Brave New World

Fanny and Lenina appear to believe that promiscuity is a kind of social duty of which they
sometimes tire. They are conditioned not to have strong feelings about anyone. Mustapha Mond
explains that love is like water under pressure in a pipe. If the pipe is pierced once, a strong jet is
the result, but if it is pierced many times, each jet is just a small leak. Mond argues that strong
feelings lead to instability:
"No wonder these poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world
didn’t allow them to take things easily, didn’t allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy.
What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to
obey, what with the temptations and the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases and
the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and the poverty—they were forced
to feel strongly. And feeling strongly (and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in
hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable? (41)

Are we the “pre-moderns” to which Mond refers? Is he right that we are emotionally unstable? Is
his description of our situation accurate? Do love, marriage, and strong attachments create the
problems in our society? Is the avoidance of love, marriage, and strong attachments to children
and other individuals a good solution to the problems of our society?