children.
You read that right.
From early childhood, the people in Huxley’s world are encouraged to engage in sex. Here’s an excerpt from Chapter Three:
OUTSIDE, in the garden, it was playtime. Naked in the warm June sunshine, six or seven hundred little boys and girls were running with shrill yells over the lawns, or playing ball games, or squatting silently in twos and threes among the flowering shrubs. The roses were in bloom, two nightingales soliloquized in the boskage, a cuckoo was just going out of tune among the lime trees. The air was drowsy with the murmur of bees and helicopters.
…”That’s a charming little group,” he said, pointing.
In a little grassy bay between tall clumps of Mediterranean heather, two children, a little boy of about seven and a little girl who might have been a year older, were playing, very gravely and with all the focussed attention of scientists intent on a labour of discovery, a rudimentary sexual game.
“Charming, charming!” the D.H.C. repeated sentimentally.
“Charming,” the boys politely agreed. But their smile was rather patronizing. They had put aside similar childish amusements too recently to be able to watch them now without a touch of contempt. Charming? but it was just a pair of kids fooling about; that was all. Just kids.
“I always think,” the Director was continuing in the same rather maudlin tone, when he was interrupted by a loud boo-hooing.
From a neighbouring shrubbery emerged a nurse, leading by the hand a small boy, who howled as he went. An anxious-looking little girl trotted at her heels.
“What’s the matter?” asked the Director.
The nurse shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing much,” she answered. “It’s just that this little boy seems rather reluctant to join in the ordinary erotic play. I’d noticed it once or twice before. And now again to-day. He started yelling just now …”
“Honestly,” put in the anxious-looking little girl, “I didn’t mean to hurt him or anything. Honestly.”
“Of course you didn’t, dear,” said the nurse reassuringly. “And so,” she went on, turning back to the Director, “I’m taking him in to see the Assistant Superintendent of Psychology. Just to see if anything’s at all abnormal.”
“Quite right,” said the Director. “Take him in. You stay here, little girl,” he added, as the nurse moved away with her still howling charge. “What’s your name?”
“Polly Trotsky.”
“And a very good name too,” said the Director. “Run away now and see if you can find some other little boy to play with.”
The child scampered off into the bushes and was lost to sight.
Why in the world would Huxley write about children being encouraged to have sex? Here’s one opinion:
The interplay between sexuality and emotions is complex. Huxley realized that monogamy, sex, and family ties generate most human emotions. Thus, the Utopian society is based on promiscuity and baby factories. The goal is to eradicate emotions by replacing them with pure sexual desire and nothing else. This, combined with the baby factories, destroys family life and monogamous relationships. Emotions are therefore directed mostly by the state, which is necessary for social control and stability. It is interesting to note that the exact opposite technique was used by George Orwell in 1984. Orwell banned sexual relationships in order to eliminate dangerous emotions that might go against the state.
However, since both authors realized that sexual emotions destabilize society, each technique achivies the identical goal: elimination of sexual emotions.
It’s interesting, especially when you finish reading a book like “Brave New World” and find something like this at The Other McCain:
Extra small condoms for boys as young as 12 could soon be on our shelves.
The Hotshot condoms are going on sale in Switzerland after research found that not enough 12 to 14-year-old boys were having protected sex.
Yes, that does say “not enough 12 to 14-year-old boys were having protected sex.” But socialist Switzerland isn’t the only country with this problem. It seems the late Great Britain needs extra small condoms also:
A spokesman said the UK would be ‘top priority’ if the company expanded abroad, considering it had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe.
Nysse Norballe said: ‘At the moment we are only producing the Hotshot in Switzerland.
‘But the UK is certainly a very attractive market since there is a very high rate of underage conception.’
I’m not saying that Switzerland and the late Great Britain are using Huxley’s book as a how-to guide. That would be ridiculous considering how well they are already using “1984.” I just think it’s interesting that our values have broken down so much that there is actually a market for pre-teen rubbers.
Did I say “interesting?” I meant “sad.” Perhaps if parents were a little less focused on other things, they could focus on their children and educate them about morals and sex. Instead they are being trained by society that sex is just fun and with the right equipment, totally safe.
It’s almost like they are working towards the “elimination of sexual emotions.”
