the seduction of happiness in a brave new world

Reading Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World hit me harder than I expected. The idea of a society engineered for “perfect happiness” — where people take drugs to erase pain, are genetically designed for their roles, and distracted constantly — sounds like a dream on paper. But it’s a nightmare lurking behind the smiles. The citizens trade freedom for comfort, emotion for numbness. Individuality is sacrificed for the illusion of peace. What scared me most wasn’t the future Huxley imagined — it’s how close we might already be. Scrolling through my phone, I’m bombarded by endless entertainment, dopamine hits, and curated content. Social media algorithms feed me what keeps me scrolling, not what challenges me. Are we, too, taking our own “soma” — numbing ourselves to discomfort, to complexity, to truth? Brave New World is less a prophecy and more a mirror, reflecting our choices to escape reality rather than confront it. And maybe that’s the true dystopia: happiness engineered, but at the cost of what makes us human. #Entertainment #Books #DystopianReads #BraveNewWorld