It’s not state-ordered but partly the result of soma-like mesmerization from staring at cell phones and computers hour after hour. In addition, the current epidemic of loneliness is a result of detachment. Our culture has seen a similar deterioration of families and abandonment of monogamy. Because “everyone belongs to everyone else,” family, monogamy and romance are repulsive ideas. Rejection of Familyīecoming attached to another person is scandalous among Huxley’s characters. Is that behavior any different from today’s hookup culture? I saw an interview with a college student who said she wasn’t sure what rape was since everyone slept with everyone else anyway. Friends ask each other, “Have you “had” ?” “Everyone belongs to everyone else” is the mantra that is taught to make sex meaningless. In Brave New World, not being promiscuous is considered immoral. Abstinence-only programs are actually forbidden in California schools. Groups like Planned Parenthood provide elementary through high school curriculum that promotes the pleasures and “normalcy” of various sexual practices. In the dystopia, small children are encouraged to have erotic play and taught the nursery rhyme “Orgy Porgy.” In our world, we battle pornography being pushed on children in social media and sex education in schools that is disturbingly similar.

Here again, we see conflicts with the Church’s teachings. The most notable similarities to Huxley’s novel are in the areas of promiscuity and reproduction. We are supposed to take care of the poor and vulnerable, not amass wealth at the expense of others. This situation is definitely out of line with the equity taught by Catholic social justice. Households hold 15 times more wealth than the bottom 50% combined. For example, there is a huge gap between the rich and poor.

Orgy porgy brave new world