A gramme is better than a damn

Periodically, reading a work of fiction is a way in which to reset the buzz of frenzied thoughts. Few things better than an escape into the land of literature; a time to be alone in the quiet of the mind. Sometimes I feel as if I'm drowning in a sea of dry text. Reference books the size of cinder blocks anchoring me in the deep, leaving it up to the imagination to speculate what the surface might be like. I can only guess how the weather is up there, through the scattered transmission of light to the bottom. Like shadows on the cave wall, the world outside is just impressions on the ocean floor. So I read to pass the time, since I'll be stuck here for some time.

Finished Brave New World by Aldous Huxley early this morning, around 8 am. I realized while I was writing this that I subconsciously select books that reflect the environment I'm in. While I was working in the neuro lab with paraplegic rats, I read Misery by Stephan King. I didn't even make the connection in Brave New Word until 4 chapters worth of oh-my-Ford's. Maybe it's a magic trick and if I read more books about where I want to be, I'll end up there.

Mid way into Brave New Word, there was almost a complete agreement with their new world thought. It sounds like a perfect place to exist. No parents, no children, no family. Isn't that where most our problems stem from? The nuclear family is breeding ground for mental monsters, a place where defense mechanisms are built - assembly line style. In a world where "everyone belongs to everyone" there would be no lonely nights suffering the betrayal of a trusted lover. Pain in any form is terminated with a soma. How splendid.

Take in account the control over population growth. The end of poverty, starvation, war. A world in which we not only accept but have pride in our station, wherever it might be in the caste system. All that has to happen is an exchange of free thought for social security. On a good day, I might not agree with the forfeit of my individual. However, today is not that day. On days, weeks, months, like today. I'd gladly give it all away.