BRAVE NEW WORLD: RIDLEY SCOTT AND LEONARDO DICAPRIO MOVIE What can we learn from Aldous Huxley's

Brave New World book and movies? Connect with us on : http://www.amareway.org/ This book provides an overview of Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio's "Brave New World", and what a society like the one portrayed in the movie means for human dignity. Please note the part about the movie does contain spoilers, so you may want to read it after watching the movie. This book also introduces AmAre as an approach to cultivate joyful living, for the benefit of all beings and without turning our societies into a "Brave New World". This part does not contain spoilers, so feel free to read it at any time. PART I BRAVE NEW WORLD: RIDLEY SCOTT AND LEONARDO DICAPRIO MOVIE Brave New World is Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprios new movie which gives a lot of room to discuss Aldous Huxleys work, and how happiness can be manipulated by political power. Two other adaptations from the same novel are a 3-hour, 1980 TV movie, and a 1998 movie starring Peter Gallagher and Leonard Nimoy. The novel begins in AD 2540, with a society centered on pleasure, love is considered naive but casual sex strongly encouraged. Marriage is not only unnecessary; it is considered an antisocial dirty joke because, as the conditioning voice repeats at night, everyone belongs to everyone else. Everyone is kept happy with a soma, a feel-good drug. People are cloned to meet the requirements of five different social classes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons (with each caste further split into Plus and Minus members). Quoting Wikipedia: all members of society are conditioned with the values that the World State idealizes. Children are trained to identify by their caste, co-operate, copulate, to enjoy anything that is good for Society, and hate anything that is bad for Society. Constant consumption is the bedrock of stability for the World State; one thing everyone is encouraged to consume is the ubiquitous drug, soma. Soma is a mild hallucinogen that makes it possible for everyone to be blissfully oblivious. It has no short-term side effects and induces no hangover; however, long-term abuse leads to death. Bernard Marx is a different Alpha male with an inclination to thinking. He and Lenina Disney go visit a reservoir of savages, people still living the old way. In Bernard's world, the vast majority of the population is unified as The World State, an eternally peaceful, stable, plentiful society where everyone believes everyone is happy. In the reservoir, they meet John, and bring him back with them to study him. John turns out to be the illegitimate son of the director of the cloning authority, which causes a scandal and makes John a celebrity. John loves literature, and falls in love with Lenina. Understanding they have very different views on relationships, with John seeing love as important, and Lenina focusing on sex, he asks to be sent to live in isolation. But even there he can't forget Lenina or escape a celebrityhungry (and angry) society. WHAT THIS MOVIE MAKES US THINK ABOUT Neil Postman, commenting on "A brave new world" and Orwells 1984, said: What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the

truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions. In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. Aldous Huxley wrote: If I were now to rewrite the book [Brave New World], I would offer the Savage a third alternative. Between the Utopian and primitive horns of his dilemma would lie the possibility of sanity In this community economics would be decentralist and Henry-Georgian, politics Kropotkinesque co-operative. Science and technology would be used as though, like the Sabbath, they had been made for man, not (as at present and still more so in the Brave New World) as though man were to be adapted and enslaved to them. Religion would be the conscious and intelligent pursuit of mans Final End, the unitive knowledge of immanent Tao or Logos, the transcendent Godhead or Brahman. And the prevailing philosophy of life would be a kind of Higher Utilitarianism, in which the Greatest Happiness principle would be secondary to the Final End principle the first question to be asked and answered in every contingency of life being: How will this thought or action contribute to, or interfere with, the achievement, by me and the greatest possible number of other individuals, of mans Final End? And, indeed, after writing Brave New World Revisited, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, The Doors of Perception, The Perennial Philosophy, he wrote such book: "Island'. Not to be confused with the 2005 Scarlett Johansson's movie bearing a similar name, Island explores World War II themes and ideas that interested Huxley in the post-decades, including overpopulation, ecology, modernity, democracy, mysticism, etc. Many of the ideas used to describe Pala in Island appear also in Brave New World Revisited's last chapter, among the proposed actions which could be taken in order to prevent a democracy from turning into a totalitarian world like the one described in Brave New World. Quoting Wikipedia, the culture of Pala is the offspring of a Scottish secular humanist medical doctor, who made a medical visit to the island in the 19th century, and decided to stay and work with its Raja, who embodies the island's Mahayana Buddhist tradition, to create a society that merges the best of East and West. The Old Raja's treatise Notes on What's What is a book within the book that explains Pala's philosophical foundations. A central element of Palanese society is restrained industrialization, undertaken with the goal of providing fulfilling work and time for leisure and contemplation. For the Palanese, progress means a selective attitude towards technology, which Huxley contrasts to the underdeveloped poverty of the neighboring island of Rendang, and with the alienating overdevelopment of the industrialized West, chiefly through Will Farnaby's recollections of London. The Palanese embrace modern science and technology to improve medicine and nutrition, but have rejected widespread industrialization. For example, hydroelectricity is made available for refrigeration, so that surplus fresh food can be stored, improving nutrition and protecting against food shortages. Huxley viewed this selective modernization as essential for his "sane" society, even if it means that such a society is unable to militarily defend itself from its "insane" neighbors who wish to steal its natural resources. The Palanese also circumspectly incorporated the use of "moksha medicine", a fictional entheogen taken ceremonially in rites of passage for mystical and cosmological insight. The moksha mushroom is described as "yellow" and not "those lovely red toadstools", e.g. the Amanita muscaria; this description of the moksha medicine is suggestive of Psilocybe mushrooms, a psychoactive that captivated Huxley during the latter half of his life. The recommended dosage of 400 mg, however, is in the dosage range of mescaline as opposed to psilocybin. Huxley had also been fascinated towards the end of his life by the potential benefit to humanity of substances such as mescaline and LSD. Brave New World and most of Huxley's other books were written before he

first tried a psychedelic drug in 1953.[citation needed] Sources: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/ http://www.reuters.com/ http://www.scifimoviepage.com/ http://www.wikipedia.org/ PART II What is AmAre? For situations where answer needs to be short, we summarized with AmAre what we saw as a common denominator of joyful living. For context where more wordy discussion are allowed, considering how vast is the field of well-being, we outlined some of the core topics, plus some ancillary ones, in order to offer a conversation-starter. In Italian, AmAre means "to love"; in English, interconnectedness: (I)Am (we) Are. AmAre stands for being: * A Aware and Accepting * M Meaningful and Motivated * A Active and Attentive * R Resilient and Respectful * E Eating properly and Exercising Being Aware: aware of context, aware of feelings, intentions. Aware of how we see things, our strengths, values and biases. Aware that, happiness and meaning are not only an end result which shines from far in the future; it is also within us, here and now, and it is about the way we live. Happiness is the way. Through our awareness and actions, we gain the courage to change the things we can change, the serenity to accept the things we can't change. And the wisdom to know the difference. Being Accepting: of things we cannot change, which are inevitable. Of how other people are, and especially how we perceive them. Being Meaningful, by doing what matters, when it matters. Being Motivated means we cultivate our motivation on a daily basis. Some motivations may be common to all, like to live peacefully and be kind to others. Some are more peculiar. When we pursue a specific goal in our daily life, being motivated means to know what we want to do, by leveraging our strengths and grow the energies necessary to move into Being Active. Being Active is important, because actions bring tangible results. We also need to be Attentive, so we can be receptive of the feedback and reactions to what we do in any given context, and adapt. Being active and being attentive are a self-reinforcing loop which brings happiness and other positive results to us and to the people, beings and environment we listen to. We also need to be Resilient. Life is not always a big smiling adventure, sometimes external situations can be tough, so it is important for us to bounce back on our feet. Sometimes, there are factors which do not facilitate our peaceful living, so we need to be persistent. Being Respectful is important, because resilience is about persistence and not growing a hard-skin. Respectful of us, other people (who are, too, trying to be happy, and likely also trying to live peacefully, sometimes in ways which look different from ours), beings and environment.

Eating properly, in terms of quality, quantity and company, is important. For us, and for the impact it has on the environment. Exercising is also important, both for our body and mind. Now, we see how to assess our current situation, applying the AmAre framework. The first A stands for Awareness, so here we are with meta-awareness, with awareness about our own awareness. Then, after several chapters devoted to tools and approaches you can use to maximize each component of the AmAre framework, after you make a road-map suitable for your context, and implement them, you will be presented the same assessment, so you can monitor changes over time. Awareness of our here and now: how to assess it? Disclaimer: the tools described in this chapter are a way to facilitate happiness and meaning. They are not a crystal ball, nor deterministic. We benefit from the learning process of considering different variables, assessing course of actions and seeing potential results in scenarios. The approach drafted here also allows to measure results, building a useful repository of aggregated, anonymous subjective well-being data. AmAre is not a panacea or a quick fixer. It is a framework to initiate reflection and skillful action. It is also an outreach method: there are many points to consider and, literally, every day there are several new research findings published in the field of well-being. AmAre is a way to make our body of knowledge easier to communicate and accessible, so then each of us can see her/his path and walk in appropriate ways. Where appropriate is subjective, it changes from person to person, within the similarities that we have as human being. To assess your current situation, in terms of what facilitates happiness, meaning and fulfilment, please assign in the chart above a weight and a grade to each variable If there are additional aspects you want to assess, just add as many columns as necessary. As a rule of thumb: too few variables lead to a superficial assessment, too many variables lead to a confused assessment, so try to stay within the ten variables provided plus a few of your own if necessary. For each variable, please specify: w: weight, importance given to each aspect (sum of all weights should be 100) g: grade, rating given to each aspect (each grade is a value between 0 and 1) and then use this formula to calculate your AmAre Index: (AwareW * AwareG) + (AcceptingW * AcceptingG) + (MeaningfulW * MeaningfulG) + (MotivatedW * MotivatedG) + (ActiveW * ActiveG) + (AttentiveW * AttentiveG) + (ResilientW * ResilientG) + (RespectfulW * RespectfulG) + (EatingW * EatingG) + (ExercisingW * ExercisingG) If you want to use a spreadsheet, where you can insert the values and see them automatically calculated, you can use: http://spsh.amareway.org/ What does it mean? AmAre formula (Happiness is being: Aware and Accepting + Meaningful and Motivated + Active and Attentive + Resilient and Respectful + Eating Properly and Exercising) is meant to be descriptive and preventive, but not predictive. That is, it quantifies the current situation, and the strengths and weaknesses we should be aware of and act upon. Regardless of what the number says, we are always responsible, here and now, for our happiness, so a high result means we should keep building our happiness as we have successfully done so far, and a lower result means there are aspects to act upon to improve our lives. One of the formulas strengths is its unlikeness to reach One, the perfect score, or Zero. This

formula is useful so we can improve our awareness about the situation so far, and build a better present. Once the formula served its purposes, we can move on. Because the ultimate happiness is not reaching number 1, it is in finding and renewing the appropriate life-dynamics. If we can accept the way life is, and the fact that different people assign different weights and grades to the pillars of their happiness, and still respect and care about all of us, doing our best for the mutual happiness, we are on the way to build together a lasting happy living. ***~~~*** This is a scale to interpret the overall result of the formula: 0-0.3: This is an unlikely result, so please double check each value inserted. If values are correct, it is possible the perception of your Subjective Well-Being (SWB) tends toward emphasizing the nonpositive aspects, or that there is a short-term serious issue. This means there is a need to work on all your priorities to make them more satisfying to you in the medium term. 0.31-0.60: Your level of SWB could be higher, if you are closer to 0.31 result. If you are closer to 0.5, you are near an exact average value where you perceive the same value of positive and nonpositive components in your life. In both cases, by working on the AmAre variables (starting from the ones with higher weight and lower grade), you can substantially improve your well-being. 0.61-0.90: You tend towards an optimal level of SWB. You feel happy, and likely experienced most or at least many of the happiness "fringe benefits". You likely live joyfully everyday: no matter the ups and downs we all have, you can make the best of them for yourself and the people around you. 0.91-1: This result is unlikely to be reached, so please double check each value inserted. If values are correct, you are achieving the maximum level of SWB, which you can sustain by living joyfully. To interpret the value of each AmAre variable, you can use the same scale. If a variable is high in weight, and low in grade, then it requires attention and action to improve it. If a variable is low in weight, and high in grade, then you may ask yourself if its grade is slightly over estimated. We suggest calculating your AmAre Index once per week for the first 5 weeks. Then, to calculate it once per month. Please make sure to start from scratch at each calculation, meaning you should not check values assigned in the past; after calculating your current AmAre Index, you can then check what changed compared to the previous calculations. If you want to be reminded about monthly calculation, you can register the AmAre newsletter on http://www.amareway.org/ Where are references and further information? http://www.amareway.org/ (Official website)