“Therefore, in the future, there may come a time where his ideas may be applied to the real world, or maybe just in an essay.”(Blog 2). Looking back at my last Blog Post, I wondered if there were any real life instances, or fictional stories, where Rousseau’s philosophies played a subtle role in. Besides the obvious influence his ideas had on the creation of governments, as many other Enlightenment thinkers did, I wondered to what extent has his beliefs influenced society. This was when I remembered the Dystopian genre which take Rousseau’s ideas and intensifies them farther than he himself could have done. I believe that if one were to look deep enough into stories, Rousseau’s arguments can be found within them.

     I remembered reading a dystopian novel called “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley a while ago. This novel took place in the far future where humans were grown in pods, placed in a social hierarchy where they were divided. Those who were genetically modified to be perfect would be few in number and would be at the top of society while those who were modified to have low intelligence and be weaker were cloned in numbers, placed at the bottom of society, and did all the menial labor. The story follows two characters from two different lifestyles, one who was part of the highest part of society named Bernard, and the other, named John, who was considered as a savage because he was not part of society at all. If one were to look deeply, Rousseau’s criticism on the arts and sciences can be found in the novel. Rousseau believed that the arts and sciences would lead to corruption and the destruction of virtue (Rousseau). In the modern day, technology falls under the arts and sciences category. Therefore, in the novel, all that is technological causes the corruption of virtue in society. These humans living in this future are controlled by technology, indoctrinated into believing things that would be insane in our opinions and even more to Rousseau.

 The most interesting part of the novel is how Rousseau’s ideas are also followed in a unique way. In other words, the way that these people live fall under the way Rousseau believes we should live to some extent. Those who have power use the arts and sciences to control the masses while depriving the masses from the arts and sciences. The character John has read all of Shakespeare’s plays and at some point in the novel, he argues with those in power about why the masses do not know about literature, the arts and the sciences. Those in power tell him that none of it is important; none of the arts and sciences serve their purpose in controlling the masses. In a way, this is a corrupt form of Rousseau’s ideology. In the end, although the masses do not have knowledge of the arts and sciences, they cannot survive without the use of technology which proves Rousseau right. Hopefully the future does not reach the point to where humanity relies solely on technology.

Work cited:

Chavez, Jonathan. Blog Post 2: Rousseau in Society.

Huxley, Aldous. “Brave New World”. 1932.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. “The Basic Political Writings:”. Translated by Donald A. Cress, second ed., Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2012.