Another value at the heart of Brave New World is consumerism- the gratification of desires or appetites. This is a world that suppresses initiative and everything we hold sacred in place for consumer values. If consumption is ‘happiness’, Mond refers to the other value, therefore stability. From Mond’s point of view, ‘Happiness and stability depend on each other’. This is economic stability but emotional, social, psychological stability are created through economic consumption.
There are four main areas that Mond feels worth sacrificing in place for stability. The first things are feelings, passions, commitments, relationships. This is because mothers, fathers, children all produce emotional instability, strife, unhappiness as well great highs in life. Mond says ‘The strength of feeling is dangerous to society’, this is because feeling is an arrested impulse and anyone could do anything.
Secondly, equality. Mond makes it very clear that stability depends on inequality. ‘A society of alphas couldn’t fail to be unstable and miserable’. Their society needs lower castes to do lower castes jobs and likewise for upper castes otherwise, people would rebel, want more freedom, it would be chaos for after all, the world state’s motto is ‘Community, Identity, Stability’.
Thirdly, truth. In Brave New World happiness and truth are different and almost opposites. ‘Science has to be suppressed’. In science, if you are on the search of happiness, you cannot commit to truth at the same time. If you search for the truth it changes things, causing instability. Authority and conventional wisdom contribute to stability but in science you can rock authority.
Finally, art. Mond sees this as not relevant to their society. It is not consumerism and it comes from feelings and passions. He says, ‘You’ve got to chose between happiness and what people used to high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art. We have the feelies and the scent organ instead.’
To Mustapha Mond, his points are valid, if applied to his own society. They create an ideal utopia where ‘everyone is happy’ and essentially form the basis of Brave New World. However, to us the idea of this society is both scary and weird in light of today’s recent scientific advances.
In conclusion, I don’t think that there is a winner of the debate between Mustapha Mond and John. In the end Mustapha Mond chooses civilisation after nearly being exiled as a young man and John chooses not civilisation but the way in which he lived before. They were both given a glimpse of another life to what they had, only to prefer what they were used to and after consideration liked better.
