AJ Lawrence
ENLS 245 – Final Essay
Professor Siewers 
12 December 2022

Dissenting Against the Permanent Lie

Surrounded by blaring lights and a roaring crowd, Bernard gloomily sits in the gigantic arena, bored by the never-ending wrestling bouts as entertainment provided by the totalitarian state in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Lenina sits by his side, attempting to entice him into having some soma, a drug created by the government to make its citizens compliant, but he petulantly refuses. “I’d rather be myself,’ he said. ‘Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly,” (Huxley, 89). Bernard desires a relationship with Lenina that is built on a genuine and deep emotional connection that is more authentic than the sexual culture of the “bread and circuses” enforced by the ruling power, because that type of deep connection opposes the isolating and dehumanizing totalitarian psychology that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described as the “permanent lie.” The ruling system in Brave New World encourages its citizens to indulge in the pleasures of life, insisting upon never needing to know anything but comfort and happiness, especially through the consumption of the drug soma and encouragement of sexual freedom and mass orgies. To further the isolation of individuals that is created by a dependance on drugs and only being able to form relationships through sex, the ruling system uses strict education, DNA science, and purposefully makes their people infertile so it is impossible for citizens to participate in a family experience. By purposefully preventing families from being created naturally, the citizens are isolated and easier to control, a tactic that has been used in a similar way by real life totalitarian regimes. As discussed by author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the purposeful breaking up of a family through deception and the controlled teaching of youth leads to the continuation of a permanent lie, of intense trust in the ruling regime, that continues to keep people separated and under the control of the ruling power.
            A night of passion had occurred between the two lovers, but Bernard can only see it as a mistake, believing that he and Lenina should have gotten to know each other better first. Bernard has always seen himself as and been seen as different by all those around him, possibly caused by him somehow receiving alcohol in his developmental process that messed with the ruling group’s birthing processes. Bernard ends up being much more of a free thinker than everyone else, desiring the full human experience and deep emotional connections the current system doesn’t allow for. Bernard often wounders about their society’s inability to do more than play games, do drugs and have sex in their free time, coming to the conclusion that they are, “Adults intellectually and during the working hours… Infants where feeling and desire are concerned… And that’s why we went to bed together yesterday – like infants – instead of being adults and waiting,” (Huxley, 93). Bernard comes to realize that the way their society runs and the way children are educated makes it so that people are smart enough and capable enough to have jobs and keep society running, but then aren’t capable of thinking critically and understanding that they aren’t receiving the full human experience. It’s that inability to form emotional connections that then isolates people from one another, keeping them from connecting and forming stable support systems, therefore making them susceptible to manipulation and control from the government. In The Socialist Phenomenon, Russian mathematician Igor Shafarevich discusses different aspects of socialist movements and totalitarian regimes, analyzing what they do individually and how they come together in a way that allows for socialism to occur. One aspect he discusses is how socialist movements aim to abolish the family to be able to take more control over unsupported individuals, writing, “But the principle appears as a de-emphasis of the role of the family, the weakening of family ties, the abolition of certain functions of the family… transformation of the family into a unit of the bureaucratic state subjected to its goals and control,” (Shafarevich, 224). Shafarevich presents how it is the intention of the totalitarian power to break up family units so individuals lack support from those around them and can only find safety and support in the government, allowing them to be more easily controlled. Traditionally, many regimes do so through spreading fear and misinformation, but that doesn’t mean the ruling system in Brave New World is any less effective in their approach, since their choice to slowly destroy the idea of family and insist upon the importance of more sexual connections over time allowed for the inherent isolation of individuals to take hold more securely.
            Despite claiming that he enjoyed the physical company and sex with Lenina, Bernard can’t help but express his distaste for taking things so far when they barley know each other. Bernard entered a relationship with Lenina hoping for a deeper intimate connection based on emotions, but it becomes clear that Lenina, like the rest of society, would prefer to continue basing relationships on physical intimacy. Bernard expressed his desires by saying, “I want to know what passion is… I want to feel something strongly.’ ‘When the individual feels, the community reels,’ Lenina pronounced. ‘Well, why shouldn’t it reel a bit?’ ‘Bernard!’ But Bernard remained unabashed,” (Huxley, 92). Lenina’s immediate response of a catchy motto vilifies Bernard’s emotional desires by making them appear as something that would upset the greater community. And the readiness Lenina says the phrase with, as well as similar catchy slogans about the benefits of soma, implies the commonness of those phrases that shut down different opinions in their society, and that it may very likely be the regime that has created them. It can then be understood that for people to be saying these phrases as responses, they must recognize the existence of differing opinions but willingly choose to lie and ignore any other possible truths, sticking with the popular beliefs that have been deemed safe, which is that conformity and lack of emotional connections creates the happiest life. Russian novelist and Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described the concept of the “permanent lie” in his memoir, The Gulag Archipelago. In short, the permanent lie is the state of a society when everyone agrees with a government power and its strict opinions and rules, and even if some of the people don’t agree with that power, they will lie and pretend they do in order to ensure their safety and status. The existence of the permanent lie is most often seen when a totalitarian party is in power, and many parents would be faced with a conundrum when raising their children, Solzhenitsyn stating, “if your children were still little, then you had to decided what was the best way to bring them up; whether to start them off on lies instead of the truth (so that it would be easier for them to live)… or to tell them the truth… which meant that you had to instill into them from the start that the truth was murderous,” (Solzhenitsyn, 326). Departing from the permanent lie and choosing to live truthfully is extremely dangerous, as it sets the defectors apart and can give the totalitarian regime a scapegoat to target. Lenina’s affronted reaction to Bernard’s suggestion of making “the community reel” emulates the idea Solzhenitsyn presents that living truthfully and breaking from the permanent lie can be dangerous, as it separates the person from the masses who engage in the lie to keep what little happiness and safety they may have left. However, Bernard’s willingness to boldly state that he wants something different in that moment, that he wants to experience a real life and relationship with emotions, signifies the movement of his character towards living entirely in truth, even if it separates him from everyone else.
            Before spending the night together, they are flying over the Channel when Bernard stops, hovering their helicopter safely over the waves. The weather was turning gloomy, and the waves became choppy, but Bernard still found the bad weather beautiful, and he wanted to take in that natural beauty, untouched by the conforming society, with Lenina. Bernard said, “I thought we’d be more… more together here – with nothing but the sea and moon. More together than in that crowd, or even in my rooms. Don’t you understand that?” (Huxley, 91). Bernard finds the crowds at the wrestling matches and the country clubs too busy and full, too many people and events happening around them to allow him to properly talk to and get to know Lenina. His private apartment would appear to be the perfect place for them to be alone to talk, but Bernard knows that they would only end up having sex, forming a physical connection but not an emotional one. For Bernard, the only place that he can truly try to connect with Lenina on a deeper level is by being completely isolated, away from the crowds but also away from spaces that would only lead to them to physically connect, leading him to take them out above the lonely water. In Live Not By Lies, author Rod Dreher creates a manual for people to be dissidents of and fight back against totalitarianism, and in chapter 7, he discusses the importance of strong family units acting as a push back against totalitarianism. Dreher discusses the importance of strong families as forms of resistance because by parents choosing to live truthfully and teach their kids how to live truthfully, they are starting a cycle of resistance against the permanent lie as parents continue to encourage their children to live truthfully through the generations. Dreher points out that “we have built a social ecosystem in which the function of the family has been reduced to producing autonomous consumers, with no sense of connection or obligation to anything greater than fulfilling their own desires,” (Dreher, 133). Dreher highlights how the societal focus stifles a parent’s ability to form a strong family unit and teach their children to live truthfully because their teachings are drowned out by the bells and whistles of consumerism and materialism. Genuine connections are difficult to make when peoples’ focuses are on gaining their desires and appearances, and it’s a very real problem that is mirrored in Brave New World nearly perfectly. Bernard’s attempts to connect with Lenina are to an extent thwarted by the sexual-consumerism based culture that controls their society, making it so that genuine and emotional connections and the happiness it can bring are of no value when there’s plenty of material things that can bring happiness.
            In chapter 5 of Live Not By Lies, Dreher presents the hypothetical, but very possible, story of a greengrocer who conforms to the communist society he lives in, hanging posters with slogans and support for the ruling regime, despite not believing or agreeing with the regime’s views or actions. The greengrocer does so because he wants to be left alone, he doesn’t want any trouble from the government or even his neighbors, so he participates in the permanent lie. But one day, he decides to take the signs down to stand up for what he believes in, so “In this revolt the greengrocer steps out of living within the lie… He discovers once more his suppressed identity and dignity. He gives his freedom a concrete significance. His revolt is an attempt to live within the truth,” (Dreher, 98). The greengrocer’s small act of taking down the sign has freed him from the permanent lie and allowed him to find himself again, figure out what he believes and how to live truthfully. Through this hypothetical, Dreher presents living within the truth, sticking to what you believe even if those around you disagree or separating from the group belief creates danger, as the antithesis of and the prime way to combat the permanent lie. Bernard’s desires and actions have started him on the path of living within the truth, combating the consumerist and sexual culture permanent lie in his society by wanting to experience real emotions and relationships, by wanting to gain the full human experience. During their helicopter ride back to Bernard’s apartments, he explains to Lenina why he made them hover over the water by saying, “I want to look at the sea in peace… It makes me feel as though… I were more me, if you see what I mean. More on my own, not so completely a part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body,” (Huxley, 90). Lenina thinks Bernard has gone mad, not understanding why he could be so interested in the gloomy waters or why he’d want to be different and separated from the social body. But by looking at something more natural and uncontrolled by the totalitarian government, like the sea, Bernard feels more real. He feels like an individual whose existence means something, not just another cog in the machine like the government wants its citizens to see themselves as. By separating himself from the crowds, and taking Lenina to see something natural and trying to form an emotional connection with her, Bernard is resisting the conformity of the society and is living within what he believes to be true.
            Despite being written over forty years before Solzhenitsyn published The Gulag Archipelago, the totalitarian regime and the society it dominates in Brave New World encapsulates Solzhenitsyn’s definition of the permanent lie, with the whole society choosing to live in their “bread and circuses” wonderland where they can bask in the pleasures of life all day. Meanwhile, Bernard establishes himself as a dissident at the start of the story, desiring more real emotional connections with others and choosing to live truthfully by avoiding the mainstream entertainment of their society and pursuing a genuine emotional relationship with Lenina. Bernard’s dissident nature and desires that break away from the norm can help teach a lesson about how to fight back against subtle forces that are tearing society apart, intentionally, and unintentionally. With the consumerist and materialistic nature of our society today, many people forget the importance of relationships based on genuine connection and trust to living a healthy and happy life, leaving them vulnerable to being isolated and controlled by higher powers. But by reading the works of those like Huxley, Solzhenitsyn, and Dreher, people can re-learn that importance and start to integrate those relationships back into their own lives to not only help themselves grow strong, but to help society grow stronger as well.

Works Cited

• Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. 1932. HarperCollins, 2010.
• Shafarevich, Igor. The Socialist Phenomenon. 1980. Gideon House Books, 2019. 
• Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. The Gulag Archipelago. 1973. Vintage Classics, 2018.
• Dreher, Rod. Live Not By Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents. Sentinel, 2020.