BNW Ch 17-18: Science is stability?

"[Science] has given us the stablest equilibrium in history. China's was hopelessly insecure by comparison; even the primitive matriarchies weren't steadier than we are. Thanks, I repeat, to science" (Huxley 227).

Science is one of the main reasons that the World State is so stable. The text almost explicitly states that science is beneficial to humanity. The only problem with the science of the World State is its application. If we could use science to benefit our own stability while maintaining our humanity and autonomy, we would be set. Technology is like a powerful medicine. If it is abused, it will be bad. However, if it is used properly, everyone benefits from its miracles.

BNW Ch 15-16: Riot Control?

"Three men with spraying machines buckled to their shoulders pumped thick clouds of soma vapour into the air... Carrying water pistols charged with a powerful anesthetic, four others had pushed their way into the crowd and were methodically laying out, squirt by squirt, the more ferocious of the fighters" (Huxley 214).

Controlling a riot is a tough job. Not only is it hard to part such a violent mass of people, but doing so often results in injury, if not death. Police have no methods to deal with protesters that are non violent, they only have methods to disable or hurt large numbers of people. If police had a gas that instead of choking induced euphoria, police would be able to be a lot more careful in handling violent individuals. Being able to replace tasers with anesthesia guns also seems like a vast improvement. Anesthetics are probably much safer than high voltage. By reducing the violence of our police force, technology could yet again advance our society.

BNW Ch 13-14: Hospice?

"It was a large room bright with sunshine and yellow paint, and containing twenty beds, all occupied... The air was continuously alive with gay synthetic melodies. At the foot of every bed, confronting its morbid occupant, was a television box" (Huxley 198).

In hospice care, we attempt to make patients feel as comfortable as possible as they depart the world of the living. Keeping someone who is dying comfortable is a tall order. Getting the patient's mind off their condition is critical. To accomplish this, we distract them with things that require little effort but are engaging. If we had the technology to keep the level of atmospheric control that the World State has, we could easily keep all the people in hospice care happy up to their final moments. This is just one more example of a way in which we benefit from technological development.

BNW Ch 12: All this progress, and you choose to stand still?

"It was the sort of idea that might easily decondition the more unsettled minds among the higher castes - make them lose their faith in happiness as the Sovereign Good and take to believing, instead, that the goal was somewhere outside the present human sphere; that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge"(Huxley 177).

My sentiments toward technological advancement could not summed up better than this. The purpose of technological advancement is not to make us happier or to make life easier. The purpose of technological advancement is for us to expand what it means to be human. We should constantly seek to raise the bar higher, not to squeamishly keep the status quo. Is there a ceiling? An end after which we can no longer progress? I doubt such a thing exists, but if it did, it would be our duty to find it and reach it. Though I agree technology benefits humanity, i disagree with the sentiments of the World State here. Humanity cant afford to sit still.

BNW Ch 11: Fountain of Youth?

"If we could rejuvenate, of course it would be different. But we can't." (Huxley 154)

The prospect of aging can be terrifying to some. The human body begins to deteriorate until you lose your faculties and die. However, what if you could live at the prime of your life forever? The technology shown here cold be a solution to this problem. Being able to keep your eyes, brain, and heart at their prime into old age is a tantalizing prospect. Also, this technology could help advance us further. Imagine if we could keep people like Nikola Tesla or Albert Einstein from going senile! If these brilliant minds just had a bit more time to research and experiment, we could discover new technologies faster, improving our lives greatly.In this manner, technology itself is beneficial to technology.

BNW Ch 9-10: Order of Progress?

"Everyone was busy, everything in ordered motion." (Huxley 146)

Everything in the world state happens with great efficiency. Technology allows us to work together better, and become streamlined. Take for example Google Docs. This program by Google allows people all over the globe to collaborate on a single document. That is not all, however. It also stores the document on the internet, allowing it to be available anywhere, on computers and mobile devices. Now that we have this technology in our modern day civilization, projects that used to take weeks can be accomplished in days or hours. Through this advancement,we have bettered ourselves as human beings.

BNW Ch 8: Brave New World?

"How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is!" (Huxley 139)

Technology has an amazing effect on people. If you are far enough ahead of someone else in technological advancement, the things you take for granted may seem like magic to them. John is enraptured by the mere prospect of joining Bernard in his advanced civilization. Everything about Bernard and Lenina seems magical to John. This is but one of the numerous benefits technology confers to the people.

BNW Ch 7: Clothes make the woman?

"Yes, and civilized clothes. Because I thought I should never see a piece of real acetate silk again." (Huxley 119).

Linda does not live in the most favorable of conditions. She is depressed by the fact that she used to have all the technological wonders of the world state at her disposal, but now has to live the simple life of the Native Americans. As soon as she sees Lenina, she becomes hysterical. Just the sight of the clothing of her old home brings her to tears. If technology has that sort of power, there can be no doubt of the benefit it confers to the people. To make such retrogressive demotions as to go from helicopters to no bathrooms is brutal. We advance technology to solve the immediate problems at hand. Innovation is almost required to consider yourself a higher order creature. If humans didn't innovate, we would still be hunting deer with our bare hands. Instead of wasting precious time doing that, I'm able to sit here typing about the benefits of technology.

BNW Ch 6: Progress!

"Progress is lovely, isn't it?" (Huxley 100)

Bernard is quick to attack Lenina for her use of hypnopaedic phrases whenever she uses them. They make him angry because he believes most of them to be nothing more than rubbish distributed by the state to make them feel better. However, when Lenina says this phrase, Bernard just sighs and continues his conversation. For all that Bernard despises about the world state, he can't deny that this phrase carries truth. Since the beginning of time, humans have felt the need to move forward.  Even if the world state is abysmal, no one can deny that progress is lovely. If we didn't progress, what would be the point of achievement? We burn with the passion to climb higher, build bigger, and go farther. We should embrace this without even the need for hypnopaedia.

BNW Ch 5: We are the World?

"On their way up the chimney the gasses go through four separate treatments. P2O5 used to go right out of circulation every time they cremated someone. Now they recover over ninety-eight per cent of it." (Huxley 73)

Using advanced technology, we can assist the environment even when we die. Phosphorous that used to become smog and pollution from cremations and factories can be concentrated, extracted, and used for fertilizer. The fertilizer can be used to feed plants that humans will eventually eat, completing the phosphorous cycle. As the dominant species of planet earth, we have a responsibility to take care of the damage we cause. Our cities and metropolises destroy large quantities of land that plants used to occupy, so the least we could do is give back their phosphorous when we are done using it.

BNW Ch 4:Transportation Station?

"He started the engines and threw the helicopter screws into gear. the machine shot vertically into the air. Henry accelerated; the humming of the propeller shrilled from hornet to wasp, from wasp to mosquito; the speedometer showed that they were rising at the best part of two kilometres a minute." (Huxley 61)

In this chapter, we see technology that enhances the area of transportation. Rather than have all cars run on the ground floor, cars can now fly at various altitudes. With this technology, traffic can be managed in a whole new dimension. Instead of having to wait for a passing lane to move ahead of a slow vehicle, passing could be allowed under or over he slow vehicle. People would be able to get places faster, and save time, money, and the environment.

BNW Ch 3:Food, Glorious Food?

"Wheels must turn steadily, but cannot turn untended. There must be men to tend them, men as steady as the wheels upon axles, sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment." (Huxley 42)

Here, Huxley describes how we require guidance as a species, which can only happen with the help of technology. Mustapha Mond is giving a speech on how life has changed in Brave New World. He states how before a system had been put in place, humans experienced a predator-prey cycle. This relationship works as follows: As food supply increases, people to eat that food are born. However, this causes food to deplete, which in turn causes mass starvation. The result is excess food, which raises the population, restarting the cycle. To prevent this mass extinction cycle, a system was established in which population is held constant. By using technology, we can hold the population at carrying capacity, preventing starvation. Over population is a real problem, but we can tackle it with the help of technology.

BTW Ch 2: Pavlovian Conditioning?

"What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder" (Huxley 22)

Humans have been slaves to nature from our conception. We always feared natural disasters and been unable to prevent genetic diseases. However, we are approaching the age where we can cast off our chains. We call ourselves the masters of our planet, but we still can't control it. Using the power of modern science, we can become the people we claim to be: the dominant species of planet earth. What we join will not be put asunder.

BTW Ch 1: Dominant genes?

"'To improve their sense of balance,' Mr. Foster explained. 'Doing repairs on the outside of a rocket in mid-air is ticklish job'" (Huxley 17)

Every child is born different. Some are optimists, some are pessimists. Some excel at math, while others are masters of language. With the technology of genetic modification, this random chance becomes certain. We could make someone excel at math or language. Progress would no longer be restricted by waiting around for an Einstein or Galileo, we could build legends like these from the DNA up. With the proper application of science, heroes are not born, they are grown. Political correctness would not be relevant anymore, because skin color, height, and other phenotypes would be decided purely based on what was most efficient for their environment. Genetic diseases could be rooted out at the source by gene therapy, and furthermore resistance to other diseases could be added. Humans have faced the stagnation of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium for too long. It is time we used our knowledge to take evolution into our own hands.

Ch. 24-25: The end of an era?

"Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo's body was dangling, and they stopped dead" (Achebe 207).

Part I​ - According to the text(s), what effect did imperialism have on people who lived  through it?

In the end, the terrible deed is complete. Okonkwo represented more than just a respected man in the village, he was the representation of the old Umuofia. He was the last of the men who wouldn't hesitate to fight and die for what he believed in. In a way, he became an outcast in his own village. Umuofia changed over the seven years of his absence, and Okonkwo didn't. He became an osu, who didn't shave his ragged rage for fear that doing so would kill him. It meant Okonkwo wasn't welcome in the future, so he stayed in the past. As Okonkwo left Umuofia for good, it ushered in a new era of broken spirits for the people who let the gods fight their own battles.

Ch. 22-23: Corrupt dominion of the white man?

"They did not know that fifty bags would go to the court messengers, who had increased the fine for that purpose" (Achebe 197).

Part I​ - According to the text(s), what effect did imperialism have on people who lived  through it?

The beliefs of racial and cultural superiority that are necessary to fuel imperialism also break the morals of those administering it. Weren't these people just talking about how it was wrong to fear their divine ruler, and that their God was kind and caring? The imperialists aren't very good practitioners of what they preach. Actions such as these don't help their case of being the absolute truth all must follow. This is yet another example of how there can be no healthy society without cross-cultural understanding.

Ch. 20-21: The good of being dominated?

"The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia" (Achebe 178).

Part I​ - According to the text(s), what effect did imperialism have on people who lived through it?

Imperialism has many negative effects on the native people of a country. These negative effects are often so large and profound, that we forget the rule I discussed in chapter 19. Even imperialism had a few benefits for the people of Umuofia. This relationship also represents the idea of cross-cultural understanding and respect. We respect all cultures because no one is one hundred percent good or bad. Everyone has stories to tell and lessons to teach. Only a fool would shut his ears to everyone and live by only his own lessons. As they say, "A true master is an eternal student."

Ch. 18-19: God is dominant?

"The heathen speak nothing but falsehood. Only the word of our god is true" (Achebe 157).

Part II - ​How is imperialism​encouraged by patriotism​, religion​, &/or a sense of cultural​/ racial superiority ​in Chinua Achebe’s ​Things Fall Apart​ ​/ the past​?

In this part of the novel, Mr. Kiaga addresses his stance on the on the Igbo beliefs. When a few osu from the village refuse to shave their heads, Kiaga tells them that they are afraid of divine retribution that doesn't exist. He doesn't even consider a single facet of the Igbo culture to be remotely feasible. This approach of problem solving does not work anywhere. No one is ever one hundred percent right, just as no one is ever one hundred percent wrong. Behind every belief there is a shred of truth, no matter how small. What sets the Christian beliefs above the Igbo as the absolute truth? I guess I am forced to accept that missionaries need to wholeheartedly believe that they are the higher belief, otherwise they wouldn't have a motivation to wipe out the natural beliefs of the people.

Ch. 15-17: DOMINATION!

"During the last planting season a white man appeared in his clan" (Achebe 138).

Finally, they got here! Well, now I can observe this clashing of cultures that I thought would happen. The friction is bound to send sparks flying, I'll wager two pages from now something bad happens between them. "And so they killed the white man and tied his iron horse to their sacred tree because it looked as if it would run away to call the man's friends." (Achebe 138). Well then, same page is a bit sooner then I expected. Oh well, there was a communication barrier, they are going to figure out how to get over it and come back. Yeah, this isn't going to be too bad! "And they began to shoot." (Achebe 139) Wow, they met one page ago, and women and children are already being senselessly slaughtered. Well, guess I can finally talk about what brings this on next.

Ch. 13-14: It comes in parts?

"Your mother is there to protect you"

Here we are, part II! This is where the the real imperialism happens, right? Anyway, since I ran out of things to write a while ago, I'm just going to analyze this quote a bit. Sounds good? Alright. Okonkwo is as manly as they come. However when he is exiled, he goes to his motherland. Uchendu offers an explanation. He says that when things are good, sons like their fathers. But when the going gets tough, they go to their mothers for protection. In a way, I feel that this makes the woman stronger than man. After all, real strength isn't shown in aggressive displays but in desperate acts of protection. There isn't much that is stronger than a mother's devotion to her child. Maybe after this, Okonkwo won't beat his wives so much anymore.