Book Review: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

  Zombies: The biologically undead, but ‘mentally’ dead creatures. Under the domination of ‘Brave New world’, people remain as zombies because they cannot let themselves come out from the society’s ideology. What they believe as happiness and the things they feel satisfying are actually just an illusion made by the ruling communities. As a result, someone who has a different thought than the society has are considered irrational. However, they do not know the ‘truth’ of their history, since they only accept the future of their society by the knowledge unconsciously educated to them.

So, what is the civilization? The notional meaning of it, according to a dictionary, is an “advanced" culture in contrast to more supposedly primitive cultures. And in this book, it is also described as a value that all the social members should pursue. They are ignorant of their ancestor’s history. Their birth is classified into their hierarchy the scientists decide in the laboratory as the result of civilization everyday there.

  What I was shocked at in this book was the presence of Sona, drug for feeling happiness, and simultaneously making people into zombies. People see their society as ‘happiness’ itself, but it was just because their life’s anger is controlled by the medicinal effect of Sona. All their actions originated from the education they had learned in the first years after their birth.

  I once have read the book <Our beautiful country 우리들의 아름다운 나라>, the story of utopia restricting not only our sense but feelings too, as well as making humans just a studying machine. Reading <Brave New World>, I thought the circumstances of those books were very much connected to each other, on the point that older generation makes new generation as ‘idiots’ who unconsciously accept the older generation’s ruling. And I wonder whether I am also in the ‘unconscious zone’ of controls now. The world I believe as reasonable cannot be admitted to be right despite many people’s consent around me.

  “I know that I know nothing.”, Socrates said. I now understand the real meaning of this phrase: The wider vision we have, the more essentially we can regard this society. We all should try to grasp the real meaning of our life and the society to find ourselves.

20160313 Essay 3: Tax and Welfare

Nowadays, the relationship between the government and the people is usually focused on the attitude toward and role of each sides as a social objects. Especially, the policy of taking tax was arranged for more infra-structure that could seldom be constructed by individuals. But recently, the opinion that we require lowering tax is arousing due to the freedom of people's using their money after their will. However, I insist that the government collect more tax on improving the society and the people's life.

First of all, the quailty of welfare which contributes to the social development becomes much better. For instance, through the aid of exploiting human resources which can be done by government's tax, like providing education and more political support, the economic growth such as GDP rises. And Samsung is one of the representative corporation developed by this method.

Second, the process of collecting more tax is for the people. Some people might claim that higher tax lets people not be able to consume things they want. In contrast, collecting tax is proposed to re-invest to our society to solve various social problems. As a result, we can conclude it allows all people to achieve security, which are basic values that people are eager to share and enjoy for themselves. In addition, the amount of monetary can be easily controlled so that the economy of our society will be administered much effectively by this process.

Finally, the investment of the medical research can be expanded. As one of the major world market, drugs are being spotlighted. However, the present condition of inventing new medicine in our country is difficult since so little information is available. Also, when a new syndrome called MERS was at a high risk of spreading, the only laboratory for the epidemic study in Korea was not well runned because there was not much inverstment for that. And this led to another social confusion. Unlike us, several developed countries like U.S. and E.U. are getting economic vitalization by supporting these medical industries.

Conclusively, I think we should raise more tax to evolve welfare, to respect people's life more, and to lead medical research. I expect the development of Korea through these.

20160313 Essay 2: Higher Education Access

Recently, the idea of democracy led to the national development through various policies suggested for people's valuable life. And one of the social components improved by the policies is - Education. As the perception that education carries to the strength of the nation arouses, people started demanding compulsory education for all teenagers from the government. Then it allowed our society to become more advanced. Despite all these benefits, now some people insists higher education be available only to good students because that's the way to raise outstanding people much effectively. However, I personally think higher education should be accessible to all people.

First, the education for all the students fulfills the equality of chances. Some might claim that classified education is needed to achieve the aim of growing remarkable students. In contrast, the opinion is not only against the spirit of democracy, but the education itself, which should exist for all who want to approach.

Second, the process of sharing knowledge, which is common in higher education, makes people get more ideas from a variety of students. for instance, my sister is now majoring in the study of tourism, and through some activities in groups helped her do more successful projects. And it also led to more social contacts.

Finally, the role of education for students is to experience the society. The important point of the education is that capabilities of absorbing, apllying, and improving knowledge are not the only purpose of higher education. Rather, people can meet each other and learn how to survive in communities.

In conclusion, I claim higher education to be adopted to every student for the reason that the education offers people the equal opportunities, chance of sharing ideas with people, and the way to experience society on secondhand. Therefore, I hope the education be more fair.

20160225 Essay 1: Industrialization and Food Culture

Due to the rapid economic growth and the industrialization, our food culture has changed a great deal. Especially, the “food” became one of the goods made by the factory, contributing to the shorter time to prepare for dishes than our ancestors had done. But suggesting that modern “industrialized” food styles can badly affect our health, some people claim that this phenomenon deteriorates the way they live. However, in my opinion, it has led to the improvement of our life.

First of all, it brings more relaxation to our life. Some people might insist that they can get calm through the process of preparing foods. However, for most of people, it rather increases the amount of stress. For instance, about 86% of homemakers responded that they get stress under compulsion of preparing holiday foods, according to a survey. And it caused the convenient food market more succeed. Additionally, since saving our time to prepare Cuisine, we have more spare time to use in various ways such as working, taking a rest, and so on.

Also, it provides us with more jobs. The more HMR(Home meal replacement) and RTC(Ready to cook) market grows, the more people can be offered the workplaces through the economic vitalization. Especially, the innovatingart of the industry will be developed as more people want new fascinating products to the company.

Lastly, consumers prefer those foods owing to their convenience. For example, according to the industry, the cost of the HMR(home meal replacement) sale domestically increased from 13,000 million to 17,000 million won in 2014. And this result is known as caused by the fact that more consumers are likely to buy food easy to cook, regarding their interviews.

In conclusion, I think the easiness of preparing food improved the quality of people’s life, and makes us cook in convenient way. Therefore, I hope this market be expanded.