ABSTRACT
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World provided the complete drug. The product of six years’ intensive research by 2,000 pharmacologists and biochemists, this drug was a narcotic that also produced euphoria and hallucinations; it had ‘all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects’. It fulfilled a variety of social functions. It was drunk from a Communion cup surrounded by quasi-religious ritual; it was routinely issued at the end of each day’s work shift - four tablets a day, six on Saturdays. Its main purpose was to make everyone happy in their servitude, a way of eliminating all possibility of unhappiness, the ultimate chemical comfort.
