Dystopia Project
In Humanities, we created a story, poem, essay, or reflection on the book Brave New World. Then created a poster to reflect our story, poem, essay, or reflection. For my poster I took a picture of a creepy house and edited a sign in front of the house to make it to appear beautiful. But in reality it was very run down and ugly. This symbolizes how people think of Brave New World and the US; Appears beautiful but is really just run down.
(This essay is based off of my ‘Brave New World’ seminar statement; “Being happy is getting what you want.”)
Chase Pierson
Our Fortune
hap·pi·ness [hap-ee-nis]
noun
1. the quality or state of being happy.
2. good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.
Our world would be better off if we had continuous happiness instead of extreme happiness and extreme pain.
When you are happy what do you feel? Would you rather have continuous happiness that does not over take you, or would you rather have extreme pain and extreme happiness that takes you away for a short period of time? When most people think of being happy, they say it occurs when they are around the people they love, or when they do things that they like to do. Which is true, but if you really think about what it means to be happy you will realize that it all comes down to one thing: getting what you want. I feel that our society is built around what I call a human principle (which of course would be happiness). In America we are used to this principle because we think it is going to be given to us. We have ads and propaganda that draw us in, and get us excited. And when we finally get this product or service that everyone is talking about, we realize that it is not as great as we thought. So what do we do? We find something else to get excited and worked-up about only to be disappointed again. And in the rare chance that we do find something to keep us content and happy, do we think that it is true happiness, or just something to draw our attention away for a short period of time?
We as individuals in America are so focused on the Happy-Free Life that we actually make ourselves more miserable in the process of trying to find our true happiness.
In the book Brave New World, happiness comes from a pill. And while we do have those types of pills in the real world, they are not as widely available as in the book. So we have to unconsciously compensate (not acknowledge that a pill exists) for this lack of happiness by finding something else to keep us happy and content. We can do this by finding a person, place, or thing that keeps our mind at bay while we try to find something else that we want to keep us entertained. This is a problem for us in America, because as I said before, we are used to be given things (easy happiness) more often instead of earning them. For example: Large Super Stores with unbeatable cheap prices, car dealerships that tell us we can afford something we cannot and Fast Food Restaurants line the street, and pull us in, giving us a fake sense of happiness, that keeps us coming back again and again. And when we run out of things to be given to us, we become sad. This false sense of happiness is what makes people want to come to America, to live their lives in the ‘Happy Country’. And while our county might have better living, and working conditions than the country they come from, we still have lots and lots of flaws because of this false sense of happiness. A false sense of happiness that the world in the book ‘Brave New World’ does not have.
Savage Inequalities
At a glance:
First Published: 1991
Type of Work: Current Affairs/Education
Genres: Nonfiction, Current affairs
Subjects: Segregation or integration, Traveling or travelers, Race, Education or educators, Inner cities or inner-city life, Dropouts, Finance, Litigation, Public schools, Examinations
Locales: New York, NY, Chicago, IL, Cincinnati, OH, New Jersey, San Antonio, TX, East St. Louis, IL
In the story ‘Savage Inequalities’ we go to a school in the hood of East St. Louis. Where we are drawn in by the fact that the school gets flooded two times a year by raw sewage, has dropout rates the highest in the city, does not have access to any new books, teachers getting paid 10,000 dollars a year, and has set the chances of a successful career outside of school to basically none. Yet these people are still living in the so called “Happy Life” in a “Happy Country.”
In America the work quality for lower income workers is poor (no benefits, little or no retirement, long hours, little pay and the on the job moral impact is very high). Typically if you are born into a family with poor education and little income you are forced to deal with their bad decisions for a lifetime. And if you have not gone to college as an adult you are set with a standard of living that is lower than everyone else’s. We are told that this is the perfect, happy life because we live in America. I don’t know about you, but in my mind that’s not happy and definitely not the perfect life.
I have found that whether we realize it or not, our society and country is more like the ‘Perfect World Gone Wrong’ in the book Brave New World than we realize.
Chase Pierson
Our Fortune
hap·pi·ness [hap-ee-nis]
noun
1. the quality or state of being happy.
2. good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.
Our world would be better off if we had continuous happiness instead of extreme happiness and extreme pain.
When you are happy what do you feel? Would you rather have continuous happiness that does not over take you, or would you rather have extreme pain and extreme happiness that takes you away for a short period of time? When most people think of being happy, they say it occurs when they are around the people they love, or when they do things that they like to do. Which is true, but if you really think about what it means to be happy you will realize that it all comes down to one thing: getting what you want. I feel that our society is built around what I call a human principle (which of course would be happiness). In America we are used to this principle because we think it is going to be given to us. We have ads and propaganda that draw us in, and get us excited. And when we finally get this product or service that everyone is talking about, we realize that it is not as great as we thought. So what do we do? We find something else to get excited and worked-up about only to be disappointed again. And in the rare chance that we do find something to keep us content and happy, do we think that it is true happiness, or just something to draw our attention away for a short period of time?
We as individuals in America are so focused on the Happy-Free Life that we actually make ourselves more miserable in the process of trying to find our true happiness.
In the book Brave New World, happiness comes from a pill. And while we do have those types of pills in the real world, they are not as widely available as in the book. So we have to unconsciously compensate (not acknowledge that a pill exists) for this lack of happiness by finding something else to keep us happy and content. We can do this by finding a person, place, or thing that keeps our mind at bay while we try to find something else that we want to keep us entertained. This is a problem for us in America, because as I said before, we are used to be given things (easy happiness) more often instead of earning them. For example: Large Super Stores with unbeatable cheap prices, car dealerships that tell us we can afford something we cannot and Fast Food Restaurants line the street, and pull us in, giving us a fake sense of happiness, that keeps us coming back again and again. And when we run out of things to be given to us, we become sad. This false sense of happiness is what makes people want to come to America, to live their lives in the ‘Happy Country’. And while our county might have better living, and working conditions than the country they come from, we still have lots and lots of flaws because of this false sense of happiness. A false sense of happiness that the world in the book ‘Brave New World’ does not have.
Savage Inequalities
At a glance:
First Published: 1991
Type of Work: Current Affairs/Education
Genres: Nonfiction, Current affairs
Subjects: Segregation or integration, Traveling or travelers, Race, Education or educators, Inner cities or inner-city life, Dropouts, Finance, Litigation, Public schools, Examinations
Locales: New York, NY, Chicago, IL, Cincinnati, OH, New Jersey, San Antonio, TX, East St. Louis, IL
In the story ‘Savage Inequalities’ we go to a school in the hood of East St. Louis. Where we are drawn in by the fact that the school gets flooded two times a year by raw sewage, has dropout rates the highest in the city, does not have access to any new books, teachers getting paid 10,000 dollars a year, and has set the chances of a successful career outside of school to basically none. Yet these people are still living in the so called “Happy Life” in a “Happy Country.”
In America the work quality for lower income workers is poor (no benefits, little or no retirement, long hours, little pay and the on the job moral impact is very high). Typically if you are born into a family with poor education and little income you are forced to deal with their bad decisions for a lifetime. And if you have not gone to college as an adult you are set with a standard of living that is lower than everyone else’s. We are told that this is the perfect, happy life because we live in America. I don’t know about you, but in my mind that’s not happy and definitely not the perfect life.
I have found that whether we realize it or not, our society and country is more like the ‘Perfect World Gone Wrong’ in the book Brave New World than we realize.