Brave New World: All Things Are Relative

Term Paper TitleBrave New World: All Things Are Relative
# of Words608
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)2.43

Brave New World: All Things are Relative


     The dictionary defines civilized as "advanced in social customs, art, and
science".  The keyword here is social customs.  A persons idea of what is
civilized is relative to his culture.  Through out the history of man, one can
see many changes in customs, and customs is what defines our idea of what is
civilized.  The word civilized is one of the most relative concepts.

     Time and distance are what have shaped our customs for thousands of years.
If we look back throughout history we can see many customs that may seem odd, or
even barbaric, to us but were everyday events to these ancient people.  For
example, the Aztec conducted sacrifices, to their Gods, in which they torn out
their victims heart with a knife, and their priests and warriors proceeded to
eat the victims flesh.  Yet, the Aztec were considered to be one of the most
civilized group of Indians in the western hemisphere. The Anasazi, commonly
called cave-dwellers, who from birth, used wood and bindings to elongate the
head.  Even today in Japan, tradition says that women are supposed to walk ten
feet behind their husbands.  This may seem like demeaning women to us but who
are we to judge when the United States has had a long history of racial and
ethnic discrimination and only now are we changing.

     The society in Brave New World has not lost their values but has simple
changed their idea of what is right and wrong.  After all, how much have we
changed in the past 600 years.  Six-hundred years ago in England, we killed
people for conducting scientific experiments and believed this was against the
teachings of the church.  The society in Brave New World is a mirror to our own
when we view the past.  If a person from the present were to see the sacrifices
and eating of the human flesh by the Aztec Indian...

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