Censorship is widely used to control people, which is an effective way to control the information people receive and can be used to achieve several purposes. Censorship serves several purposes in the society of Brave New World. The government's censorship of history and family ensures citizens of the Brave New World abide by their standards. .
Knowledge of history is very limited to the citizens of the World State. The World State blocks access to selected history to keep the citizens in place. Lack of knowledge of the past leads the citizens to believe that a long term relationship is inappropriate . Long term relationships are what people today aim for; in Brave New World however, they are looked upon with disgust. Fanny tries to talk sense into Lenina, "'Again?' Fanny's kinds, rather moon-like face took on and incongruous expression of pained and disapproving astonishment. 'Do you mean to tell me you're still going out with Henry Foster?'.'It's such horribly bad form to go on and on like this with one man'"(33). Fanny, along with all the citizens of Brave New World have been conditioned to believe "everyone belongs to everyone else". Fanny, being a well-conditioned member of the World State, disapproves of Lenina's love life and expresses her disgust with her facial expressions. If these people were introduced to the lifestyles of the past and could see how happy people are with long term relationships, they might change their minds. The government does not want people to change their minds; therefore, they censor out information relating to past lifestyles. The people have little knowledge of other forms of government in history. Mustapha Mond explains "There was something called democracy. As though men were more than physico-chemically equal"(40). The people are unfamiliar with previous forms of government as the World State believes it is best to hide this information from them to keep them happy.
