"No wonder these poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world didn't allow them to take things easily, didn't allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy. What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with the temptations and the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and the poverty- they were forced to feel strongly. And feeling strongly, (and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable?" (47)
I personally thought this quote held a lot of contradictions to what was actually happening in this world. Especially the part about how the old world didn't allow the pre-moderns to be sane, virtuous, and happy, when that really is ironic considering that the people of this new world require soma in order to feel happy or relaxed or whatever.
If they have truly abolished disease in this new world, that's great, but they still very much have temptations and prohibitions. I also think that they are much more isolated in this world, because they can't think for themselves and, everything they will ever be, or ever do, has pretty much been decided for them.
They are isolated in that they don't have free will, and are forced to conform to a different set of rules that masks itself as "fun" and "pleasurable," but there is still jealousy, pain, and those in the lowest castes probably are miserable, contrary to what those at the top are made to believe.
Even those who are in charge are just going off the guidelines they learned since birth, which were created by someone who came way before them, so who is really running the show here?
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