There's A Fine Line between Uptopia and The Destruction of Humanity

What an interesting read so far!! So many things so discuss, so where shall I start?

I think I'm going to point out something that really caught my attention. It doesn't seem to make much of a sense of importance, but it made me stop and think. When Henry and Lenina are out dancing with the crowd, they are dancing to a 5/4 beat, a 5-step. For anyone who plays music, you know it is sort of an uncomfortable feel for music. Certainly, it isn't seen in anything contempoary, and I imagine it would be awfully hard to dance to.

What does this mean? I cannot say for certain. However, that idiosyncracy of the society just seems to further alienate it from what we, as readers, know to be true humanity. It highlights just how far gone the people have left. So, with that thought for you to ponder, I'm gonna move on to the body of my blog, and what I wanted to talk about.

This book, to me, seems to be both the polar opposite and the twin of 1984.
It seems impossible for me to separte the similarities and differences. For, the very thing that makes them similar is often what makes them different. (I know, doesn't seem to make much sense huh?)

Both societies have a community motto: War is Peace, Slavery is Freedom, Ignorance is Strength and: "Community, Identity, Stability."

Each society's mantra guides the people, and allow them to accept the obvious absense of humanity. The main difference I can see in Brave New World is that, as conditioned human beings from birth, even the leaders see no fault with the system. Truly, there is no one in power who does not see any merit in the "old" way of doing things. And then, we find ourselves full circle with 1984 again. The hope lies in the proles, or in this case, those on the reservations. People who are still giving birth naturally, who have mothers and fathers and monogamy. Does anyone there see the wrongness of their opressors? Who knows. But if humanity is to be found again, it would be there, where it still exists.

In the society of Brave New World, instead of everyone being the same, everyone is forced to be one specific thing. Where 1984 is the effective combination of discourses, Brave New World is the complete isolation of discourses. In relation to our world today, it provides a very real possibility if we cater too much to differences.

Both disuptopia scenarios provide an accurate example of how the discourse situation can go very wrong. If we try to make everyone be the same thing, we will end up under the controlling thumb of Big Brother. If we separate too much, we will become like the citizens of the Brave New World, "All conditioning aim[ing[ at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny." INESCAPABLE. How casually the captives of a caste society can toss that word about. "Everyone belongs to everyone else," and no one seems to have a problem with being expected to be a certain person.

So, how does that apply to the discourse quandary? Let's look at one position first:

As we've seen in standarized tests, they are not perfect. Experience often shapes the perception with which one interprets situations in a work of literature. So, someone from one discourse may view the same question differently than someone from another. However, how far do we go to make it "fair" for everyone? Should we make separate tests for them? Allow multiple answers to be right? Different classes? Schools? Cities? How far can we take this separation.

In the end, no discourse can be called "wrong," but it can very well be wrong for a situation. Schools tests are designed for kids who want to go to college (as we hope most kids want). Therefore, it is essential that we immerse them in an academic discourse, so that they don't FALL FLAT ON THEIR FACES in coligiate world. However, does that mean we should stamp out any attempt of living within different discourses? Of course not.

Subjects, particularly English, are subjective. (thank goodness for essays with a human grader eh?) Teachers and students and people in general are, or at least should be, aware of the differences in each other. Should you fail a kid for a different perception? No. Should you give them an A and let them slide through on what THEY think is right? No.

School has a specific job. We need to be taught to take our primary discourse and be able to modify it work in many different settings, particularly higher academic or professional ones. And THAT is the what the world should be aiming for. The coexistence of all the discourses. The ability to be flexible. The ability to switch between discourses. Just like America is a melting pot of cultures.

As I said in an earlier blog, this UTOPIA we all seem to be instinctivly searching for cannot be found on earth. Humanity is too corrupt. However, that being said, DISutopias are a scary and possible outcome. Now we, as humans, have to find the balance.


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(Today's blog was brought to you by: A Very Potter Musical
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