The World State enjoys all the comforts of a technologically advanced society. Reservations, like the one Linda and John come from, are allowed to exist within strictly managed boundaries and for scientific purposes. These reservations do not receive any technology, help, or resources from the World State. As a result, the people living there grow old, live in squalor, make their own alcohol, and abide by traditional rules of society--such as creating families and living in monogamous...
The World State enjoys all the comforts of a technologically advanced society. Reservations, like the one Linda and John come from, are allowed to exist within strictly managed boundaries and for scientific purposes. These reservations do not receive any technology, help, or resources from the World State. As a result, the people living there grow old, live in squalor, make their own alcohol, and abide by traditional rules of society--such as creating families and living in monogamous relationships. The World State, on the other hand, has many technological advances at their disposal for comfortable, clean, and hedonist living.
When Lenina and Bernard visit the reservation in New Mexico, they are shocked to see what age has done to Linda. They don't see people with wrinkles in the World State and Lenina says, "Old? . . . But the Director's old; lots of people are old; they're not like that" (129). Bernard is able to clarify what the society does to fight age and wrinkles as follows:
"That's because we don't allow them to be like that. We preserve them from diseases. We keep their internal secretions artificially balanced at a youthful equilibrium. . . most of them die long before they reach this old creature's age. Youth almost unimpaired till sixty, and then, crack! the end" (129).
Basically, Marx explains that people in the World State pump their bodies full of chemicals in order to look young, but it also shortens their life-span. People just can't live past sixty years of age because of the toll these chemicals can take on the human body. Add with those chemicals the use of soma everyday and these people are drugged constantly. Linda, on the other hand, is a perfect example for them to see what would happen naturally, but it also disgusts Lenina because she isn't used to seeing age or the aging process.
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