Brave New World Pg. 201

"The optimum population," said Mustapha Mond, "is modelled on the iceberg - eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above."

"And they're happy below the water line?"

"Happier than above it. Happier than your friend here, for example." He pointed.

"In spite of that awful work?"

"Awful? They don't find it so. On the contrary, they like it."

John, more commonly known as "The Savage", questions Mustapha Mond on the state of this new world's people, primarily on the state of happiness exhibited by their citizens. Here, Mond describes how the society is split between Alphas and the others to maintain the order needed for stability. What's interesting, however, is that Mond will forever proclaim that happiness is the key to their stability, yet the definition of that emotion is unclear. For the eight-ninths of the population "below the water line", happiness simply equates with ignorance of any other thought or feeling. But for those above the line, their happiness is less secure. In fact, for those who can't drug themselves enough with Soma in order to obtain that ignorant state needed for what Mond deems as happiness, they are simply sent away to accomplish whatever they need in order to obtain some contentedness without influencing society in any way.

Human strife is generally characterized by the need to find happiness in a world that seems to work against us. (All of literature, it seems, revolves around this strife.) But in a society that genetically engineers its citizens to be emotionless or unable to handle emotion, completely avoiding struggles, can we actually say these people are happy? How could someone know what happiness is without knowing or understanding other emotions?