...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...(21)
In the second chapter of Brave New World by Aldonus Huxley, we are introduced to conditioning. This society is controlled down to the birthing process. Humans no longer mate to create young. The kids are cloned to the maximum, about 79 on average. Nor are the children raised or nurtured by another human being. They are created and trained for one purpose. That is to work to keep the community going. The creations are split into four different types. Their type determines what their position is in the hierarchy. In this part of the chapter we are exposed to how the Deltas, or lower class, are trained to dislike books and nature. The kids are shown roses and books. At first sight they reach for them. Then the kids are shocked and after several times of repeating the process the kids learn to hate books and nature. They are conditioned. In this society the lower class shouldn't like to read or nature. It was a very interesting topic to me. If we conditioned our world to live in peace, wouldn't that be good? We wouldn't have war or hate or pain. Everyone would be controlled without knowing. No one would get hurt because nobody would know anything. They do say ignorance is bliss. If people don't know what's being done to them then they'll be happier. In this society that's the idea, to be happy. At the very least contempt with your life. If we applied that theory to our world maybe we would live happier. I don't like this futuristic society, but I do believe ignorance is bliss.
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I like your blog Eduardo, but my question to you is: would you prefer to be conditioned or live life as it comes? I mean, if you're conditioned you'll be like everyone else. Depending of what class you were in categorized that's how you would be for the rest of your life. What if you weren't an Alpha? I disagree with you when you mention "If we conditioned our world to live in peace, wouldn't that be good? We wouldn't have war or hate or pain." There would be pain if we were to be conditioned. Like in B.N.W. the babies are shocked to learn not to like flowers and books. Would you like to be told what to do? Do you think the people in B.N.W. are happy? These are just things that you should think about. .
ReplyDeleteI like my life, but I think I could have been saved a lot of pain if I was conditioned. Yes I would feel pain as a little kid, but I wouldn't remember when I got older. If I never knew how things could be, and just thought of my one job in life, I'd be happier. And so what if I'd be like everyone else? I wouldn't ever truly care because I'd be conditioned and would never feel anything. And let's say I did feel pain, what about no war or hate and peace on Earth? Isn't it worth the sacrifice? And I would never truly know I was being conditioned, I would just know the life I lived. The people in B.N.W might not be completly happy but I know they are contempt. They don't know any better they live in ignorance and therefor live in bliss. Do you think ignorance is bliss?
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