Saturday, August 10, 2013
Caste system. Good or Bad?
Throughout the book Brave New World, I came to believe that the caste system isn't so bad. The fact that the World State intentionally makes people like deltas, gammas, or epsilons to work in the lower castes in the society may seem unethical and crude, but it is one of the many costs for stability. Even though these people were deliberately made defective, they enjoy their lives. The people in the lower castes were conditioned to appreciate their work, and to know nothing else. There was another society mentioned in the book that made only Alphas. Though the idea sounds nice, it didn't turn out to be a good idea in the end. Nobody in that community wanted to do the lower caste work because individuals thought they were better than others. The fact of the matter is that stability comes at many and great costs. Making atrocities like epsilons seems to be one of them. In our world, we may feel disgusted towards something like this, but that is because our customs are very different.
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The caste system in the World State was well explained by Mustapha Mond in chapter 16, as he compared it to an iceberg: the Alphas and Betas stood as the top of the population, while the rest of the social classes were under the water. One definite reason behind the caste system's ability to function in this kind of society is because of it's dependency on it. If the Deltas, Gammas, and Epsilons were allowed to rise up in social rank (while maintaining the caste system), the society would turn into a plethora of Alphas not willing to do the jobs necessary to keep the World State stable. While the morality behind the caste system can be a subjective matter, I personally find it hard to label such a system to be "good" or "bad" when a society so heavily depends on it.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading Brave New World, I found the caste system to have various effects on society. The Alphas and Betas lived educated lives, doing the more sanitary work. The Deltas and Epsilon were conditioned to do a simple task that wasn't pleasing. The caste system maintained stability and allowed for a "utopia". If the lower caste: Deltas, Epsilon, and Gammas were allowed to rise up in society, however this would cause chaos in the upper caste, and they would constantly compete to rise up the social-ranking. Having the lower caste conditioned to do whatever work prevented reluctance and defiance. I don't find the caste system to be moral, but it does keep the society in check. Ultimately, the caste system provided a stable society living with one rank throughout life. The caste system the World State created shouldn't be bad or good, because it had its positive and negative effects.
ReplyDeleteI don't thing there is a way to measure if the World State's caste system is "good" or "bad". Like Alex E. said and Alexander Lam said, the society relies heavily on how each caste has a role. You have the Gammas and Betas involved in jobs that require higher level thinking, while the lower castes engage in more physical labor. Each caste has a specific role in the World State; if the roles were reversed, there would be chaos. When you talk about the caste system in a moral perspective, you could see while the caste system could be labeled as "bad". Some embryos are more lucky than others to be genetically manipulated to be much more intellectual and physically impressive. The Epsilons, on the other hand, are purposely manipulated to be morons with stunted growth. They may of been taken out of their bottle earlier or received a bit too much of alcohol in their bottles. Although, since each caste is conditioned to know their role, they don't know how it is like to be part of a different caste.
ReplyDeleteI think that the caste system was created for the better of the World State so the Gammas and Betas were created to do jobs with a higher level of thinking while the lower castes such as the Deltas,Epsilon, and Gammas did the jobs with more hard work. The reason that this system was stable is that as babies, people from different castes were taught in their sleep how good it was to be in that caste. Another reason it was difficult to move caste was because the people from each caste were created differently, but this system wasn't perfect, like how Bernard and Helmholtz never felt like they fit in to their caste.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the caste system in Brave New World is an efficient way to maintain a stable society it does have its drawbacks. One of which is a right that us as Americans sometimes take for granted, freedom. With the way the caste system is set up with Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Gammas, and Epsilons there is no freedom. Each person is born into a caste and they are stuck in that specific caste for life with no ability to move upwards in the society. Personally I agree with this caste system because it allows for a safe and stable society, something that in modern times does not exist because of things such as organized crime, poverty, and war. I know it sounds horrible that people must be willing to give up some of their freedoms in order to have a stable society however it is a sacrifice that would be well worth it.
ReplyDeletePersonally, the I think that the caste system is an effective way to maintain stabilization. When the babies are decanted, almost immediately they are taught to think a certain way. The conditioning makes it so that they will not know how it feels like to be any other caste level except their own and they are only taught of the other cast level's disadvantages. They think that their level is the perfect level, even the Epsilons whom are the lowest level think that the "Alphas work too hard." when clearly the Alphas are better in every single way. There are some problems with this way of society, like the lack of individuality. How will there be individuality with out any freedom?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it depends if it is either "good" or "bad. For the people actually living in the World State, they believe this is good. All castes even the lower ones like Epsilons are conditioned to love their castes so people don't see the point in going up or down in the caste system. For example, Betas believe they are the best because they don't have to work as hard as the Alphas but are smarter than the lower castes. However for people that are actually just reading the book, many people think this caste system is bad. It gives no freedom to people to move up or down because the government forces them to love their caste. Also, it's unfair for lower castes who are inferior to the Betas and Alphas and born with physical and mental problems. If they weren't conditioned to love their castes, they would realize the problems of this caste system just like many people felt with the Indian caste system.
ReplyDeleteThe caste system in Brave New World can be considered either "good" or "bad" depending on one's interpretation of the words. I believe that it is bad; however, I also consider some aspects of it to be good. On the good side, the society in Brave New World is allowed to function very efficiently. This is due to the fact that it has many laborers such as the Deltas, Gammas, and Epsilons who are willing to work long, difficult hours in order to make ends meet. On the other hand, I consider this to be bad. I firmly believe that if the laborers were deprived of soma, there would probably be a lot of anger and resentment towards the Alphas and the Betas. Also, if they were not conditioned into "liking" what they do, they would have revolted at their petty existences.
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