Huxley's "Island"

I'm reading my first work of adult fiction in months, Aldous Huxley's "Island" thanks to Jeremy checking it out of the library. It's fun to read it at the same time he is because there is infinite fodder for discussion. To post too much about it before reading the whole thing feels risky but it's the process that's exciting, right? It's essentially a philosophical statement and I have no doubt that there are hundreds of references sailing above my head. It's really dense but I've decided to read it leisurely and without pressure to understand it at every turn, at least this first time through. There have been a few fascinating monologues so far on western parenting and medicine, two of my pet topics. Not sure yet how to reference quotes to be most useful to readers but I linked to the Chapters page on the book at the top of the entry.

Parenting

(Page 89 of 295, or .30)
"Escape," she explained, "is built into the new system. Whenever the parental Home Sweet Home becomes too unbearable, the child is allowed, is actively encouraged---and the whole weight of public opinion is behind the encouragement---to migrate to one of the other homes."
[...]
"We all belong," Susila explained, "to an MAC---a Mutual Adoption Club. Every MAC consists of anything from fifteen to twenty-five assorted couples. ..Besides our own blood relations, we all have our quota of deputy mothers, deputy fathers, deputy aunts and uncles, deputy brothers and sisters, deputy babies and toddlers and teen-agers."
[...]
"Mutual adoption guarantees children against injustice and the worst consequences of parental ineptitide. It doesn’t guarantee them against discipline, or against having to accept responsibilities. On the contrary, it increases the number of their responsibilities; it exposes them to a wide varity ofdisciplines….If a child feels unhappy in his first home, we do our best for him in fifteen or twenty second homes. Meanwhile the father and mother get some tactful therapy from other members of their Mutual Adoption Club. In a few weeks the parents are fit to be with their children again, and the children are fit to be with their parents.

Hmm, children free to leave a home if things are bad or if they want a holiday? Parents and children getting the help they need when things get too intense? Without stigma or blame? You've got to be kidding. This is taken to an extreme we're not used to but the idea of the community shouldering some of the responsibility for raising children is at the same time freeing and terrifying to me. You mean I'd have to trust someone else to do the right thing? Who could possibly take as good care of my kids as I can? But I get breaks when I need them? What if they get taught something other than what I believe? Ah, that's the hard one...why is it so threatening for our kids to get exposed to other ideas and ways of doing things than our own? It happens anyway so why do we fight it so hard that we alienate them? That's going to be a big one for me and will take a lot of forms at different ages I imagine. I'll keep you posted.

Medicine

“[Western medicine] isn’t primitive. It’s fifty percent terrific and fifty per cent non-existent. Marvelous antibiotics – but absolutely no methods for increasing resistance, so that antibiotics won’t be necessary. Fantastic operations – but when it comes to teaching people the way of going through life without having to be chopped, absolutely nothing.” P.71

Not much to elaborate on here, it's right up my alley. Pretty timely with the premiers talking health and the boomers aging. The PM is talking big about a 10 year plan (will they honestly still be in office in ten years?) and how much it's going to cost, but no word on how we might reduce stress on the system by staying healthier. So short sighted. Another reason to check out the Green Party platform. Who knows if they'd be able to pull it off, but someone has to start looking that direction and put the pressure on the status quo. Eventually I suppose finances will force politicians in that direction, even if goodwill and planning don't.