The conflict of Brave New World is between the government and human nature. The World State government tries to suppress the strong feelings of human nature because passion causes social instability, which is one of the main flaws of past society they are attempting to change. The World State motto is "Community, Identitiy, Stability" (Huxley 5) which conflicts with what the World Controller identifies as traits of the past society, "Family, Monogamy, Romance." (Huxley 31) The government claims that these ideas are incompatible with each other because if citizens are passionate it could cause them to act out, possibly even against the government, which causes instability.
Instead any type of strong feelings someone may have are released through the Violent Passion Surrogate, Pregnancy Surrogate, Orgy, and soma. The Violent Passion Surrogate simulates the feelings of fear and anger, so the people can experience the feelings of rage without causing any harm to any one or anything. (Huxley 167) The Pregnancy Surrogate similarly simulates the sensation of being pregnant without producing a child. Orgy is a weekly event that all citizens attend. This is the World State version of a religious worship session, praising Henry Ford as their god. (Huxley 57) Lastly, soma is a drug that citizens take to escape any negative emotion, and it is vital to make society work the way it does in this novel. It makes life easy because it takes away all shame and allows everyone to be carefree. All of these things represent the superficial state of happiness the citizens of the World State live in. The fact that the government has to use chemicals on peoples' minds to maintain a stable social environment shows that they really have no limits on how controlling they can be. By succumbing to the rules of this government the citizens are losing their humanity: their values, morals, and even emotions.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Electronic.
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