Brave New World #2

1. Why, after so many years, did Linda never assimilate into the culture of the savages, and instead of maintaining her title as the man-stealing outsider and continuing to sleep with other women's men like was acceptable in the New World, why didn't she try to fit in to their culture?
I can only think of the fact that she was originally so disgusted with the way of life at the reservation (like people from the New World are suppossed to be) that she could never fully accept their absurd and "disgusting" ways. John tells stories of how mean the other women used to be to her, because she slept with their husbands, and how hateful the indians were to him. The refusal to accept Linda and John led to an ever-growing hatred in the indians for them, which was never resolved. I hypothesize that the reason Linda never succeeded, or even attempted really, to fit in, was the fault of both Linda and the Indians for their ignorance and hatred.  
2.Why, with all the technology they have, do they not try to find ways to prolong life, but rather, after a person stops looking young and beautiful they are considered useless?
When addressing John about Linda's quickly degrading health, the doctor says " If we could rejuvenate, of course, that would be different" as if she is of no importance, because she is no longer youthful and fit. Also, since humans are being artificially "bred" and conditioned into their designated spots in society so they can live and work happily, once they can no longer work, they are of no importance to the society as a whole, and "individuals don't matter, only the one society".
3.What do the "savages" think of the vacationing civilians?
I am confused on whether it is often that the reservation gets tourists, because they have a whole system of lodging and "guides" set up for vacationers and no one from the civilized world acted like it was anything too out of the ordinary for Bernard and Lenina to go to the reservation. However, Linda acted as though she hadn't seen a "civilized" woman since she arrived on the reservation and was beside herself with excitement and joy when she saw Lenina. Linda cried out while hugging and kissed the disgusted Lenina "Oh, my dear, my dear. If you knew how glad- after all these years, a civilized face!" John also was fascinated by Lenina and claimed he had never seen a white woman before, yet the rest of the indigenous people ignored the visitors completely, acting nonchalant as ever. I assume though, that they would be as fascinated and disgusted with the "New World" as the civilized were with them. John is a great example of the contrast of cultures and customs between the two worlds. He finds the New World cold and hateful and disturbing, and I would imagine that the other "savages" would agree.

Brave New World I

The society in Brave New World creates physical conformity by producing children using the Bostonovsky technique, where up to 96 children can be produced using one egg. These embryos are created to fit in with their caste, physically and mentally modified to be what society wants, and what their caste needs. Using Hypnopedia and conditioning, from "birth" the children are trained subconciously and conciously what they should believe, do and enjoy, thus creating mental conformity. To supress conflict and non-conformity, the government ensures that everyone remains in a illusional haze of happinness. They supply Soma, a drug that creates the feeling of contentment and keeps the population from thinking about any problems that there might be, but instead ignoring them. Erotic activity is a regular, and encouraged activity, even for children, and expensive games keep the economy thriving and the people occupied and happy. By keeping the population behind a veil of pleasure, nobody realizes what they lack in freedom. We might say that this is a dystopia, because of the extreme conformity and harsh caste system and general lack of basic freedoms, but to the people of that society, who only know that kind of life, would find it quite the opposite, because of their lack of knowledge of there being any other way to live.

Emic and etic perspectives

1) A benefit of the emic perspective is that the author can explain why the people do the things they do, whereas an outsider might not understand why. The etic perspective author would be able to better compare the culture of the studied group to other cultures.
2) The rule for objectivity is because there is no way to completely eliminate an author's bias.
You need to have an inside infoormant to really understand the culture from an inside perspective.
The people might be more honest and less hesitant if you tell them truthfully what your motives are in the study.

Current ways of recruitment

Promising working class youths a free education for enlisting in the military may seem like a good way to get more young, willing people to volunteer to be in the army. In reality, this means of acquiring volunteers is a sad form of unethical bribery. By offerring a free education to youths in exchange for working in the military, automatically the lower-middle class youth are being targeted. Those young kids who don't have enough money to go to college might enroll in the military as a last resort, not as something that they are passionate about. As a result, some of the recruits will be people there just for the money, but not interested in actually contributing to the military and fighting for our country. Sometimes students enroll, not actually expecting to be deployed and not mentally or physically ready to be put into a lot of the situations out there. Jessica Lynch, about enrolling in the military, naively said "Yeah, you know that would be cool if I could have a job plus go to school at the same time. Yeah, that would be cool" (Interview with Time) The army will become solely made up of kids looking for money, but not really willing to lay his life on the line for his country. This makes our forces weaker. Unfortunately, besides this sad bribery there seems to be very few ways to promote the army and recruit kids.
When the army promotes and comercializes the experience as being a strengthening opportunity to build leadership skills, mentioning the opportunities  for free education and world travel. The commercials make the army look so beautiful, glorifying it with pictures of recruits looking determined while crawling through a challenging ropes course. You can almost smell the satisfaction and pride that would wash over you as you pulled yourself over that last rope wall. You picture yourself earning a free education and free world travel while doing this duty for your country, and it seems like a perfect idea. All that's left to do is sign up. Unfortunately, the military has been grossely misportrayed to you, and it is not so much fun after all. "Lynch had enlisted hoping to be able to earn a college degree after serving her country. (She had hopes of becoming a kindergarten teacher.) Her truck was part of a supply column that was attacked after it missed a detour..."(Jessica Lynch: The Interview.)

part 2 1984

Winston is having trouble believing what the state is saying because he can remember some of how life used to be, and that obvious alterations are constantly made to the past. They are, because in this world, any act of defiance is considered illegal and carries the consequence of death. His small protests are very different from the wide scale occupy wall street protests. First of all, they take place in very different worlds, where there are different rules and consequences. His world is very strict, no show of unorthodoxy can be made that is  not punishible by death, compared to our modern world, where we have freedom and rights, and are free to non-violently protest anything. In comparison, they are both protesting their freedom and the oppression of the higher classes and the government. Of course, occupy Wall street is a public display of dissaprovement of the upper classes by the 99%, whereas Winson's protests are inner and do not have an obvious effect on the government and are not made public.

Final 1984

Unfortunately and unexpectedly, at the end of 1984, I was left with the feeling that big brother had finally won. No matter the physical and emotional oppression that Big Brother could create, there was always that feeling of hope, because he could not yet mentally oppress the people. Within the confines of your mind, you were free to roam and think all the hideous, controversial thoughts you could conjure up, but if you were to express them, if there was any unorthodoxy in your expression, you would without question be caught. But even that sliver of hope, in the end, was crushed. In the Ministry of Love, Winston Smith's mind was violated and somehow all of his soul was sucked out. So gone without a trace that the though police had no worries of him rebelling or doing anything unorthodox, because there was no feeling left in him. It was possible to make rebels who previously hated the dictatorship, and its representing face more than the Grinch (who stole christmas) actually love Big Brother and have no feelings other than love for Big Brother and hate for the enemy country and Goldstein. Big Brother had finally won. I would say that the only way for the state to be brought down would be its defeat by another superstate, but due to the vicious cycle of the never ending war, that doesn't seem to be an option. The only solution I can see here would be an uprising in the proles. At the end of the novel, Winston loves Big Brother, and has become a soul-less clone, like Kathryn.