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Sarah Blanchard
English 101
Brave New World Response
07/15/14
Managing Through Fear Masked by Lunar Eternity

People require leadership; it is essential to give purpose to their existence. Peter Drucker
describes leadership as, The lifting of people's vision to a higher sight, the raising of their
performance to a higher standard, the building of their personality beyond its normal limitations
(Drucker 1985). Is it better for a leader to be loved or feared? Should there be a balance between
the two? Or should societies be led solely by one? Compassionate leaders are important in a
successful society, encouraging empowerment, team building and conflict management. Society
in Brave New World will eventually fail because of its inability to care and love for its people,
leading only by fear and abuse that is masked with love.
Leaders in Brave New World encourage commitment, love and compassion through
abuse. At a young age people are conditioned through Hypnopdia--repetition of phrases
without meaning while sleepingand electroshock therapy.
A hundred and twenty times a week for thirty months wedded indissolubly before the child
can speak. But wordless conditioning is crude and wholesale; cannot bring home the finer
distinctions, cannot inculcate the more complex courses of behavior. For that there must be
words, but words without reason. In brief, Hypnopdia (Huxley 35-36).
This is an example of lack of free will; forced love. When an outsider, the savage is
introduced to their society, people begin to rebel against the conformities of society. Johns
presence and ideals are against everything they are meant to believe; promiscuity, Ford, and test-
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tube breeding. John argues, You got rid of them [mosquitoes]. Yes, thats just like you. Getting
rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it (Huxley 214).
This relationship between societal members and leaders is abusive; they are not actually
happy. A drug is usedsoma--to keep them docile. This drug creates a Lunar eternity,
blinding them to abuse and everything unpleasant. They are made to believe soma improves their
lives, however, soma is used to control many aspects of their lives. Bernard explains from his
perspective the oppressive use of soma to settle a riot, Three men with spraying machines
buckled to their shoulders pumped thick clouds of soma vapor into the air (Huxley 194). Soma
disconnects people from one another regardless of childhood conditioning encouraging and
requiring togetherness. Linda is completely separated from her son John once she began
consuming soma regularly, leading to a permanent holiday on soma void of human interaction.
The controller specifies that personal growth should be avoided at all costs, but to what extent?
A society led simply by fear undoubtedly will lead to rebellion. Helmholtz and Bernard
rebelled from conformity. Helmholtz has problems with the creation of propaganda and its lack
of creativity. Once John came into their lives he began to question regulations more,
overwhelmed with a sense of emptiness.
What the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals it was only quite
recently that, grown aware of his mental excess, Helmholtz Watson had also become aware of
his difference from the people who surrounded him (Huxley 71).
John proposed multiple ideas to Mustapha Mond, incorporating ideas of a loving society,
including monogamy, heroism and god. All of Johns ideas came from his upbringings in savage
territory, and influences from Shakespeare. John argues Gods the reason for everything
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noble and fine and heroic (Huxley 213). John believes strongly that passion with reason is
essential to human life; without it, there is no purpose.
Society will inevitably fail due to lack of balance. Consequences of rule breaking are as
necessary as compassionate leadership. It is essential to incorporate love and fear into leadership.
Leaders using fear count value, and in contrast, leaders using love focus on creating value.
Organizations have traditionally rewarded people for strong qualities such as rational thinking,
ambition, and competitiveness. These qualities are important, but their overemphasis has left
many organizational leaders out of touch with their softer, caring, creative capabilities, unable to
make emotional connections with others and afraid to risk showing any sign of weakness or
emotion (Daft 157).
We need leaders that can think beyond simple management problems, have vision of the future,
and inspire society to change challenges into new opportunities. Leaders should not view
themselves as paternalistic or as caregivers, rather, embrace insights related to these
characteristics further aiding leaders to work with peoples strengths and proclivities.






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References
Daft, Richard L. The Leadership Expirience. Stamford: Cenage Learning, 2015.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York City: Harper Perennial , 1932.