The Meaning of One Life

I would be extremely self-assured and pompous if I claimed to hold the key that unlocks the box that contains all that is wrong in our society. I do not assume that my meager understanding of the motives that drive humans to commit horrible acts is sufficient enough to rationalize or even comprehend the suffering in our world.

 However, as I delved deeper into this Brave New World, I found many alarming similarities between our actual modern society and the fictional one imagined by Huxley. The most poignant and alarming section that stood out to me personally was when John attempted to mourn over the loss of his mother Linda. In disgust of John’s emotions the narrator comments, “As though death were something terrible, as though any one mattered as much as all that” (206). This simple sentence immediately brought my sensibilities to all of the senseless deaths that occur on a daily basis because of violence, poverty, hunger, and disease. I was convicted over the lack of acknowledgement given to one life especially in underdeveloped countries. 

Is it the overpopulation of our planet and the all-consuming society that we live in that allows us to overlook or not mourn for the individual deaths that occur every second? Or is it the sheer mass of suffering that keeps us from being able to process or acknowledge the individual losses. Especially those not directly related to our own personal lives. I just can’t help but believe that the world would be a better place if more people reacted to sad events, suffering, or loss like John and less people reacted like the twins. If we took the time to process the emotions that attach themselves to the suffering that exists in our world perhaps we would be motivated to work together towards an answer. Perhaps if we realized that “one life does matter as much as all that,” then we would work harder to preserve that life and to ensure that future lives to come are afforded a chance at happiness and health. 

In this new world, “The greatest care is taken to prevent you from loving anyone too much” (237). I think that in our own world that we could benefit from loving ourselves more as well as those that we share this world with. If we focus on improving our own self-worth it will encourage us to value others more as well. Overcome with the emotion of his loss John realizes and demands, “I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin”  (240). All of these things are small parts of our daily lives that we take for granted. Essentially, choice is the common thread behind John’s list of demands. My argument is that if we choose to see the value in a single human life, and choose to place importance on that life that we will be making the choice to make a “better new world.” 

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