Destruction of Originality 

''Hug me till you drug me, honey;
Kiss me till I'm in a coma;
Hug me, honey, snuggly bunny;
Love's as good as soma."

While engaging in literary enlightenment with a new book, Brave New World, some aspects of my very own, definitely non-utopian world, came out to me as pieces that played key roles in the making of this idealistic society. The drug “soma” for instance, in Brave New World is used to keep the society pleased and on track. In my 21^st century world we most definitely have our modern variations of soma that form a piece of our daily lives and are commonly accepted among society.

Our first dose of soma is consumed at the break of dawn in a liquid form, coffee. Like soma it gives us the spark we need to begin the day, “--- or if ever by some unlucky chance such a crevice of time should yawn in the solid substance of their distractions, there is always soma, delicious soma…” (Page 55).  In the novel, the common reader would be predisposed to conceive a negative connotation of the widely accepted drug, yet the irony is that the common reader can’t, if not under hypocrisy, say he or she has never consumed the 21^st century variation of soma.

Even worse, coffee is not the only soma affecting the society like a malignant tumor; alcohol and tobacco can’t be dismissed. Among the teenage and adult worlds a cigarette is a common stress relief after a hard day at work or a relationship quarrel. Although it is not nearly as accepted as it was in the mid and late 1900’s it is still a very prevalent and commonly used “soma”. Just like the drug in Brave New World it is used upon encountering an uncomfortable situation, "Lenina was still sobbing. "Too awful," she kept repeating, and all Bernard's consolations were in vain. "Too awful! That blood!" She shuddered. "Oh, I wish I had my soma."” The thought of not having soma present in an uncomfortable situation was almost terrifying to Lenina as it is to any tobacco addict or alcoholic. In today’s world feelings are repressed by these substances, not to mention the even heavier illicit ones. Alcohol, tobacco and soma all have one thing in common, they are legal and widely accepted.

What makes soma particularly controversial is the fact that it is also a hallucinogen. Today hallucinogens are illegal but in the book, which is set in a futuristic utopian world, they are legal and reinforced by the government. It leads the reader to wonder if making drugs legal, and thus ending the “war on drugs”, will lead to an even bigger problem with the acceptance of them. The novel shows that the accepted drugs become a way to reinforce stability in the society and thus brain wash them. One can only imagine what could become of the world if this sort of drug were used as a mean of control, a way to control the masses, and a path to the destruction of original thinking.