Soma in todays world

My class at St. Pauls High School has just started reading "Brave New World" and one thing in the book has stuck me as odd. Soma in the noval is taken by people in Brave new World when they feel any kind of emotion not programmed in them already. I think Huxley was right when he predicted drugs like Soma in the future. We have many kinds of drugs taken by millions in this country that deal with making people feel better about themselves and people around them, drugs like Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Luvox are all forms of drugs that make you feel better. Are we already living in a "Brave New World" and don't know it? Maybe in our world today we can find that mind controlling is not the way of the future because without knowing the bad, you will never know the good.

As a teenager, in the 1960's, I felt I was very clever to realize (mistakenly) that "soma" was taken from the Greek word "soma" (for "body" or "bodily" as in "somatic"). In middle life, I began to study the Hindu Vedas, and the Zoroastrian Avestas, which mention a "soma" or "haoma" as a juice which is worshipped.

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Originally Posted by SPHS Pajot

My class at St. Pauls High School has just started reading "Brave New World" and one thing in the book has stuck me as odd. Soma in the noval is taken by people in Brave new World when they feel any kind of emotion not programmed in them already. I think Huxley was right when he predicted drugs like Soma in the future. We have many kinds of drugs taken by millions in this country that deal with making people feel better about themselves and people around them, drugs like Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Luvox are all forms of drugs that make you feel better. Are we already living in a "Brave New World" and don't know it? Maybe in our world today we can find that mind controlling is not the way of the future because without knowing the bad, you will never know the good.

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Brilliant words SPHS Pajot :thumbs_up

Any drug they give to 5 year olds to get them behave in a classroom environment.

Interesting point.

At the moment the antidepressants available are too "hit and miss" regarding efficacy. This is one field of medicine which requires a lot of work. In the future we may well understand the brain better and perhaps find a "one fits all" antidepressant feel-good medicine that prozac promised to be a for a while.

But thinking about soma a bit more it seems to me to be more of a hallucinogenic type drug than an antidepressant - more like a mild form of LSD, but with more consistent euphoric effects.

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Originally Posted by SPHS Pajot

My class at St. Pauls High School has just started reading "Brave New World" and one thing in the book has stuck me as odd. Soma in the noval is taken by people in Brave new World when they feel any kind of emotion not programmed in them already. I think Huxley was right when he predicted drugs like Soma in the future. We have many kinds of drugs taken by millions in this country that deal with making people feel better about themselves and people around them, drugs like Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Luvox are all forms of drugs that make you feel better. Are we already living in a "Brave New World" and don't know it? Maybe in our world today we can find that mind controlling is not the way of the future because without knowing the bad, you will never know the good.

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Nice point of view dear. :)))
I am reading it too and i am horrified by soma. In the novel, when people are in a bad mood they take it, like a lot of young guys do nowadays with alcohol.
I think that every human emotion is important, even PAIN. Pain makes us better sometimes, let us think about what we have done bad and makes us mending it. If when someone is sad and takes soma, he will never overthink about WHY he is sad and the way to change this situation (In fact this is one important point of society - never thinking-).
In this world if everyone is happy and satisfied, no one will change, will improve.
If in France everyone was happy, there would be never been any revolution.
If in this brave new world every one is happy, oh my god, things will be for ever like that.

Greetings by Italy :hat: