Logicless Logic

freedom.

“How much they are free is how much they are allowed to be free”

This one line, supposedly talking about the inhabitants of World State in Brave New World really struck me. Why? Because I realise that this very sentence could have very easily been talking about me, or anyone I know.

The original meaning of this line was to describe how the inhabitants of World State, a seemingly perfect world in the future, “get what they want and never want what they cannot get”. This is in the context of social and physical conditioning of the people since they were young. These people are trained to be like robots, being grouped in castes according to their functionality. Yet, they are given easily access to drugs and sex, leading them to believe in their perceived freedom.

What about us? We are also conditioned from young to study hard, get good results in school aren’t we? We are also separated into different groups according to our learning ability aren’t we? Doesn’t our education train us to function in certain ways? In this case, are we not just a less serious version of World State?

Another line from Brave New World that particularly struck me was “That was one of the hypopaedic prejudices he had (so he imagined) totally gotten rid of”. This line was describing Bernard Marx in the Directors room, listening to the Director recounting something. However, in World State, “history” is treated as junk. Bernard was shocked at someone as high up as the director committing such “atrocities”, which was a result of his sleep conditioning, yet he imagined himself to see nothing wrong with that. In the end, all his perceived acts of resistance come to nothing and he finds himself pleading not to be exiled.

I also subconsciously drew the parallel between Bernard and some of us. Don’t we all complain about the system? Don’t we all want to rebel somehow? And yet in the end, we are forced back into our place by the system. All our “rebellious actions” are but a small prick to the big system. The so-called resistance which we do offer is actually quite futile. It is always easier to change yourself than to change the world to fit yourself.

But then again, this led me to think about the publicity tagline of the movie “The Motorcycle Diaries”

“Let the world change you. And you can change the world”

This line for me, is one of hope. The Motorcycle Diaries, in case anyone doesn’t know, is actually a journal written by Ernesto “Che” Guevara as he takes a journey across South America as a medical student, to “get laid in every country across South America”. As he takes the trip, he is slowly changed by the sights he sees as he goes below the surface of everything. This effectively is the line “Let the world change you”. I realise South America is not the world but lets not dwell on that.

“And you can change the world”. Now “El Che” is one of the most famous faces in the world. Guevara might have been an enemy of Capitalism, which means he is basically not in our “camp”. He might have used brutal measures while fighting the war for Cuba. But change the world he did. Holding the surgeons needle one day and a machine gun the next, he could be one of the strangest (for lack of a better word) people I have read about.

Yet, essentially, that trip, which started out as one to see the world and get laid eventually turned him into a charismatic freedom fighter. He faces the world with no fear, fighting against the “Big brother” of Capitalism. A red bean against the universe, just to exaggerate it. Rumour says that when he faced execution in front of a firing squad, his last words were “Shoot. Cowards.” Fearless in the face of death.

Perhaps that is the mentality we should adopt. We might not have the physical freedom. But we can fight for it or die trying. Fight with the hope of realizing our dreams. Of course by fight I do not mean physically fight. I mean sticking to your beliefs and your principles, doing what you believe to be right. And then we might find the freedom within ourselves.

justin.

posted by justin @ 12:05 PM