Materialism In Brave New World

Huxley describes the “New World” as being controlled by mass production and based around the idea of over-production. Huxley predicted that a world economy based on an endless growth model of disposable consumer goods and disposable energy to run the machines would lead humanity to environmental and existential crisis. John the Savage initially reacts to the “New World” with the words of Miranda, from Shakespeare’s Tempest, when she first encounters visitors to her island, “O Brave New World that has such people in’t.” John eventually sees the evil in over consumption and flocks to an abandoned lighthouse. The book enlightens readers on how if consumption goes at the rate it is, we will develop into a world controlled by the wants of new materialistic

Today arts and cultural production account for 4.3 percent of GDP, or nearly $700 billion. Many, many more Americans read books today than did at mid-century. There are now more museums across the country, some 35,000, than there are Starbucks and McDonalds combined. Museum attendance is huge, there are approximately 850 million visits each year to American museums, more than the attendance for all major-league sporting events and theme parks combined. Both the number and percentage of Americans who have graduated from college continue to rise. The same instincts that birthed the Peace Corps have now brought countless variations of service organizations, both domestic and abroad, in which thousands of people each year sacrifice comforts in the hopes of bettering the lives of others (“Triumph”

Some of the negative effects of consumerism that many critics may argue and that will be further emphasized on, are the overexploitation of consumerism which has lead to economic poverty, and increase in debts by continuingly increasing already high consumption levels at the expense of less developed or poorer nations. Additionally, environmentalists blame consumerism for the resulting damage it has done to the environment through consumption and wastage of products, as a result cause pollution, land contamination, and forest degradation. Lastly will look upon the effect consumerism can have upon one’s own personal life and how It can result in a pursuit to fulfill the infinite desires of “self”, thus forgetting once moral values and the inability to distinguish right from wrong (“Negative”