#i wouldn't recommend reading brave new world though since some parts aged poorly and i found some parts more distressing than 1984

[infinitecyanroses]

I think the way that the Federation has utilized the pills against q!Forever confirms that the reason the Feds seem to be looking into manufacturing happiness is as a means of control. It is easier to think that people are weaker when they're miserable and while it is true in a lot of cases, there's been research done that proves that happy/content people are more suggestible and less likely to think critically than people who are upset or disgruntled. The Federation has seemed to struggle a lot with figuring out how to keep the islanders from getting upset and digging too much but now that they have these pills and they seem to work on q!Forever, they could completely buy the islanders complacency as long as they're able to manufacture more. A lot of people have drawn parallels between the Federation and the dystopia of 1984 but the Federations current methods remind me of another dystopia novel I've read recently called Brave New World. The basic premise is that the world government maintains obedience and stability through genetic engineering, cloning, and by making all citizens take a drug called "soma" which comes in pill form and makes people way more happy and content. This might be the type of "perfection" that the Federation is trying to achieve, only they're still in the experimental stage