Sex in the Brave New World; Taboo Today, Accepted Tomorrow?

Attempt to envision the people of the world as a unified whole, and the binding rope that secures this bundle is abundant sexual promiscuity. Channeling strength from each other through sexual intercourse, the people of this new world view abortion as normal, religion as null, monogamy as heinous, and disease as nonexistent. No longer vulgar, sex controls every aspect of life. This scenario probably proved arduous to imagine; however, in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, normality sustains if these community rules remain unbroken, and failure to comply with a promiscuous lifestyle results in social exile.

Why is it so difficult to picture society like this? Because unlike Huxley's macrocosm, the people of the United States view abortion as murder, religion as necessary, monogamy as correct, and disease as rampant. Regressing due to a conservative belief system pouring steadily into the country via government officials, American society appears to steadily sink lower on the sexually accepting totem pole of the world.

Ever increasing in power, the religious right serves as a staunch base for a pyramid of morality against sexual intercourse. From Sunday school to church services, children begin learning from a young age that contact with the opposite sex in an inappropriate manner results in damnation. Interestingly, the conditioning process presented by Huxley is very similar; however, the message differs significantly.

Controlling centers in Brave New World used Pavlovian conditioning and hypnopedia to instruct the youth that "everyone belongs to everyone else," and children mature believing that sexual promiscuity is for the greater good of the unified whole. Though appearing blasphemous and backwards, the brainwashing in the book differs little from the brainwashing utilized today.

After a good drilling of morality into the moldable heads of the youth, standards pronounced through religious texts leak into the culture of everyday life. Merely thinking about a sexual fantasy screams heresy, and shame creeps into the minds of those conjuring up such awful thoughts. Disgrace showers on anyone who allows the wave of vulgar thoughts to break down the dam of morality carefully built by busy, saintly beavers.

Where does all of the treachery end up? It broadcasts to millions thanks to the media. Because condemning those who go against the morality of the majority results in higher ratings, the bashing of celebrities' and high-powered people's personal lives splatter across television screens and computer monitors in virtually every home. Consequently, this bombardment of anti-sex messages sent out to relate to spiritually oriented people provides Pavlovian conditioning to every person, religious or not, who repeatedly encounters the programming; culminating in the slamming of doors on sexual activities.

Two other ethical nuggets of goodness supplied by the religious right involve the sanctity of marriage and the value of human life, even if that life has failed to take form and is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. Spilling forth through the media once again, political popularity resides in the issues of abortion and gay marriage. Since the majority of the nation believes in the teachings of the religioius right, for the past eight years an advocate of pro-life and heterosexual marriage has ruled the country. What does George Bush have to do with sex? Pregnancy and "abnormal" preferred sexual practices establish a societal unbalance which develops in the scarcity of talking about and performing sexual activities.

Because of the social fear of anything sexual, education about intercourse has steadily declined. Provoking the emergence of hysteria regarding sex, apprehensive parents concerned about corruption plow a path for the teaching of abstinence sans any other alternatives.

Even if religious saturation does not affect every individual, the lack of education about protection sees to it that a Brave New World is simply out of the question thanks to untreatable venereal diseases. As infections multiply through communities, sex becomes ever scarier.

Can American culture ever separate from the revulsion brought forth by sex and embark in generating a Huxley world? Answering "yes" seems not so farfetched anymore.

Though experiencing a relapse, the United States may have a fighting chance. The same media responsible for advocating multitudinous religious commandments increasingly advertises positive sex related commercials and television shows. Individual networks that influence numerous young adults, such as MTV and Vh1, have begun to hold benefits to promote sexual education about protection and administer healthcare to eradicate diseases. Cultivating an attitude similar to Brave New World, the media helps establish that sickness causes destruction, the promotion of safe intercourse fosters better results than attempting to enforce abstinence, and moral views ultimately need to remain within an individual. Finally developing moral obligations of their own and escaping those of older generations, adolescents lead the way in abolishing ignorance and embracing acceptance about sexual activities.