Clingaman 1

Zac Clingaman
Mr. Wiswall
English 1437
4 May 2011
New System vs. Old System
A government big enough to give you everything you want is powerful
enough to take everything you have (Thomas Jefferson). Governments are
sometimes given the opportunity to give its people everything they ever
wanted, but once they take that plunge, they have no control over whether
or not their world is turned into a dystopia. A dystopia is defined as the
polar opposite of utopia; a society in which social and/or technological
trends have contributed to a corrupted or degraded state, (The Literary
Link). In Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, he presents a dystopian world
that has become 100% colonized in which humans are part of a whole new
system of life. The World State and its controllers dictate every aspect of
human life and establish castes to maintain stability in their artificial world.
Knowing the truth is sacrificed to achieve happiness in the new system,
which pleases everyone to the point that they are blinded, and so the world
is stuck without progress. Compared to Huxleys dystopian world, James
Joyces Dubliners provides a different system of life in a world more real than
the Irish people would like. This old system is 20th century Ireland and though

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the Irish people lead degenerate lives, they are leading conscious lives.
Living in a post-colonial era proves difficult for every character in Dubliners,
as they use morals to fight for survival and stability. Family relationships,
work, and drinking dominate the Irish people as a more primitive civilization
which has not been fully colonized. Joyce shows in Dubliners how the Irish
people are stuck in paralysis, and by extension Ireland is stuck without
progress. Although 20th century Ireland is far from perfect, it is not paralyzed
in a state of unconsciousness and its people can think for themselves, and
for their future. "The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to
shield us from the terrors of the future," (Frank Herbert); but what if you have
already reached the terrors of the future? Dubliners old system is superior
to Brave New Worlds new system by way of its peoples human morals
and its position as a society in history.
A government for the people must depend for its success on the
intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people
themselves, (Grover Cleaveland). Brave New World reveals a new system in
which its people have sacrificed their own human morality and a government
that artificially assigns their interests. Boys at one with girls at peace;
Orgy-porgy gives release, is one of the controllers hypnopaedic phrases
which replace morality with an authorized thirst for self-indulgence (Huxley
56). The World State encourages and forces its citizens to self-indulge in
order to distract them from the fact that they gave up all freedom to their
governing system. When you force an idea onto someone by means of

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physically planting the idea in their mind, you are removing the human factor
from life, and so what do you have left? Community, Identity and Stability,
are how Huxley deals with his dehumanized people, and all he has left are
robots to do his bidding, or the controllers bidding for that matter (Huxley 1).
In Dubliners, self gratification is definitely present but not to the point of
losing all morality. The new system defends itself by saying it holds "all of
the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects, (Huxley
54). Irish citizens of the old system choose what religion they want and
whether or not to drink because they decide what is moral on a personal
level as opposed to deciding as a whole civilization. When a husband comes
home drunk he is faced with consequences, and possibly shunned by his
peers for doing so. In the new system any such citizen could hide from this
fault and remain an equal part of the stable World State. Flawed perspective
in the new systems world runs rampant and is clouded by a state of
unconsciousness that the World State initiates, and then maintains through
the use of Soma. "I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it
calls itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express
myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can,
(Joyce 5). Men such as this one value true expression and are unwilling to
serve any entity that prevents him from doing so. This sense of human
feeling and emotion isnt present in the new system, and is a reason why the
old system is a better fit for the human race. New system thinking believes
that "in the vast majority of cases, fertility is merely a nuisance, which

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demeans the most fundamental aspect of human life: reproduction (Huxley

65). If you dehumanize your population and operate it under the same
functions that run a factory, you have effectively robbed them of their
human morals.
Dubliners and Brave New World exist in very different timelines, but
there are advantages and disadvantages to their respective positions in
regards to history. When it comes to the 9 Year War in Brave New World,
we can understand that every civilization was faced with an ultimatum which
forced them to choose either stability or destruction. In an effort to avoid
destruction, the world chose stability, and thus formed a dystopia that
became absolutely colonized. Movements such as this resonate with the
fascist Nazi State in the real world, because they are promoting an allpowerful leader to save a group from utter destruction without considering
the long-term effects. New system procedure is to erase history in order to
make room for future ideals and morals but what the system failed to
recognize was that History is philosophy teaching by example and also by
warning, (Lord Bolingbroke). This action proved to lock the peoples
dystopian civilization into place by not leaving them any power once the
danger resided. Dubliners poses a different situation where politicians are
stuck contemplating lost role models in history such as in Ivy Day in the
Committee Room. Although these politicians may be unproductive and
suffering from paralysis by the Irish State, they are not entirely helpless.
Dubliners is set in a post-colonialist era meaning Irish society has an

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opportunity to grow intellectually, culturally, and most importantly politically,

no matter how hard it is for society to progress forward. After all, A country
without a memory is a country of madmen, which is why the new systems
policy of erasing history has cut the flexibility of their government and
encouraged a stable yet stagnant lifestyle (George Santayana). A citizen of
the new system might consider choosing a bland and constant life rather
than a life based on risk and reward. Any human being from either society
should agree that Most Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full
glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age, (Joyce 224).
Dynamic and ever-changing as a society, the old system may not undergo
huge leaps forward or back, but at least society is changing in a human way.
Characters in Dubliners such as Molly Ivors in the short story The Dead,
display support and admiration for their country in a nationalist way that is
only forced in the new system.He was not sure what idea he wished to
express but the thought that a poetic moment had touched upon him took
life within him like an infant hope. He stepped onward bravely, (Joyce 104).
Twentieth century Ireland had people with individual thoughts that could only
dream of Utopia and work toward it, while the new system sits on the
opposite side of the timeline stuck in a dystopia. Existing in a
dystopian/postcolonial society dominated by a mind-controlling government,
drug-induced dreams and a life based on consumerism, citizens in the new
system still manage to be happy; but what if they want to wake up; what if
they cant wake up?

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Using human morals and history as means to evaluate two very

different systems shows their true colors, but how does this designate a clear
victory when it comes to choosing a system? People in the real world remain
conscious of their everyday actions and decisions as in the old system and
they do so as a function of life. After a life has expired or someone has
passed away, what do we reflect upon? Its human nature to discuss purpose
and see ones life as a journey; so how can someone willingly give that up for
artificial happiness? No one is in control of your happiness but you;
therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life
that you want to change, (Barbara de Angelis). When another entity controls
a persons happiness it means that they have either given up on themselves,
or given them the power to change anything and everything about them. In
Dubliners he gnawed the rectitude of his life; he felt that he had been
outcast from life's feast, (Joyce 117). The old system carries a society where
every person wants a piece of lifes feast, and so they chase after it,
conscious and willing.

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