In World State, every citizen is "decanted" in a hatchery. World State employs the technology of “social predestination” to achieve the three goals of its motto, “community, identity, stability.” referring to the significance of groups: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, and their specialised duties, and the subordination of the individual, to become another part of “ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines.” Such physical oppression is much more intense in World State than in One State, though similar elements of control are adopted, as Huxley humorously comments, “her surname was also Crowne. But as the two-thousand million inhabitants of the planet had only ten-thousand names between them, the co-incidence was not particularly surprising,” similar to Zamyatin's depiction of controlled names in order to promote collectivism. Such an idea is emphasised when we are introduced to Bernard Marx whose physical imperfections immediately link him to revolution not only to the reader, but also other characters. Despite this, however, there is no real relation between the people's names and their appearances. Instead, Huxley has presented a world in which the people are so identical that there is no need for conflict. Of course, conflict does occasionally occur, and they too have methods to combat this. Not only is exile given to those who cannot accept society, but even the occasional riots are prepared for, which is seen when John starts a riot over soma, which the police end by firing soma clouds and anaesthetic guns and put on the “synthetic anti-riot speech no 2 (medium strength)” which fills everyone with shame: “Why aren’t you all being happy and good together, at peace, at peace.” World State is prepared for such events taking place and is ready to repress any threat to Utopia. In both texts, physical oppression is essentially effective, though not entirely, and so other forms of oppression must be carried out, including psychological conditioning.
Both dystopian societies rely quite heavily on psychological oppression to achieve the goals of peace and stability. In One State, psychological conditioning is taken to extreme methods as in the vast majority of the population, all forms of emotions and feelings are denied. Love has been reduced to daily sexual activity in which people can choose their partners for a thirty-minute period. All ideas of love have been forgotten, and as I-330 sarcastically comments, “Here they loved just because, what an idiotic wasteful expense of human energy.” Similarly, the emotional attachments to death have been removed, as is expressed in the State Gazette that refers to the death of ten workers as statistically insignificant, “a third order infinitesimal”. Furthermore, when O-90 refuses to accept help from D-503, his feelings of guilt are unknown to him, and cannot be expressed as anything other than the motif of, "√-1," the representation of all things irrational in society. Indeed, the whole psychological system is based around forms of rational maths and science, with logic being the controlling device for all actions in existence. Similarly, nature, and the emotions it can provide have also been eliminated by One State. The Green Wall separates the technological world not only from the environment, but also from the Mephi, the underground subverters of the regime. “We isolated our perfect machine world from the irrational ugly world of trees, birds, and animals.” Of course, the effectiveness of such an action is questionable as the “sweet tasting” pollen continuously seeps over the wall, and, perhaps more importantly, the birds are in constant vision trying to penetrate the invisible barrier, a metaphor for the “wild freedom,” that represents the Mephi. The people are generally content with life and are forced into a stage where such oppression is not only accepted, but also craved. This is much the same case with World State, though its psychological conditioning appears more intense.
Huxley presents a world in which both adults and children are constantly manipulated by the propaganda of the State to be brought into psychological submission in which people are prevented from “feeling horrible emotions,” so that there is ultimately no suffering. Much the same as Zamyatin, the ideals of love are extremely skewed within society. The children indulge in “erotic games” and refer to having to wait for weeks for acceptance by the women as feeling “horrible,” and Lenina Crowne is chastised to engage in more sexual activity: "You ought to be a little more promiscuous," and fails to see John’s offer for marriage as love but rather as a sign to engage in sexual activity, and forces herself on him. Furthermore, like Zamyatin, Huxley notices the significance of separating the world of machines and that of the environment; “a love of nature keeps no factories busy”. The people are also fed propaganda, as they sleep, echoing the words, “we can’t do without anyone.” Huxley also explores how conditioning begins at a highly young age, sometimes even at birth, as opposed to Zamyatin’s exploration of a more general psychological oppression. Children are death trained and taught not to fear but rather marvel at death, as indeed they do when they see John’s mother dying yet merely comment on her distorted features, eliminating the painful emotions of grief and loss, and the spiritual significance of death. Perhaps most significantly, however, is the use of Soma, a form of oppression not explored by Zamyatin. The people are given soma as a form of sleeping drug which puts them into a blissful slumber where they dream of what they want. It is later described by Mond as “Christianity without tears,” and is Huxley’s parody of the total degradation of religion. Both societies rely heavily on psychological oppression for stability and control. Regardless of its effectiveness, however, there is still another necessary form of control adopted by both worlds, that of the adoption and adaptation of technology in society.
Technological achievement also controls the mechanics of World State and One State. In We, the fundamental principles of society are based around rationality and logic. Zamyatin satirises excess preoccupation with rationality and logic, as the citizens of the One State fail to realize aspects of nature that are not properly expressed mathematically. D-503 refers to his immediate reaction to I-330 as"(affecting) [them] as unpleasantly as an irresolvable irrational number." Indeed the presence of numbers is often mocking of society; D-503 notes the probability that he will share an auditorium with O-90 without reason, and the probability he determines is not even correct. Zamyatin explains basic human emotions in mathematical terms, objectifying the emotions to the point of denial. Happiness is expressed rationally, in which “bliss and envy are the numerator and denominator,” and even love is regarded as a mere “matter of technology.” The symbol of the square root of negative one extends throughout the novel as a motif. When first introduced to the concept, the narrator was distraught and screamed, “Take √-1 out of me,” frightened “because it was outside ratio.” It represents the fearsome aspects of nature that cannot be readily expressed rationally, and therefore do not fit into the One State’s ordered and logical perspective. Zamyatin satirises the One State’s feeble attempts to explain natural phenomena in the context of its ideology in much the same way that Huxley does.
In Brave New World, unethical science allows the authority to control elements formerly controlled through nature. The essence of its power lies particularly in the technological achievement of being able to control the biological constitution of its citizens on the scale of mass production. Because of such control, there is no need or room left in society for God or even morality. Indeed, soma is noted as having “all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects,” and the worship of God has been replaced with the worship of Ford, namely Henry Ford, who is in fact the basis for the history of their society. The people are so addicted to Soma that they cannot heed John’s call to “throw it all away, that horrible poison,” and can not take up his challenge, “do you like being slaves? Do you like being babies?… Don’t you want to be free and men?,” and can not even understand the concepts of which he speaks. Furthermore, the fact that “science is dangerous, we have to keep it most carefully chained,” emphasises the need to control it, as indeed it is with Mustapha Mond being personally responsible for overseeing any production or publication of works and the eradication of those which may stimulate rebellious thoughts. Through this form of oppression in both novels, the dangerous and uncontrollable nature of science unguided by ethics is presented, a view not really expressed by Zamyatin.
Both Brave New World and We express slightly different forms and reasons for oppression in society though present similar ends. The authors warn of a society in which the individual is lost to the collective, and, more worrisome, where people may not fight their oppression, but embrace it. Brave New World suggests that to be on guard against the threat, society must be wary of the oppression of pleasure, in which ecstasy allows adult society to descend to deep immaturity. We suggests that ideology must not allow society to objectify nature and deny morality and humanity. The overriding effect of oppression in both the World State and the One State is the loss of individuality; the essence of individualism is a problem to the power structures of both societies.
