brave new world: ridley scott and leonardo dicaprio movie

8/6/2019 BRAVE NEW WORLD: RIDLEY SCOTT AND LEONARDO DICAPRIO MOVIE

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/brave-new-world-ridley-scott-and-leonardo-dicaprio-movie 1/5

BRAVE NEW WORLD: RIDLEY SCOTT AND LEONARDO DICAPRIO MOVIE

What can we learn from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World book and movies?

Connect with us on : http://www.amareway.org/

This book provides an overview of Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio's "Brave New World" ,and what a society like the one portrayed in the movie means for human dignity. Please note the part about the movie does contain spoilers, so you may want to read it after watching the movie.

This book also introduces AmAre as an approach to cultivate joyful living, for the benefit of all beings and without turning our societies into a "Brave New World". This part does not containspoilers, so feel free to read it at any time.

PART I

BRAVE NEW WORLD: RIDLEY SCOTT AND LEONARDO DICAPRIO MOVIE Brave New World is Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio’s new movie which gives a lot of room to

discuss Aldous Huxley’s work, and how happiness can be manipulated by political power. Twoother adaptations from the same novel are a 3-hour, 1980 TV movie, and a 1998 movie starringPeter Gallagher and Leonard Nimoy.

The novel begins in AD 2540, with a society centered on pleasure, love is considered naive butcasual sex strongly encouraged. Marriage is not only unnecessary; it is considered an antisocialdirty joke because, as the conditioning voice repeats at night, “everyone belongs to everyone else”.Everyone is kept happy with a soma, a feel-good drug. People are cloned to meet the requirementsof five different social classes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons (with each castefurther split into Plus and Minus members).

Quoting Wikipedia: all members of society are conditioned with the values that the World Stateidealizes. Children are trained to identify by their caste, co-operate, copulate, to enjoy anything thatis good for Society, and hate anything that is bad for Society. Constant consumption is the bedrock of stability for the World State; one thing everyone is encouraged to consume is the ubiquitousdrug, soma. Soma is a mild hallucinogen that makes it possible for everyone to be blissfullyoblivious. It has no short-term side effects and induces no hangover; however, long-term abuseleads to death.Bernard Marx is a different Alpha male with an inclination to thinking. He and Lenina Disney govisit a reservoir of “savages”, people still living the old way. In Bernard's world, the vast majorityof the population is unified as The World State, an eternally peaceful, stable, plentiful society whereeveryone believes everyone is happy.

In the reservoir, they meet John, and bring him back with them to study him. John turns out to bethe illegitimate son of the director of the cloning authority, which causes a scandal and makes Johna celebrity. John loves literature, and falls in love with Lenina. Understanding they have verydifferent views on relationships, with John seeing love as important, and Lenina focusing on sex, heasks to be sent to live in isolation. But even there he can't forget Lenina or escape a celebrity-hungry (and angry) society.

WHAT THIS MOVIE MAKES US THINK ABOUT Neil Postman, commenting on "A brave new world" and Orwell’s 1984, said: What Orwell fearedwere those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a

book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would depriveus of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to

passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the



truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture.Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies,the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New WorldRevisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failedto take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, peopleare controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In

short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

Aldous Huxley wrote: If I were now to rewrite the book [Brave New World], I would offer theSavage a third alternative. Between the Utopian and primitive horns of his dilemma would lie the

possibility of sanity… In this community economics would be decentralist and Henry-Georgian, politics Kropotkinesque co-operative. Science and technology would be used as though, like theSabbath, they had been made for man, not (as at present and still more so in the Brave New World)as though man were to be adapted and enslaved to them. Religion would be the conscious andintelligent pursuit of man’s Final End, the unitive knowledge of immanent Tao or Logos, thetranscendent Godhead or Brahman. And the prevailing philosophy of life would be a kind of Higher Utilitarianism, in which the Greatest Happiness principle would be secondary to the Final End

principle – the first question to be asked and answered in every contingency of life being: “Howwill this thought or action contribute to, or interfere with, the achievement, by me and the greatest possible number of other individuals, of man’s Final End?”

And, indeed, after writing Brave New World Revisited, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,The Doors of Perception, The Perennial Philosophy, he wrote such book: "Island'. Not to beconfused with the 2005 Scarlett Johansson's movie bearing a similar name, Island explores WorldWar II themes and ideas that interested Huxley in the post-decades, including overpopulation,ecology, modernity, democracy, mysticism, etc. Many of the ideas used to describe Pala in Islandappear also in Brave New World Revisited's last chapter, among the proposed actions which could

be taken in order to prevent a democracy from turning into a totalitarian world like the one

described in Brave New World.

Quoting Wikipedia, the culture of Pala is the offspring of a Scottish secular humanist medicaldoctor, who made a medical visit to the island in the 19th century, and decided to stay and work with its Raja, who embodies the island's Mahayana Buddhist tradition, to create a society thatmerges the best of East and West. The Old Raja's treatise Notes on What's What is a book withinthe book that explains Pala's philosophical foundations.

A central element of Palanese society is restrained industrialization, undertaken with the goal of providing fulfilling work and time for leisure and contemplation. For the Palanese, progress meansa selective attitude towards technology, which Huxley contrasts to the underdeveloped poverty of

the neighboring island of Rendang, and with the alienating overdevelopment of the industrializedWest, chiefly through Will Farnaby's recollections of London. The Palanese embrace modernscience and technology to improve medicine and nutrition, but have rejected widespreadindustrialization. For example, hydroelectricity is made available for refrigeration, so that surplusfresh food can be stored, improving nutrition and protecting against food shortages. Huxley viewedthis selective modernization as essential for his "sane" society, even if it means that such a society isunable to militarily defend itself from its "insane" neighbors who wish to steal its natural resources.The Palanese also circumspectly incorporated the use of "moksha medicine", a fictional entheogentaken ceremonially in rites of passage for mystical and cosmological insight. The mokshamushroom is described as "yellow" and not "those lovely red toadstools", e.g. the Amanitamuscaria; this description of the moksha medicine is suggestive of Psilocybe mushrooms, a

psychoactive that captivated Huxley during the latter half of his life. The recommended dosage of 400 mg, however, is in the dosage range of mescaline as opposed to psilocybin. Huxley had also

been fascinated towards the end of his life by the potential benefit to humanity of substances suchas mescaline and LSD. Brave New World and most of Huxley's other books were written before he



first tried a psychedelic drug in 1953.[citation needed]

Sources:http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/http://news.bbc.co.uk/http://www.reuters.com/

http://www.scifimoviepage.com/http://www.wikipedia.org/

PART II

What is AmAre?

For situations where answer needs to be short, we summarized with AmAre what we saw as acommon denominator of joyful living. For context where more wordy discussion are allowed,considering how vast is the field of well-being, we outlined some of the core topics, plus someancillary ones, in order to offer a conversation-starter.

In Italian, AmAre means "to love"; in English, interconnectedness: (I)Am (we) Are. AmAre standsfor being:

* A – Aware and Accepting

* M – Meaningful and Motivated

* A – Active and Attentive

* R – Resilient and Respectful

* E – Eating properly and Exercising

Being Aware: aware of context, aware of feelings, intentions. Aware of how we see things, our strengths, values and biases. Aware that, happiness and meaning are not only an end result whichshines from far in the future; it is also within us, here and now, and it is about the way we live.Happiness is the way. Through our awareness and actions, we gain the courage to change the thingswe can change, the serenity to accept the things we can't change. And the wisdom to know thedifference.

Being Accepting: of things we cannot change, which are inevitable. Of how other people are, andespecially how we perceive them.

Being Meaningful, by doing what matters, when it matters.

Being Motivated means we cultivate our motivation on a daily basis. Some motivations may becommon to all, like to live peacefully and be kind to others. Some are more peculiar. When we

pursue a specific goal in our daily life, being motivated means to know what we want to do, byleveraging our strengths and grow the energies necessary to move into Being Active.

Being Active is important, because actions bring tangible results. We also need to be Attentive, sowe can be receptive of the feedback and reactions to what we do in any given context, and adapt.Being active and being attentive are a self-reinforcing loop which brings happiness and other

positive results to us and to the people, beings and environment we listen to.

We also need to be Resilient. Life is not always a big smiling adventure, sometimes externalsituations can be tough, so it is important for us to bounce back on our feet. Sometimes, there arefactors which do not facilitate our peaceful living, so we need to be persistent.

Being Respectful is important, because resilience is about persistence and not growing a hard-skin.Respectful of us, other people (who are, too, trying to be happy, and likely also trying to live

peacefully, sometimes in ways which look different from ours), beings and environment.



Eating properly, in terms of quality, quantity and company, is important. For us, and for the impactit has on the environment.

Exercising is also important, both for our body and mind.

Now, we see how to assess our current situation, applying the AmAre framework. The first A standsfor Awareness, so here we are with meta-awareness, with awareness about our own awareness.

Then, after several chapters devoted to tools and approaches you can use to maximize eachcomponent of the AmAre framework, after you make a road-map suitable for your context, andimplement them, you will be presented the same assessment, so you can monitor changes over time.

Awareness of our here and now: how to assess it?

Disclaimer: the tools described in this chapter are a way to facilitate happiness and meaning. Theyare not a crystal ball, nor deterministic. We benefit from the learning process of consideringdifferent variables, assessing course of actions and seeing potential results in scenarios. Theapproach drafted here also allows to measure results, building a useful repository of aggregated,anonymous subjective well-being data.

AmAre is not a panacea or a quick fixer. It is a framework to initiate reflection and skillful action.It is also an outreach method: there are many points to consider and, literally, every day there areseveral new research findings published in the field of well-being. AmAre is a way to make our

body of knowledge easier to communicate and accessible, so then each of us can see her/his pathand walk in appropriate ways. Where appropriate is subjective, it changes from person to person,within the similarities that we have as human being.

To assess your current situation, in terms of what facilitates happiness, meaning and fulfilment, please assign in the chart above a weight and a grade to each variable If there are additional aspectsyou want to assess, just add as many columns as necessary. As a rule of thumb: too few variableslead to a superficial assessment, too many variables lead to a confused assessment, so try to stay

within the ten variables provided plus a few of your own if necessary.For each variable, please specify:

w: weight, importance given to each aspect (sum of all weights should be 100)

g: grade, rating given to each aspect (each grade is a value between 0 and 1)

and then use this formula to calculate your AmAre Index:

(AwareW * AwareG) + (AcceptingW * AcceptingG) + (MeaningfulW * MeaningfulG) +(MotivatedW * MotivatedG) + (ActiveW * ActiveG) + (AttentiveW * AttentiveG) + (ResilientW *ResilientG) + (RespectfulW * RespectfulG) + (EatingW * EatingG) + (ExercisingW *ExercisingG)

If you want to use a spreadsheet, where you can insert the values and see them automaticallycalculated, you can use: http://spsh.amareway.org/

What does it mean?

AmAre formula (Happiness is being: Aware and Accepting + Meaningful and Motivated + Activeand Attentive + Resilient and Respectful + Eating Properly and Exercising) is meant to bedescriptive and preventive, but not predictive. That is, it quantifies the current situation, and thestrengths and weaknesses we should be aware of and act upon. Regardless of what the number says,we are always responsible, here and now, for our happiness, so a high result means we should keep

building our happiness as we have successfully done so far, and a lower result means there areaspects to act upon to improve our lives.

One of the formula’s strengths is its unlikeness to reach One, the perfect score, or Zero. This



formula is useful so we can improve our awareness about the situation so far, and build a better present. Once the formula served its purposes, we can move on. Because the ultimate happiness isnot reaching number 1, it is in finding and renewing the appropriate life-dynamics. If we can acceptthe way life is, and the fact that different people assign different weights and grades to the pillars of their happiness, and still respect and care about all of us, doing our best for the mutual happiness,we are on the way to build together a lasting happy living.

***~~~***

This is a scale to interpret the overall result of the formula:

0-0.3: This is an unlikely result, so please double check each value inserted. If values are correct, itis possible the perception of your Subjective Well-Being (SWB) tends toward emphasizing the non-

positive aspects, or that there is a short-term serious issue. This means there is a need to work on allyour priorities to make them more satisfying to you in the medium term.

0.31-0.60: Your level of SWB could be higher, if you are closer to 0.31 result. If you are closer to0.5, you are near an exact average value where you perceive the same value of positive and non-

positive components in your life. In both cases, by working on the AmAre variables (starting fromthe ones with higher weight and lower grade), you can substantially improve your well-being.

0.61-0.90: You tend towards an optimal level of SWB. You feel happy, and likely experienced mostor at least many of the happiness "fringe benefits". You likely live joyfully everyday: no matter theups and downs we all have, you can make the best of them for yourself and the people around you.

0.91-1: This result is unlikely to be reached, so please double check each value inserted. If valuesare correct, you are achieving the maximum level of SWB, which you can sustain by living

joyfully.

To interpret the value of each AmAre variable, you can use the same scale. If a variable is high inweight, and low in grade, then it requires attention and action to improve it. If a variable is low in

weight, and high in grade, then you may ask yourself if its grade is slightly over estimated.

We suggest calculating your AmAre Index once per week for the first 5 weeks. Then, to calculate itonce per month. Please make sure to start from scratch at each calculation, meaning you should notcheck values assigned in the past; after calculating your current AmAre Index, you can then check what changed compared to the previous calculations. If you want to be reminded about monthlycalculation, you can register the AmAre newsletter on http://www.amareway.org/

Where are references and further information?

http://www.amareway.org/

(Official website)

brave new world: ridley scott and leonardo dicaprio movie

Documents