...Introduction A t this point in our social history we are experiencing trends in marketing and consumerism that no cultural phenomena in antiquity has prepared us for. Each day between the hours of waking and sleeping we are exposed to 3000 – 5000 marketing messages across every shape and flavour of media mankind has been able to devise in good conscience (Story 2007). Every niche, of every segment, of every market, for every product, has a multitude of competitors vying for space of mind, seeking to differentiate, remind, inform, or persuade themselves into our lives and shopping trollies (Copley 2004). This clutter, consternation, and competition has taken the humble consumer transaction to be something more akin to game theory, and contemporary marketing strategy has become a battle of minds and wills (Lee, Broderick, and Chamberlain 2007). Each new generation of consumer finds themselves delivered deeper into an environment of increasing media and message saturation. But, with every generational cycle a further sophistication in the adaptive discretionary filtering system is created in order for these individuals to preserve some degree of highly guarded ‘psychic space’, and as such ‘marketing professionals are keenly aware of the obstacles posed by both information-processing limitations and viewer opposition’ (Rumbo 2002). ‘The multiplicity of advertising mes¬sages to which each consumer is exposed dictates that advertisers place a lofty premium on the much-coveted...
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...In the novel A Brave New World the future society is considered a consumer society, but if you think about it our society mirrors that very closely. Consumerism started to grow in our country around the 1920s when big business was booming. In our society people always buy something newer than its previous model when it comes out; people also generally seem to consume more and more every day. Are we really happy with this kind of society, or are we digging ourselves deeper into a dark hole. This, honestly, could be affecting people in a bad way psychologically, even though many seem happy on the outside. It is the same thing in A Brave New World because they convince people to believe something is good or bad so they will buy a product or never touch it. In our society today people are affected by the mass production of consumer products. People shop day and night just to be able to show that they always have the newer stuff. Every time a new iPhone comes out people with perfectly good iPhones buy the new one just to buy it....
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...Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” in the Contemporary Context As the dominant intelligent being on earth, the human society has evolved to increasingly sophisticated yet convenience-oriented faction of the earth’s population. The various challenges that faced ancient man have been decimated significantly by the modern progresses. These developments are somewhere along the estimations of Huxley in his book “Brave New World” despite its futuristic setting, 600 years from now. The similarity of his fictional society to the current world is worryingly accurate, let alone the concerns that he claims to plague the society at the time. Furthermore, the increasingly liberal nature of the modern society is akin to that of the future described by Huxley,...
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...these feelings, Huxley wrote one of his best works, Brave New World, in 1931. Brave New World is a dystopian novel that takes place in a futuristic setting where extensive improvements to science and technology has created a world that is foreign to all readers. Throughout Huxley’s adult life, his interpretations of Henry Ford and the...
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...place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives”. Brave New World and The Matrix both take place in scientifically advanced, futuristic, and horribly imperfect worlds that strip people of human individuality. In Brave New World, the World State controls every aspect of human life, all psychological, economic, and social factors. The world that Huxley has created is a place where free thinking has never been a thought, and the freedom to choose can never be chosen. In the Matrix, a technological evolution creates artificial intelligence, that views humanity as a virus that needs to be eliminated. In the movies, people are “programed” before they are born so they can be controlled. The worlds of The Matrix and Brave New World both revolve around societies that are scientifically advanced and controlling of all aspects of human life. The World State system in Brave New World is centered around consumerism. In the novel, society modifies human behaviors so that people will want to consume goods and spend as much money as possible. They are brainwashed to think that they live in the perfect system because they don’t feel pain, discomfort, or recognize injustice but their incomprehensible truth is they don’t live real life. (Read this next sentence dramatically) They're all living a lie because they don’t got no freedom! The person who controls this society is called “The Director”. The citizens of the World State are separated into 5 groups Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Gammas...
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...Brave New World: Methods of control Tiffany Yeung All around the world, there are different figures of authority with different methods of control in order to prevent chaos from rising within the society. “Brave New World”, is a dystopian novel written by Aldous Huxley and in the brave new world society, we witness a futuristic approach to a variety of methods of control in order to maintain stability. In our society today, many countries use fear as a way to manipulate and to control, however in the world state, they take on a different approach and use different methods to suppress rebellion. The world state uses scientific development and technological advances to manipulate human behaviour into making the citizens happy with their predestined roles. Specifically, the use of conditioning, the controlled reproduction and medical labs, and the use of soma is all used as different factors in order to manipulate the citizens and create a society based on science and technology, consumerism and happiness. By having the citizens being manipulated to enjoy their lives and be happy, there is little room for rebellion resulting in maintained stability and order for the world state. The use of classical conditioning is thoroughly described and used in the book and is a major factor that contributes to the manipulation of the citizens. This process was first discovered when a young boy recited an entire broadcast that was played during his sleep...
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...Brainwashing in Brave New World In today’s twenty-first century society, citizens appear to be fairly content with life. They have a materialistic mindset and possesses a false faith in the government. In his novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley creates a world with a hidden uncanny resemblance to today’s society. The motif of Brainwashing is used by the government in several forms throughout the read, such as drugs, hypnotism and physical torture, to manipulate the public. The World State in the novel uses drugs and alcohol to control the human mind. For example they compare drunkenness to happiness when Huxley tells us, “There was a thing called heaven, but all the same they drink enormous amounts of alcohol” (Huxley 173). The government...
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...In Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, a dystopian society clouds the minds of its inhabitants. In fact, the entire novel is bustling with characters who are eager to follow the rules of the society because they are forever afraid of the repercussions they would encounter if they do not. This eagerness has gone to the extreme to the point where the individuals are following rules out of lack of knowledge of the truly moral options that are not provided. In dystopian societies like the one in this novel, the detrimental effects of escapism can be widely discussed to show the impact the rules have on the people and eventually the impact the people have on the rules. Once one looks deeper into the complex hierarchy and mechanisms of such a...
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...V Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World creates an illusion of a society in which civilians believe they are truly happy. The government uses different methods to alter the mindset of the people in the novel. By removing specific attributes from people’s lives, such as individuality, artistic representation and self-awareness; Huxley demonstrates the psychological hold the government has on civilization. By offering comfort whilst removing individuality it was a perfect tool that the government took advantage of in order to distract the population. Brave New World takes place in a utopian society. In this society it is imperative that the government instills a system in which individuality is nonexistent and the undoing of mother nature must occur. The implementation of these conditions is what is perceived to give people a sense of a “happily ever after” life. This Is done to maintain a sense of stability in society. Stability is the main goal for the leaders in the society, if everybody is the same and stability is maintained it is easier for people to be controlled. In the novel Watts states “…. tragedy does not Daramola 2 arise from...
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...World War One: It was not one single event that created the wild, society-challenging flappers, but many things in the beginning of the nineteenth century that all added up on one another. One of the biggest steps into creating flappers was World War One. Women began to get a taste of independence during World War One, when they had to make lifestyle changes to make up for the absence of men at home. They joined the workforce.Now women got a taste of what independence was like, since they didn’t have men around anymore to lean on or, in some cases, hold them back. This lead to women needing to make more changes to adapt; Women couldn’t have long hair and long skirts like they did for years before. Women then realized the convenience and practicality...
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...Palahniuk’s other works and placed him in the cannon of Post-modern American fiction. It is the issues of modern masculinity that grasps critics’ attention more so than any other Palahniuk themes. It is very apparent that masculinity has changed as a natural progression of modernisation. This dissertation will analyse masculinity as it is depicted in Palahniuk’s writings and explore Palahniuk’s intentions and beliefs. I will interpret the responses of select critics in order to gain some understanding of what Palahniuk deems to be the ideal model of masculinity in the modern world, beneath his post-modern twists, transgressive characterization and vecernal style. This discussion will attempt to uncover what Palahniuk portrays as the cause of emasculation, if anything at all. To begin I will discuss the excess of recent decades and how it has effected men’s lifestyle, in reference to money, media, consumerism and access to information. Following on from this I will discuss Palahniuk’s exploration of sex and sexuality in order to gain...
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...Globalization is the buzzword in the contemporary world. Broadly speaking, the term ‘globalization’ means integration of economies and societies through cross country flows of information, ideas, technologies, goods, services, capital, finance and people. Cross border integration can have several dimensions – cultural, social, political and economic. In fact, cultural and social integration even more than economic integration. The focus of this paper is to study the impact of globalization on economic, social and cultural fabric of India. Globalization has made countries to realize that nations can no longer be cocooned in their own cultural or economic nests but invariably be part of the larger picture which takes into account the competencies, interests and the dependencies of economies world -wide. The zeal of globalization has even forced Governments to be tuned to the merits of a Global economy. In Economics we have views on pro-globalization by Jagdish Bhagwati etc. who build on the economic notion that free trade helps everybody and lift the poor out of poverty, while we have the anti-globalization views by the likes of Vandana Shiva, Arundhati Roy, etc.,who see globalization as a way for multinational corporationss and multilateral institutions (World Bank, IMF) to change the rules all over the world to ensure better markets for the rich countries. India opened up its economy in the early nineties following a major crisis of foreign exchange crunch that dragged the economy...
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...Vietnam War the U.S. forces were made up of draftees, whose average age was 19 years old. They were inexperienced and unwilling to fight; they would spend about a year in Vietnam and then return home. During the war over 200,000 were killed. Vietnam went from a major exporter of rice; to a country that couldn’t feed itself. Large areas of countryside were ruined. Many traps were left, and still are there in many cases (History.com/Vietnam War). Staggering influence on one country’s culture is no more evident than in America’s involvement upon entering the war the United States government were convinced and assured the public of its confidence in very quick and consequences free resolution to their problem on the other side of the world (Brickley, John 2009). What it failed to predict which later was to prove crucial was the blow back that the war would have on the nation itself. The extent to which a super power can be influenced by a smaller struggling and weapon lacking society has never been more evident and recorded in the America-Vietnamese case. The American culture has been shaken to...
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...for people to protest the bad effects. So, controversies rage over the environmental, economic and social consequences of globalization. But there is another domain of globalization, that of culture and identity, which is just as controversial and even more divisive because it engages ordinary people, not just economists, government officials and political activists. Globalization has increased contacts between people and their values, ideas and ways of life in unprecedented ways. People are travelling more frequently and more widely. Television now reaches families in the deepest rural areas of China. From Brazilian music in Tokyo to African films in Bangkok, to Shakespeare in Croatia, to books on the history of the Arab world in Moscow, to the CNN world news in Amman, people revel in the diversity of the age of globalization. American coffeehouse chain Starbucks has begun selling its espresso and food items to ever-increasing number of countries and this way spreading American food habits. It is the first time in human history that virtually every individual at every level of society consciously or unconsciously feels the impact of globalization. He finds it in the media, tastes it in his food and senses it in the goods that he buys. At the same time, it generates resentment and fear that his traditional culture and identity are in danger. Before we proceed further, we must keep in mind that “Culture is not static; it grows out of a systematically encouraged reverence for selected...
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...Is childhood disappearing? There have been many studies and research put into the question ‘is childhood disappearing’ but first lets define what childhood actually is... childhood is considered to be the time in which a person is a child or too young to be considered an adult, this time in most cultures is 0-12 years old. Many sociologists believe that childhood is rapidly disappearing, for example Phillip Aries was a historian who argued that in the middle ages childhood didn’t exist. In the middle ages things were a lot different, children were a lot different and besides from size there was little defining children from adults. There is many sources such as paintings which show children to not only be dressed as adults, but engaging in adult behaviour such as drinking and attending brothels. Aries discovered that children were sent to work, just like adults as soon as they were capable of doing so. Law also made very little distinction between children and adults, with children being allowed to participate in adult activities because they were just seen as ‘mini’ and then sharing the same burden as adults when it came to punishments. At this time Phillip Aries believe that childhood didn’t exist. In 1880 the compulsory education act came into procedure in England and Wales, this created a big turn over in the history of childhood. It became compulsory for children to go to school, meaning they couldn’t work. Before this law came into action children were seen to be...
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