Brave New World

A Webquest for British Literature and Composition

Introduction

You have been selected to apply be one of the new World Controllers, but in order to secure the job, you must design a utopian society that will meet the basic needs of its members while maintaining order. You must determine what to do with dissidents; how information will be disseminated; how you will keep their citizens in their proper places; what occupation your citizens will have; how citizens' basic needs for food, shelter, clean air and water, medical care, clothing, etc. will be met; and whether or not (and how) you will control the size of the population. You must persuade the committee who selected you that your utopia will work so that your ideas will be implemented and you will be selected for the job.

The Task

You will work with a committee on a proposal to create a utopian society. Your committee members must consist of the following:

Human Rights Advocate: You will determine human rights, natural laws, morals, and religion for your society. Your job is to decide what rights and power should be given to whom in your utopia. You must decide what is fair and appropriate for members of your society with regards to human rights.
Political Scientist: You will determine politics, government, business, and other organized systems for your society. In doing so, you will especially concentrate on and argue for the most effective form of government system by looking at historical accounts. Your job is to assure that the utopian government is productive, efficient, and stable.
Economist: You will determine the economic growth and development for your society. Specifically, you will focus on issues of money, distribution of wealth, occupations, and technology. Through the process, you will develop a plan to ensure that your society maintains itself economically forever. Your job is to argue for the economy as a key element in your utopia.

You will create a website or wiki to distribute to the job selection committee.

The Process

Read about Utopian Societies to determine what elements you might need to include in your proposal.
Determine what kind of government would work best for your particular utopia. You can learn more about this aspect of your society at Types of Government. Within the context of selecting your government system, you will also need to consider the type of economic system that will work best, as well as which political system and type of authority will work best.
Next, your group will draft a mini-constitution, reading various articles from this website about Utopian Socialists for information you might include. Determine which philosopher's ideals most closely fit your notions of a utopian society. Incorporate that philosopher's ideals in your constitution. You must address the rights of your citizens, rewards for following laws, and punishments for breaking laws.
Your group must develop a monetary and technological plan. This e-lecture, "The Real Versus the Virtual," will help you examine questions regarding technology, reality, and the future. You must determine the answers to the following questions:

Will your utopia follow alienationists or hyperrealists? Why?
What types of technology will you allow? Why?
What types of technology will you prohibit? Why?
How does technology relate to the monetary world? To answer this question completely, you will need to read about the history of money and the various forms it has taken in this article: Top 10 Inventions in Money Technology.

Create a name for your society and put together a proposal convincing the committee that your society will work best. You must research propaganda techniques at the following websites and incorporate propaganda in your proposal:

Assessment/Evaluation

Your group will present their proposal to the committee (your class and Mrs. Huff). Each member of the group will be expected to deliver an equal portion of the oral component of this presentation. You may use the SMART Board to present your website or wiki. An exemplary performance will include a persuasive, professional-looking product that considers all aspects of how the society should run and incorporates the use of propaganda techniques. A poorer performance will include a product that fails to persuade, looks unprofessional, is missing inclusion of some aspects of how the society should be run, does not include propaganda techniques, or addresses the task in a basic manner (i.e. a one-page wiki or website with no links).

Conclusion

I hope you have developed a greater understanding of what may be involved in a utopian society, including elements like government, philosophical ideas, money, and technology. You should have discovered that creating a utopian society is an intricate process and involves many areas of examination. Perhaps Mustapha Mond in Brave New World could have benefited from the same research you conducted.

Credits and References

This webquest was adapted from a Utopia Web Quest based on The Lord of the Flies.

The image above was created by Blaster219 and is used in accordance with the terms of a Creative Commons License.

Creative Commons License

Brave New World: A Webquest for British Literature and Composition by Dana Huff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Last updated September 7, 2008.