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[ashrawi]

The Brave New World Theory

What is the purpose of DHARMA?
The theme in Lost is what we see as good - should you let someone cure you (to change who you are in mind/body) or should you let nature run its course, trusting that you can heal yourself (finding yourself, cease being lost)? If we were able to give ourselves another fate than what we were born with, would we do it at all costs rather than accepting the flaws that nature/God gave us? This theme is about the conditions we were born with and the choice we have to go against our nature to form and enhance ourselves by artificial means which effects the core of our personality.

The Brave New World Theory is that DHARMA Initiative wants to be able to give mankind a second chance, thereby transcending and becoming what we as of yet perceive as God.

Back history
DHARMA has the power to heal psychological and/or physical state, which stabilizes the state of the one subjected to it. They want the future generations of mankind to be mentally and physically superior to us with a superior immune system making institutions like mental hospitals, disease clinics (mental or physical disease is exterminated) and prisons (unborn children are designed in vitro to be law-abiding and non-aggressive) obsolete.

The cure that DHARMA uses is most acutely felt in the psyche of those subjected to it. The effect is experienced as a feeling best described as redemption. The way the cure works is by reviving difficult memories and making the survivors confront what torments their guilty conscience and makes them come to terms with their darkest actions of the past so that they can let go of what keeps them from fully living and evolving. This means that with mind-altering scientific means no one is predestined, not even by past experiences.

Physical changes resulted by being under control of DHARMA are considered to be miracles. Scientists are today working with micro biologically modified viruses as forms of cures, which in the extreme form can mean genetic replacements or healing nervous systems, so that the incomplete becomes complete, eradicating imperfections, for example infertility or paralysis.

The survivors are test subjects selected for their individual emotional baggage. The cure used on them is a living virus that forms visions of suppressed traumatic memories inflicted by loss and pain. Some of the surreal things we have seen are mass hallucinations caused by this experimental cure to help the survivors reach redemption and works like protecting totems. Walt's polar bear allows him and his father get closer and Kate's horse and similarly Sawyer's boar and everybody's monster are representations or reflections of their fear of unknown future or guilt provoked by inner demons from the past. These mirror images are not real but what they do to help them deal or trust each other are real processes. The cure has become part of the island and helps the survivors find themselves, gives them a second chance.

The unseen leaders of DHARMA are experimenting with gene selection from those that they value as exceptionally fit or "special". They might be more fit than others in a physical way (Echo, the three "strong" and "athletic" guys that were taken away) or mentally more evolved (Walt). The experimenting is taking place underground in a hunt for "perfection", to end all suffering. Yet the story proves that we need suffering in order to find ourselves.

Conclusion
The Initiative believe that what they are doing is good because they are healing their subjects psychologically and physically. They believe science is a tool for us to change mankind into something superior in all aspects to what we have been, morally, emotionally, physically etc. They also seem to think that their actions ultimately result in something beneficial for all. The end justifies the means, which is the same reasoning as the argument for the first use of weapon of mass destruction and nuclear warfare. However, here the means are reversed from science killing us to science healing us without leaving us a choice.

The idea of the book

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The novel and the current meaning of the phrase "brave new world" are two different things. The concept they have in common is however the one significant to Lost. It is the concept about the modern conflict between faith and science. The author explores how science is increasingly making life more predictable and free from emotional or physical struggle. The characters on Lost are not given a choice about undergoing a treatment that will end their struggle, erasing traumatic memories etc, because the Others are taking for granted that if what they're doing is altruistic and beneficial for all no one can refuse it. In my view the writers of Lost are asking the question if we have the right to take over the domains which once belonged to fate and God alone, by designing and controlling life.

Are the Others good or evil?
It may depend on your view on science. The knowledge about splitting atoms gave us cheap energy but also Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The knowledge about controlling nature has given us natural resources that make our lives more comfortable but has also given us global warming. Now what about the next step: choosing genes for our offspring - genetic engineering shaping evolution and man becoming the creator?

The knowledge about the nature of the island has given the islanders an untamed force of nature that is threatening "the world" if the cycle isn't broken (with a fail safe trigger). And the knowledge about controlling minds has given some of the still living inhabitants on the island several cases of amnesia and made them into passive, easily manipulated and unaggressive test subjects. If controlling people, improving their life in the process, is evil, then yes, the Others are evil. But then, the same thing can be said about science which with modern technology is both improving and setting the rules and limits for our lives, and yet we have no control over where it's going.

What if we saw Lost in the perspective of the Others?
Charlie says he doesn't remember anything of the attack on him when he almost died. Claire was made happy and content even though her life and the life of her baby wasn't in her control and then forgot the whole thing had happened. The question is, if Claire was happy and no harm was done to her and they made so that Charlie wouldn't and couldn't die, then maybe the Others would really be the good guys and the losties the ones we would consider as the bad guys if we saw the whole intrigue in the eyes of the Others?

[RunDesireRun]

I'm more of a reader on these boards, but at the thought of one of my favorite novels having something to do with Lost, I've decided to post.

In a sense, the Others (or DHARMA...because personally I think that there are 2 groups of Others) are like the World Controllers. However, Mond always came off as evil in the end to me, although I found BNW (Brave New World) more of a utopia rather than a dystopia. If we are equating characters in the novel to characters in Lost, then wouldn't every (or almost every) person on the plane crash be like John (from BNW, not Locke)? They are wary of the others, and are probably like how the world was when the Age of Ford started. There will always be skeptics, but BNW eliminated them by creating every person. They have control over everything. In Lost, there isn't as much control. The Others have little say over what the Losties do, but they do have a more subtle control. They can invade their camps whenever they feel like it, but they don't, giving the Losties a feeling of safety.

Wow...I'm ranting at this point.

If there were to be more book/show conclusions then one would say that soma is like the island in general. It could be said that soma is like the vaccination that keeps popping up in the hatch with Desmond and with Claire against the sickness. It keeps people ignorant (in that they do not know that it doesn't do anything (although evidence from this has only come from a disoriented Desmond)) and it keeps them happy in thinking that they are doing good.

It's a good observation that the island curing is a lot like the way NO ONE ever gets sick in BNW. That maybe DHARMA is this whole experiment to create a utopia in all senses. With no illness and happiness everywhere, it seems a lot like BNW.

The thing that is bugging me is why the Others took Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Is it because they are most skeptical, and need to be told what is really going on so they can help? Are they going to be killed because they are going against the ideals of the utopia. Are they truely like John (from BNW, not Locke) in that they will be kept alive just to see what they will do, and how far their skepticism will take them?


With a few loopholes that every theory has (no offence to you...it's a great theory, and you've gotten my brain juices flowing), and a bit of faith, this theory makes more sense than a lot that I've read.

[HAL JORDAN]

This theory is obviously well thought out. I like the ideas represented here. I was confused when you said that the Others were the good ones and the Losties were bad. Sure Claire was happy in her flashback with Ethan (maybe soemthing to do with the drugs she was being injected with) but Ethan hung Charlie to die!

This theory is one of the most interesting and thorough that I have read. Nice one!
_________________
I hope life isn't a joke because I don't get it.

[JoeMoron2000]

y'know what?
we had to read brave new world for english 10 Honors.
i hated it.
_________________

SaP ftw!
Claire is teh sexz!
Ben is teh suxz!
"Hen oida hoti ouden oida" -- Socrates

[just another other]

This is a great theory. I enjoy reading theories, especially when they reference other works, so I like this one a lot.....