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In case you didn’t realize just how screwed up the society is in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, consider this: The God of Brave New World, isn’t the Lord, but Henry Ford. And considering how many times Ford pops up in this book, you’d better believe he’s also one of Brave New World's motifs.

Video Transcription:

I’m having a vision. I see a man with glasses. He’s writing something. He’s smiling. He’s very pleased with himself for something clever he’s done.

Can you hear his voice from beyond?

Henry Ford is the God of Brave New World. And Ford sounds exactly like Lord. Oh, that’s good. Scholars are going to see this Ford motif and positively chuckle at my genius.

The society in Brave New World worships the God of consumerism. So what better replacement for a God of Spirit than Henry Ford—maker of the model T and father of the modern assembly lines that ushered in an era of mass production. (Check out the end of Chapter 16 for more on the history of Ford in the novel.)

Ford is all over this book. Instead of saying, “My Lord,” the inhabitants of this novel say, “My Ford.” Instead of the sign of the cross, they make the sign of a T.

Well, that’s very clever, but what was Huxley up to with this motif? He was reinforcing the idea that we’ve been talking about all along—the idea that there’s something really twisted about giving up freedom for stability.

As John learns in Chapters 16 and 17, real religion creates instability. Faith creates differences of opinion—and takes people’s minds off, well, buying more stuff.

But bowing down to the God of mass production, now that’s an ingenious idea. It keeps the members of this stuff-obsessed society focused on pumping dollars into the economy … and the result is both scary and empty.