One major aspect of Brave New World is conditioning. The society of Brave New World is conditioned from birth to believe certain moral and ethical precepts before they even begin to think about them. For instance the use of hypnopaedia (sleep teaching) is a necessary tool for the conditioning of young adults and children in Brave New World. Hypnopaedia is just one of the tools that the world controllers use to keep society under their control and with the use of extensive conditioning the world controllers have manipulated the populace into mindless civilians. Hitler also believed in the potential of conditioning. He used many Nazi youth programs to change the morals of the youth in Germany. No longer were the children a product of their parent's teachings but rather loyal servants to the state. Hitler used the same ideals as the world controllers in Brave New World. By repetitively drilling the German youth with Nazi slogans, Hitler was able to create a society that believed in his fascist regime.
Even in our society aren't we conditioned to believe what we do based on outside influences. In our society we are raised by our parents and they condition us to believe certain things. Though there are many children who don't believe the same morals as their parents. They are products of their culture and peers or the media. When do we as individuals make our own opinions solely based off our own discernment? We as students are taught many skills, one of which is think independently. But how often do we actually take the time to analyze what we truly believe and if we don't then how are we supposed to make opinions on the beliefs of others? Are we individuals that let society teach us what to believe instead of teaching ourselves? Are we then less intelligent than the society in Brave New World if we fool ourselves and say that we have knowledge but we don't take the time to understand it? So are we individuals or are we just tricking ourselves to believe that we are.
Your analogy with Hitler is very illuminating and makes me realize that Huxley's world is a Fascist state. Everyone is brainwashed and conditioned since even before birth or "decanting" to fit into their place in society and work to ensure the prosperity of the State. The state is the core of Fascism, the fundamental entity. In Fascism, everyone is devoted to promoting the prosperity and progress of the State, as is done in Brave New World.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, I believe that throughout our lives, we are conditioned to accept the morals and viewpoints that our parents and society have promoted; however, we are smarter than the society in Brave New World since we possess individuality and are able to come up with our own intelligent thoughts. We can also effectively "break" our conditioning. For example, most children are conditioned by their parents and society to cultivate good morals and values and to treat others with respect, yet some become thieves, murderers, and arsonists. People do not always adhere to their conditioning. As another example, one's parents may condition their child to believe that video games are bad; however, the child may grow up and create his own differing opinion: video games are good and stimulate one's mind.
In short, we are not the sole product of conditioning as the people in Brave New World are. We are capable of making our own decisions and producing our own thoughts.
Conditioning in Brave New World is essential to maintain the society's stability and an essential tool to the World Controllers' control over the divisions. Like our modern society, the society in Brave New World's higher divisions are prejudice towards the lower divisions in the sense that they are programmed at birth using hypnopaedia to look down upon and avoid interaction with the lower divisions.
DeleteConditioning in modern society can be seen as beneficial and harmful for our citizens. For example, if a child is taught to avoid drugs or any harmful activities or substances, the child can maintain that mentality and avoid associating themselves with people that do drugs. Conditioning can also be seen as harmful because like in Brave New World, wealthier and more fortunate children can be taught at a young age to avoid or look down upon another race or activity because they are less fortunate or may be too labor-intensive since they never had to perform such tasks. Growing up with such a mentality can be hazardous as it can cause citizens to make enemies for such prejudice thinking.
Our citizens, like those in Brave New World, are similar in the sense of being brainwashed or manipulated because of how celebrity-centered our media is. Our media focuses more on celebrity gossip than on global impacting events such as the events occurring in the Middle East, Egypt, Libya. An example would include Whitney Houston's death that received major attention for nearly two months, the attention on her sudden death far overpowered the attention shown to the events in the Middle East. We are victims of manipulation since we are forced to believe such celebrity gossip and events are far more important than other news around the world because our media dictates the importance of such events. By the way our society dictates what is important, I would not be surprised to see our society resemble that of Brave New World, no thinking for one's self, nor the power to dictate the importance of events when compared to others.
We are less intelligent than the society in Brave New World. The reason I say this is because they simply have to rely on decanting and hypnopaedia in order to control the entire population. Whereas Hitler had to rely on organized groups that instilled the greatness of the Fuhrer into children over a long period of time. The Brave New World's method had a one-hundred percent success rate while Hitler's method was not always so effective.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct in your analysis that both societies are influenced by the viewpoints of others. You are slightly incorrect in your belief that our situation is entirely similar. Humans in Huxley's society are only given one viewpoint and one purpose. This is both a blessing and a curse. They aren't confused about their viewpoints and know that their sole purpose is to help the State flourish and remain stable. The curse is that they cannot form their own opinions since they are only exposed to one way of thinking. They can only think think of themselves as Alphas and not as Epsilons.
The flaw within your argument is demonstrated within the book The Book Thief. Rudy Steiner is a young boy who is forced to go to a Hitler youth camp. As you have said, Hitler tried to brainwash the Germans. Rudy breaks free from the grasps of Hitler and follows his own definition of what is right. Even though he was young, he was still able to form his own sense of right and wrong. He chose to feed Jews when clearly he could get in trouble. This was clearly in opposition against the majority belief that Jews were bad. Liesel influenced Rudy to choose another path in life.
I agree with your notion that we are the products of many conflicting viewpoints. This abundance in outside influences is what allows us to achieve our own understanding of who we are. The people in Brave New World don't have the ability to decide who they are because they don't have the chance to experience other people's opinions.
We are all individuals because we have access to varying amounts of teachings, influences, and media. This varying amount is what allows us to reach different conclusions on who we are as a person.