"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.(20)
"Now we proceed to rub in the lesson with a mild electric shock."
"The screaming of the babies suddenly changed its tone. There was something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave utterance. Their little bodies twitched and stiffened; their limbs moved jerkily as if to tug of unseen wires.(21)
In the book,Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley there is a passage that states this. This passage is when the Director conditions the babies in a harsh way. They put flowers and books out. They go through a process called shocked therapy. This makes the babies not like neither books or the outdoors. If the babies are crawling to either one of these then they are shocked. The babies keep going to either and keep getting shocked. This keeps going on until they realize that if they get close to either they will get shocked, so they decide to stay away.
The way the author describes the reactions to the shock is scary. These poor little babies have to go through all of this. Seeing this would make me cry. They are basically torturing the babies to not like something. It's sad to know the babies go through this.
I know that this does go on in the real world but nothing as harsh as this. Dogs are put a shock collar around them. Say you have the invisible boundaries set up in front of a door, if the dog passes this boundary then it is shocked. He then learns that he can't pass the door or else he will get shocked.
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I do agree with you Grace. This shock therapy process is horrible, especially when it is done to innocent babies, but don't you think that this is an effective process? Don't you think the Director has a reason apply this process, especially to a living being at such a young age? Even though this shock therapy is horrible, doesn't it teach a living being much more effectively?
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ReplyDeleteGrace, I like your ideas about the shock therapy and I agree with them as well. You shouldn't have to punish babies, because they don't know any better. I feel that there could be another way to do this besides frightening these children, by installing in their brains that books and nature are going to hurt them. I feel another way to do this is to tease them with something that they enjoy most, like play time. I know this process may take longer, but soon the babies will eventually get the point. Do you have any other suggestions as far as trying to condition these innocent babies to dislike books and nature?
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