Quote from Pg. 7:
Solved by standard Gammas, unvarying Deltas, uniform Epsilons. Millions of identical twins. The principle of mass production at last applied to biology.
Hello, dear readers! I hope the summer is going well for all! First, I'd like to make a shout-out to Mr. Costello for putting a YouTube clip of Weezer on his blog; that just made my day.
Alright, let's get started! I can see why this book has been reviewed as way ahead of its time; Huxley's satirical take on the ethical issues of the scientific explorations- and exploitations- of his day caused much controversy. People don't really like to be reminded that what they are doing is ethically wrong (because people hate being wrong. Just the facts of human nature, dear readers). Anyway, Huxley's satire is blatantly obvious in the aforementioned quote. Mass production, a revolutionary industrial advancement, has certainly been a beneficial effect on the world economy, and it seems, at first glance, that Huxley approves its application to the production of human beings. However, if one looks closer, it is clearly thinly-veiled sarcasm. "AT LAST applied to biology", he says, mocking the scientists who longed for this, chastizing those who wish to use genetic engineering to "better" the human race. (This is a very political piece, very different from what I was expecting.) Huxley, in creating this world of distorted reality, order and stability by design, and humans trained like Pavlov's dogs, makes it evident that it is not only morally wrong to genetically engineer human beings, but also that it could lead to a future where we have lost sight of what even makes us human.
Until next time,
Alysse
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