Is porn our Soma?

No, because in Brave New World one of the popular sayings is something like "Everybody can have everybody", that is, everyone should have sex with everyone else, usually while having an orgy while on soma and praying to Henry Ford, but masturbating with or without porn is not like this, and a lot of people take offense to the idea of everyone having everyone.

But there is also the saying "A gram for a damn", meaning don't stress over anything just take soma and forget it, which can be like masturbating with or without porn, for some people at least, when they use it to avoid unpleasant feelings.

But, as someone argued in your other thread - you too possibly? - some people use porn to masturbate with for dysphoric purposes, self punishment, in which case, again, it would be unlike soma.

The existence of porn indicates that the world we live in is unlike the world in the book, because they would have actual sex instead of using porn to masturbate with. As one of the characters says to the main character - cannot remember his name - "You should really start having more people", meaning that something is wrong with you if you are not having sex regularly, a fapper would be socially unacceptable in such a world.

Soma is more like ecstacy/mdma. I think Huxley actually based soma on mescaline(?)

 

Hey there, I've read Brave New World recently and it's my favourite book of all time! It's astonishing (and quite horrifying) how increasingly accurate it is becoming as a depiction of our society. As I read the book I always thought of Soma as alcohol, mainly because of it's numbing effects to worldly problems, and how some times in the story it is taken before encountering a girl (like getting drunk to chat up a girl). Alcohol I think makes more sense as a widely available, publicly used legal drug. Anyway I think the story deals with adultery, sexual impulsiveness etc. with orgy-porgy and the normality of sleeping around but I don't think there is any real reference to porn. This was published in 1932 so of course no-one could have predicted the internet or the problem widely available porn would become. I'm not even sure magazines were widely available back then.

For anyone who hasn't read it, read this book! It's extremely well written and particularly insightful for self-control. Another great book is the Alchemist and I'm currently reading the Great Gatsby.

 

It's unlike our society for various reasons. People in the book are batches of clones, and everyone is placed in classes starting at alphas then working down to omegas. Individuality has no value in their society - since they are clones - unlike ours where advertising manipulates people by playing to their ego, their sense of individuality. We are told we can be anything we want to be, while the people in the book are encouraged, brainwashed even, to accept their place in society, repeating "I love being a beta. I'm glad I'm not an alpha because they have to think too much" etc. to themselves. There are only a small number of elites, who take care of the machine - the society - who have individuality and choice.

 

I just remembered the equivalent of porn in the book: the feelies, movies that incorporate the sense of feeling. There is a scene where there's a theater of people at the feelies and they're watching/feeling an over the top action movie that breaks into a hard core porno scene.
Also it's the "aborigines" - I think they are called - who are our equivalents in the book, they drink beer too instead of doing soma. The aborigine guy has a mental break down because his values - hard work, earning one's own living, finding a wife, Christianity, social hierarchies as we know them, basically what most of you believe in etc - don't apply in the brave new world, so he jumps off a cliff.

 

Absolutely, once learning more about the addiction of porn, it really does seem to be the soma of our age.
For those who are being too picky about the details, Yes the author didn't mean soma to be an allegory for porn and the feelies are the closest one to porn, but what he was referring to is: The masters of society, whom we cannot name, will try to give you any drug to keep you under control!
Soma can be: porn, sexual liberation (I wanted to open a thread about E Michael Jones Libido Dominandi but maybe later), watching TV, Youtube, Games, Weed, drugs, etc.. while all of these are not Soma per-say but Huxley just imagined that a tyrannically ruling elites/parasites would try to get the perfect drug to subdue us and Porn is honestly as close as it gets until they make a real soma. (Maybe legalizing cannabis although I am a supporter of it could be something in that direction).

BNW is really close to the world we live in, more accurately to be honest of western society, I honestly can see the cloned proles, betas and gammas in all society (Not literally of course).
But with the post "covid" world it is going to be a strange mix of 1984 and Brave new world.
We already can see the start of book burning, history distortion, constant surveillance and monitoring and after more lock-downs maybe we will experience the shortages as well.

I really enjoyed watching this movie portrayal of BNW: https://www.bitchute.com/video/owATMY9T88PA/
And with all honesty, if you try to preach the truth, or to warn people how they are controlled you get the scene in the movie at 2 hours and 33 minutes!

 

Spot on - forgot about that part

Haven't read 1984 but I've heard good things so will read that next.

 

I think the whole book is a reference to how pleasure can be used as a weapon to control a society. Socially encouraged sex, drugs (soma) and enough entertainment to keep society in a self induced stupor, with a goal to create a society that doesn't ask question. Huxley was a genius and he saw this coming from a long way away. 1884 is the opposite to this were the truth is hidden and fear is the weapon of choice for control. Fear and pleasure being equally as powerful. Right now it feels like both are being used to some degree, this whole corona thing has created a lot of fear in people, the news is a dark place right now. On the other hand there is the porn industry, tourist entertainment and enough alcohol to numb the planet, socially accepted of course. Maybe they are still deciding which road to take. I recon pleasure, it would be easier to control a population when they willingly accept what is on offer.

 

It isn't being picky with the details. There is a huge difference: In the books the social order is coming from the top down, although this is implemented in different ways in 1984 and Brave New World. While in real life it works in exactly the opposite way, the social order goes from the bottom up, politicians just exploit the biases and beliefs of the general population, that's why "Build the wall" worked. Peer pressure is more pressing than politician pressure. It's mob rule basically, but where a few smart monkeys exploit many dumb monkeys - for now. In the near future it will be possible to do things like in the books.

Porn and masturbation together are opiates that came about because of the "sexual revolution" "sex positive" movement. Because masturbation was normalized porn became acceptable - porn without masturbation makes no sense.

 

It is here that I think we differ. I just believe that it's just the same in the real world, i.e. in reality it's from the top down in the US and Europe as well, but they have perfected the art of make believe "democracy" and making it appear as if it was just the politicians and the masses.
Things like the sexual revolution were not organic. Modern society is carefully managed. Even the wide spread of porn had a lot of people working towards it and accelerating it. Laws had to be changed and in the states court battles fought. The masses are manipulated through the same powers that blackmail and tightly control the politicians.

Just a cursory investigation of September 11th will show that the world is very different indeed from what is portrayed. Politicians are puppets. The Jeffery Epstein and Maxwell case reveals who is running the show in this world.
I think of all of the politicians as nothing more than public relations officers of the country. Just actors. If you have any specific questions, so as not to deviate from the topic of this Thread feel free to private message me.

 

the feeling almost stops exactly when orgasm is reached and for a few seconds. Its amazing at the buildup beforehand and thats why people edge for hours to keep that feeling going. But it is not the best. The exercise high is way better and healthier and lasts longer. I had a yoga session high that lasted for almost hours afterwards. That state of nirvana that can be reached through yoga and meditation is real and is what life is about. Its blissful and feels like your are arriving at your true place in the universe. PMO High feels like falling in a deep dark hole you cant climb out of.

 

I really like this part. A lot of people don't know that porn used to be illegal, and was originally produced by mobsters. All the shitty acting people laugh about when they think of porn, was actually a work around of the law which was something like you have to have some minimum amount of dialog for it to technically be a legitimate film rather than obscenity, which would have been illegal like lewd conduct in public.
Also, I know that the sexual revolution was by design, but yes the way I wrote it makes it look like it just magically happened. That is still not the same as mass cultural manipulation, rather it was only a success because young women believed in it. It was not a case of one master brain controlling everything, but multiple interest groups - mobsters, feminists, anyone out to make a profit - coalescing and achieving their goal.

I must disagree on society being carefully managed. I think covid is basically a fire drill, they're actually testing the effects of a mass pandemic, because in the near future terrorists will infect themselves with designer diseases then just walk into crowded places. But I believe that, again, in the near future, such things like we see in dystopian books will be possible, however technology is also giving individuals more power than they've ever had before - for better and worse.

A good test to see how well so-called people in charge understand the populace is movies. Here's the question: Why are sequels almost never as good as the originals? If they had psychological manipulation down to a science they would produce hits every time, but they don't, it's always a gamble. If they can't even do this, then I seriously doubt they could orchestrate the mass manipulation of society, although they can fan the flames so to speak with some success. However, I don't deny that various illegal schemes do happen, Epstein is a good example of that - but that's different than mass cultural manipulation.

Society in general is "policed" by the citizens, and women police it the most, that is, they choose who gets to do what and when. They're the ones who actually pick identities for themselves and others. This means, you are actually the race you are because of your mom's decision. If you aren't the right race, culture, or don't have enough money, don't wear the right clothes, talk the correct lingo, you won't get very far with them. Their biases make them ripe for manipulation, but their discohesion makes it impossible to have a mass conspiracy.

I think we are remaining close enough to the topic.

 

To say that you are well versed on this topic is an understatement!

I believe it's manipulation through fanning existing flames, when you control all the media, all the politicians, control the money supply and have psychologists working for you, society can be directed! And "they" quite understand the control women exert on society and that's why they have been targeted and family laws even changed.
There are people who have feminists, Marxists, liberal, etc.. ideas. You just need to give money to whatever things you want to promote and it will spread.
Is their control perfect? Absolutely not. But they do keep learning new tricks on how to manipulate the masses and they don't need everyone to be onboard, not every thing they try will work but they are persistent.

A lot (but not all of course) of those gangsters, feminists, media moguls, those who fund the politicians, those who blackmail the politicians have "one thing in common" and IMO is more than simple innocent coalescing.
Are they working for their own best interests? Yes.
Could they be getting simple pointers from above? could the most influential of them meet every now and then to achieve certain goals that favor the "group" they believe they belong to? Why not!
"To know who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." Voltaire

I think the Epstein case indicates more than an illegal scheme, he was an agent for a foreign country. Not only did he blackmail politicians and influential people. But the sheer amount of people that were on his list! the fact that it was so hard to take him to court.. the cover up, all means that a foreign state completely controls America. To know that foreign state you only need to research Ghislaine's Maxwell father, (Add to it that her sisters sold software to CIA).

A book I can only highly recommend is Solving 9-11 by Christopher Bollyn, I personally worry about state terrorism and state intelligence terrorism/false flags more than any other kind but that's just me.

Thank you for the reply you have made. It was the most intelligent reply on a similar topic I have ever gotten on this forum.

 

Porn will be just one of the bridges that will brimg us to that society, but it not SOMA.

 

Meh, Huxley's said by itself on his "Return to brave new world" book. Hw know exactly how the things would gone in future, how he can exactly know about a dictature masked about democracy in a period where "marxists" and Fascists became more strong and seem to take the control of the world?
In truth, isn't casual that Orwell was his disciple. Also Zamjiatin give us a great example in 1920 with glass house and number as names.

Anyway read his letters, he hated the masses. Just think about his family name.