In this chapter — the aftermath of the soma riot — Mustapha Mond discusses the importance of happiness and stability, even at the cost of truth and freedom. In a sense, this is the conversation both John and Helmholtz have been waiting for — the explanation of everything dissatisfying about the supposedly ideal social system.
As a World Controller who makes — and, accordingly, can break — the laws, Mond reveals his own anti-social tendencies. Mond came to an acceptance of dystopian values, he confesses, after a radical youth, during which he experimented with forbidden science. Choosing a position of responsibility in preference to banishment — a decision he regrets at times — Mond explains that he consciously took on the duty of making others happy through social engineering. As someone who controls the dystopian world while remaining aware of its flaws, then, Mond is the perfect character to answer the objections of Helmholtz and John.
In debating with Helmholtz and John, Mond concedes the validity of their literary loyalties. Comparing the feelies and Shakespeare, Mond unhesitatingly comes down on the side of Shakespeare. But he objects to the poetry on social grounds; Shakespeare's tragedies require a dangerous instability, now an outdated concept. Stability, rather than truth or beauty, represents the true human value in this age.
