5. Brave New World by Aldus Huxley: Soma
Huxley paints a dystopic society perpetually popping the pill soma in his novel, Brave New World. Soma is a sort of catch-all drug. It alleviates pain, anger, discomfort sadness all while it encourages arousal and joy, sort of like an opiate. The user feels a sense of euphoric well-being from taking the drug.
In the story, the government actually provides its citizens with soma, and they gobble it up, worshipping its effects, hooked on being drug-induced happy. In fact, the book mentions soma has “all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects.”
The Matrix Red/Blue pills aren’t drugs. Tired of reading that.
Blue is placebo and Red is the tracking device. Waking you up from battery sleep, and helping the “real” humans find you in the human energy harvesting complex. There’s no drug effect.