Page 10 - Brave New World

THE ENGLISH SCHOOL MA GA ZINE 2021
WHAT
BRAVE NEW
WORLD?
I TOOK THE PHOTO BELOW ALMOST TWO YEARS AGO. IT HAD BEEN A
LONG AFTERNOON OF MOCK EXAMINATIONS AND THEN SUDDENLY THIS
BRIGHT, OTHER-WORLDLY LIGHT APPEARED AT THE HALL END OF THE
MAIN BUILDING GROUND FLOOR CORRIDOR. WALKING INTO ITS
INTENSIFYING WARMTH AND ENERGY IT FELT LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN
AN EPIPHANY MOMENT. I REJECTED SUCH FANCIFUL NOTIONS AT THE
TIME, DESPITE BEING UNABLE TO RESIST ATTEMPTING TO CAPTURE THE
SCENE ON CAMERA, BUT HAVE SINCE THOUGHT BACK TO THE EXPERIENCE
ON MANY OCCASIONS. WAS THIS JUST A PRETTY EFFECT OF THE SPRING
SUN SETTING, ANGLED THROUGH THE MUNDANITY OF A DOOR BEING
LEFT OPEN? OR, GIVEN THE MYSTERIOUS DIMENSIONS OF OUR 121 YEAR
LEGACY, WAS IT PERHAPS A WHITE SURPLICED ENGLISH SCHOOL
PARANORMAL VISITATION? WE WILL RETURN TO THIS A LITTLE LATER.
reflections
08
Ursula Pantelides
Senior Assistant Head
As with many famous phrases now
embedded in the English language, the
concept of a ‘brave new world’ comes from
Shakespeare. Fittingly perhaps, in what is
generally acknowledged as his 1611
valedictory play, The Tempest, Miranda, a
young woman (of impeccable character)
speaks these words of hope and enthusiasm
in the last scene. Previously exiled on a lonely
island with only her father, Caliban ‘a savage
and deformed slave’, and sundry spirits for
company, she voices her amazement at
suddenly seeing a human king and host of
courtiers. It is a moment of great revelation
for her:
O wonder!
How many goodly creatures
are there here!
How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world
That has such people in it
‘The Tempest’ Act V: I lines 182-184
Subsequent writers have upended Miranda’s
rather broad-brush belief in the inherent
goodness of humanity and used the phrase
ironically, writers such as Jonathan Swift
(Gulliver’s Travels) and H.G. Wells (A Modern
Utopia). Aldous Huxley who titled his work of
dystopian science fiction Brave New World,
had his book banned in Ireland on publication
in 1932. Due to its purported ‘offensive
language’, ‘sexually explicit scenes’ and
wanted banned’ . Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’
‘insensitivity’, as late as 2011 it was still
‘among the top 10 books Americans most
1
leads us through a genetically engineered
future society where technology rules.
Humans are created through artificial means,
moulded into a social hierarchy based on
intelligence and labour function, and kept
‘happy’ through a drug called Soma. Needless
to say, the protagonist who rebels against
this empty regime, has a tragic and clearly
‘unhappy’ end. Many other writers have
taken this notion of state overturning basic
human freedoms, in supposed pursuit of a
utopian society further, not least the great
Canadian writer of dystopian fiction
Margaret Atwood. She aptly comments:
Surely it’s time to look again at Brave New
World and to examine its arguments for and
against the totally planned society it describes,
in which ‘’everybody is happy now.’’ What sort
of happiness is on offer and what is the price
we might pay to achieve it? 2
It is these questions which our current
students need to consider when taking time
to think beyond the confines of their IGCSE or
GCE syllabi, as indeed many do. Their future
presents a ‘brave new world’ of analysing
increasingly complex problems and seeking
increasingly innovative solutions: privacy and
confidentiality in our increasingly data driven
world; scientific and technological development
but at what social or environmental cost? a
myriad of human rights discrimination issues;
world poverty and conflict. Every day we are
presented with a heady array of what used to
be impossible now becoming possible, from
robotic warfare to re-growing one’s own
teeth, from ‘intelligent shopping’ to landing on
Mars, to gene therapy. All this is happening at
a previously inconceivable speed with the
excitement of technological discovery and
the tantalising possibility of solutions to
pressing world problems. Yet despite all this
positivity, technology alone just doesn’t hack
it [pun intended.] At a personal level, many of
us still search for a deeper sense of fulfilment
and lack a sense of innate personal happiness.
That ‘brave new world’ seems to filter down to
requiring courage, in the challenges of daily
routine and relationships, simply to survive.
As we know, amassing a string of external
exam qualifications is only a very small part of
becoming a healthy, successful professional
and future world citizen. There is emotional
intelligence and all the soft skills which make
a person a kind and thoughtful human being,
whether in communication with their ‘goodly’
or not so ‘goodly’ fellows. And there is
leadership, to which many of our students
rightfully aspire. True leadership comes from
a wider understanding of the world outside
one’s own comfort zone and the resolution to
speak out when one believes there is injustice.
So this brings me back to the strange light
streaming through the school one afternoon
two years ago. Was it a supernatural
phenomenon? Well, maybe – why not keep
an open mind? Was it just a trick of light? Well
maybe- there is a scientific explanation for most
things. And what else? Well maybe it was natural
energy filling the school, reminding each of
us as a member of this privileged community
that we each have a ‘brave new world’ to face,
and compassionately. And make our family, our
and entrusting us with the responsibility to
lead in its development ethically, courageously
friends and most importantly ourselves,
proud of having tried.