you cannot understand your existence

Their conversation I feel is not really that of civilization. I feel like is more about what is old and new and what progress means. They talk about God and why they don’t teach of him or of something like him. They teach of Ford, but he is a known real man. He does not have any power. He is just the milestone and a way of thinking that makes him their ‘god’. They don’t talk about God, or of Shakespeare because they are old. They keep people in the past. They also know that people will continue to like them and that will keep them in the past. If they like things of the past, they cant move forward. Without moving forward, there is no consumption, and the entire purpose of life is consumption, and stabilization.

“What you need is something with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here”
I think what John means is that because no one feels anything they are getting nothing out of life. Their soma takes them out of reality and the never have to deal with anything. To John the purpose of life is to survive. He feels pain and love and fear. He cant understand why no one else can, and why no one else would want to.

“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
John doesn’t want the stability that this world provides. The stability inhibits him from feeling anything. Having extremes and having to deal with those extremes are what make life, life to John. Because John knows the feeling of ‘uncomfort’ he knows what it feels like to live. Without more than one feeling you cannot truly know you are alive, and can’t understand your existence.