What makes a person?
What makes a being?Will using any less than the fullest capacity of one's mind diminish his role and as a human being? What if your capacity was drastically less than others? Does that make you less of a truthful individual? If you are less of a truthful individual, are u then likely to be a perpetrator of falsehood?
What makes a person? Is it judged by his capacity to believe?
" 'Because their world is not the same as Othello's world.You can't make flivvers without steel- and you cant make tragedies without social instability...Expecting Deltas to know what liberty is! And now expecting them to understand Othello! My good boy!'
The savage was silent for a little. 'All the same,' he insisted obstinately, 'Othello's good, Othello's better than those feelies.'
'Of course it is,' the Controller agreed. 'But that's the price we have to pay for stability. You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We've sacrificed high art. We have feelies and the scent organ instead.'
'But they don't mean anything.' 'They mean themselves, they mean a lot of agreeable sensations to the audience.'
'But they're....they're told by an idiot.'
The controller laughed. 'You're not being very polite to your friend, Mr Watson. One of our most distinguished Emotional Engineers (philosopher, belief creator, sect engineer, denomination advocate)...'
'But he's right,' said Helmholtz gloomily. 'Because it is idiotic. Writing when there's nothing to say...'
'Precisely. But that requires the most enormous ingenuity. You're making flivvers out of the absolute minimum of steel- works of art out of practically nothing but pure sensation.'
The Savage shook his head. 'It all seems to me quite horrible.'
'Of course it does. Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with over-compensation for misery. And of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour that a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.' ...
'I was wondering,' said the Savage, 'why you had them at all- seeing that you can get whatever you want out of those bottles. Why don't you make everybody an Alpha Double Plus while you're at it?'
Mustapha Mond laughed. 'Because we have no wish to have our throats cut,' he answered. 'We believe in happiness and stability. A society of Alphas couldn't fail to be unstable and miserable. Imagine a factory staffed by Alphas- that is to say by separate and unrelated individuals of good heredity and conditioned so as to be capable (within limits) of making free choice and assuming responsibilities. Imagine it!' he repeated. The Savage tried to imagine it, not very successfully.
'It's an absurdity. An Alpha-decanted, Alpha-conditioned man would go mad if he had to do Epsilon Semi-Moron work- go mad, or start smashing things up. Alphas can be completely socialized- but only on condition that you make them do Alpha work. Only an Epsilon can be expected to make Epsilon sacrifices, for the good reason that for him they aren't sacrifices; they're the line of least resistance' " said Mustafa Mond.
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
What makes a person? What is 'within limits'? Who controls the limits? Are you any less of a person if you seek less for truth? And I've only tried to deal with capacity....let a lone consciousness....or deliberate ignorance..
posted by gneh-snah @ 6:11 AM
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