Conditioning

"The swiftest crawlers were already at their goal. Small hands reached out uncertainly, touched, grasped, unpetaling the transfigured roses, crumpling the illuminated pages of the books. The Director waited until all were happily busy. Then, 'Watch carefully,' he said. And, lifting his hand, he gave the signal.

The Head Nurse, who was standing by a switchboard at the other end of the room, pressed down a little lever.

There was a violent explosion. Shriller and ever shriller, a siren shrieked. Alarm bells maddeningly sounded.

The nurses obeyed; but at the approach of the roses, at the mere sight of those gaily-coloured images of pussy and cock-a-doodle-doo and baa-baa black sheep, the infants shrank away in horror, the volume of their howling suddenly increased." (pgs.20-21) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Books and flowers were placed in a room. The Director brought in a line of babies who crawled to the flowers and books. A nurse immediately pulled a switch that shocked all the babies. When the babies were lined up again with the books and on the other side, they were filled with horror. What a scene this was. These are babies being conditioned to hate the outdoors and books by using shock therapy. In the Brave New World, humans are constantly being conditioned. In our world, you are conditioned without knowing it. You are told to behave in certain ways by using rules. Of course, it isn't as bad as using shock therapy. There are other examples in the real world. If you eat a bad apple, you acquire a bad memory. This will affect how you will act when you see another apple. If someone else offers you another apple 1 week later, you will have said no thanks because you would have remembered the last bad apple you ate.