Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Happiness Book Review)

brave-new-world-by-aldous-huxley

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, in a dystopian novel written in 1932 and made into a series in 2020, where the protagonist, Bernard Marx, visits a society where everyone is happy. This happiness is brought about by a happiness-producing drug called Soma. This leads to Bernard becoming vocal voice about why society based on ideals that happiness can’t and will not last. 

For example, Bernard describes this happy society as empty, without open-mindedness, and freewill. There, people are overly optimistic about negative things like death. Respectfully, people are not enjoying the benefits of negative emotions like jealousy, inability to challenge the status quo, especially when it is not right, and are unable to feel negativity, especially when it is called for, such as during hard times, in life-threatening situations and death. 

Brave New World vs Current World

Certainly, Huxley’s book was written before we knew about happiness. Still, this story is an excellent metaphor for what people today think about happiness.

Today we are living in a society where happiness is desired, but it takes a second place to other social and economic metrics, like having money, buying cool stuff, and marrying and having children. Sure, we do all these things for the sake of happiness, but happiness is just not a priority. The priority is the idea that all these things should lead to happiness, but not happiness itself. 

As such, when we hear someone state that happiness is possible, it is transformational in the sense that it will make almost every other aspect of our life better, and that we should forgo all these different objects that make us happy for the happiness itself, we get skeptical. Certainly, things can’t be that easy and straightforward, right? Certainly, we aren’t happy and there are good reasons why this is the case. After all, our current society today is the most technologically advanced society the world has ever seen, and things like smartphones and access to pineapples in Russia are a clear sign of desired progress, right?

Brave new world, image of a women new fashion

Huxley Didn’t Know About The Superiority of Happiness

Still, virtually all aspects of life improve when we are happy and deteriorate into an unhappy state. People behave differently when they are happy and many things that people pursue when they are unhappy become irrelevant. It’s like having two different people. 

In other words, a society built on the ideals of happiness is an entirely different place, which some unhappy people can’t understand and find somehow disturbing. After all, it’s better to cry inside a Lamborghini rather than in a Mercedes, or so we are told. To this, I always reply that it’s better not to cry, even if we have to give up both the Mercedes and Lambo. 

Brave new world, an image of scene on movie

Fixing the World With Happiness

Moreover, many problems that haunt our society today would be automatically addressed and, perhaps, some other problems would take place, but in comparison, the benefits would outweigh the costs. This is, of course, the reason why we are so passionate about making the world into a happier place and why we believe that if we could make the world even 5% happier, the positive effect of happiness would be astronomical.

Picture of Roman Russo: Author of Optimal Happiness

Roman Russo: Author of Optimal Happiness

Roman Russo wasn't always happy and struggled with his own negative emotions, anxieties, and depression, until one day he pledged to resolve this part of life, whatever it took. The journey took 6 years, but it was worth it. Today, Roman considers himself to be one of the happiest people alive, part of the 1% of the happiest elite, and he now teaches others a working and universal happiness formula to reach a similar goal. He offers his best advice on Optimal Happiness social media, newsletter, blog, and books, and teaches a complete and unconditional happiness formula in his online courses.

1 thought on “Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Happiness Book Review)”

  1. zovrelioptor

    Great post, I think blog owners should learn a lot from this weblog its very user genial.

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“The problem is that of optimization,” states Roman Russo, author of Optimal Happiness: The Fastest & Surest Way To Reach Your Happiest Potential. There is plenty of advice on how to be happier or less sad, but no one is speaking about how to become the happiest we can be. And this is the difference that makes all the difference. By not looking at our maximum potential for happiness, we fall short of achieving it. After all, we all have hundreds of ideas on how to be happier or less sad, but most people still feel like they are not living their best lives. As such, Optimal Happiness explores the question of how to be the happiest we can be, regardless of who we are, where we are from, and what our life circumstances are. It proposes a complete and unconditional formula for happiness and explains how you too can become happy today and forever, inviting you to join the 1% happiness elite and become one of the happiest people alive.

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