In Brave New World is John the Savage the only one who isn't a Noble Savage? It seems like everybody else has an innate sense of morality because they were raised in those hatcheries and were whispered things and they were raised away from outside influence. While John was raised outside and was influenced by these outside things, he isn't innately good, like the other people. So, he isn't a Noble Savage, right?
Last edited by Quintus Ennius; 04-16-2012 at 06:19 PM.
Rousseau didn't think that people were born into a natural state of goodness. He thought that savage societies were superior to both the natural state of animal man and to contemporary civilization, where he felt the mechanism of society had been used to perpetuate inequalities and made us all egocentric.
The point for Rousseau isn't a primitivist naturalism, but an argument for a less hierarchical society. In which case, the world of Alphas and Betas is certainly not more in line with Rousseau's idea.
"If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia."
- Margaret Atwood
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