The most terrifying thing in the world is "I wish you happiness forever".
This sentence is equivalent to making you only happy for a lifetime, not allowed to feel other emotions, not allowed to experience other possibilities.
Think about it, how boring is this?
The opposite of happiness is pain.
It can be said that if you give up pain, you are giving up the most interesting part of your life.
The drama version of Brave New World is different from the original novel. Screenwriter David Wiener said in an interview with foreign media:
In order to distinguish it from Huxley's original work, the adaptation of the series will focus more on the inner struggles of the hero and heroine, rather than discussing the overall environment of the future world.
This has little to do with Orwellian questions like overthrowing state rule or thinking about the challenges people face. This is a dystopian novel, but the dystopia it ultimately reveals is the dystopia within us.
He also said: When you start giving up something that makes you miserable, you are actually giving up a fundamental part of human nature.
And what we want to explore is the value of these things.
Yes, the people in Brave New World gave up pain, they gave up freedom for joy.
They also invented a drug called "Xiao Ma", which can make people happy all the time and stay away from pain.
At the same time, it also makes people give up thinking and give up the possibility of pursuing another life.
I think that only because of pain can people become a real person and experience what it is like to be truly alive.
Therefore, the pursuit of happiness in life is definitely not the ultimate goal. Freedom, the right to choose what kind of life to live, is the ultimate goal.
Just like eating sweets, it always makes people feel good, but the purpose of the tongue is not to eat only sweets, but to taste the ups and downs.
If a person can only eat sweet food all his life, his life is too boring.
Bernard in the play had also suspected that numbness could not solve all the pain.
Even consumption, entertainment, and indulgence cannot fill our greatest pain—the single, unchosen, meaningless emptiness of life.
It can be seen from this that we will eventually coexist with pain, and if you can't escape, you don't have to.
Perhaps, only by fighting with pain all our lives can we find some interest and meaning in life.
As Socrates said: Do you want to be a cowardly but happy pig, or a painful but dare to experience real life...
This may be a choice we all face.
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