Huxley's nuclear family explosion

Good bye, oh nuclear family, you are no more. That's the bottom line of future society in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

Banishment of family and redefined personal priorities allowing for more societal control seems like the deepest concept that sets Brave New World apart from other contemporary speculative fiction of his era. Aldous Huxley’s vision describes how leaders could remove society’s combative impulses by making monogamy and personal attachment to others a thing of the past. By tying aggression to personal desire, Huxley describes a key aspect of society that leaders could seek to control for peaceful conditions to exist.

The world leader in the novel, Mustapha Mond (appropriately named!), explains how happiness and peace are achieved through drugs and removal of impulses to possess one another. It’s an interesting concept that flies in the face of today’s norm. However, in a truly academic way, it’s a fact that if we were conditioned not to get attached to personal goals or people we’d likely exist quite passively.

This heavy concept drives the central drama of the story. The protagonist (which takes a number of chapters to appear by the way) struggles with his old world beliefs in this new era. As we do today, this character still values personal attachment to a special person – seeks true love and needs to be punished for unchaste ways. He challenges the world leader to explain how they can live like they do without love or attachment. Expounding on social control reasoning, Mustapha Mond has practical reasons for him on every aspect of life in his Brave New World.

Clearly Aldous Huxley had spent years contemplating society, its drives and the challenges they present to leadership. He shines in setting up a comprehensive social control scenario. This meticulous "solution" to the problem of social control makes his novel a joy as he leaves no questions on the table. It's a scary proposition, yes, but one that makes you think and alert to what's happening in our world today.