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The optimum population, said Mustapha Mond, is modelled on the icebergeight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above. And theyre happy below the water line? Happier than above it. Happier than your friends here, for example. He pointed. In spite of that awful work? Awful? They dont find it so. On the contrary, they like it. Its light, its childishly simple. No strain on the mind or the muscles. Seven and a half hours of mild, unexhausting labour, and then the soma ration and games and unrestricted copulation and the feelies. What more can they ask for? True, he added, they might ask for shorter hours. And of course we could give them shorter hours. Technically, it would be perfectly simple to reduce all lower-caste working hours to three or four a day. But would they be any the happier for that? No, they wouldnt. The experiment was tried, more than a century and a half ago. The whole of Ireland was put on to the four-hour day. What was the result? Unrest and a large increase in the consumption of soma; that was all. Those three and a half hours of extra leisure were so far from being a source of happiness, that people felt constrained to take a holiday from them. The Inventions Office is stuffed with plans for labour-saving processes. Thousands of them. Mustapha Mond made a lavish gesture. And why dont we put them into execution? For the sake of the labourers; it would be sheer cruelty to afflict them with excessive leisure. Its the same with agriculture. We could synthesize every morsel of food, if we wanted to. But we dont. We prefer to keep a third of the population on the land. For their own sakesbecause it takes longer to get food out of the land than out of a factory. Besides, we have our stability to think of. We dont want to change. Every change is a menace to stability. Thats another reason why were so chary of applying new inventions. Every discovery in pure science is potentially subversive; even science must sometimes be treated as a possible enemy. Yes, even science. Science? The Savage frowned. He knew the word. But what it exactly signified he could not say. Shakespeare and the old men of the pueblo had never mentioned science, and from Linda he had only gathered the vaguest hints: science was something you made helicopters with, something that caused you to laugh at the Corn Dances, something that prevented you from being wrinkled and losing your teeth. He made a desperate effort to take the Controllers meaning. Yes, Mustapha Mond was saying, thats another item in the cost of stability. It isnt only art thats incompatible with happiness; its also science. Science is dangerous; we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled. What? said Helmholtz, in astonishment. But were always saying that science is everything. Its a hypnopædic platitude. Three times a week between thirteen and seventeen, put in Bernard. And all the science propaganda we do at the College Yes; but what sort of science? asked Mustapha Mond sarcastically. Youve had no scientific training, so you cant judge. I was a pretty good physicist in my time. Too goodgood enough to realize that all our science is just a cookery book, with an orthodox theory of cooking that nobodys allowed to question, and a list of recipes that mustnt be added to except by special permission from the head cook. Im the head cook now. But I was an inquisitive young scullion once. I started doing a bit of cooking on my own. Unorthodox cooking, illicit cooking. A bit of real science, in fact. He was silent. What happened? asked Helmholtz Watson. The Controller sighed. Very nearly whats going to happen to you young men. I was on the point of being sent to an island. |
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