Brave New World Ch 2 Notes 5 th

Brave New World Ch. 2 Notes

5 th Floor: Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms Historical Allusion: Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist whose work with dogs made him famous. Dogs originally did not respond when a bell was rung. Pavlov began ringing the bell right before he fed the dogs. After a while, when Pavlov rang the bell, the dogs began salivating, whether food was given or not. Pavlov had created an involuntary response in the dogs to the ringing of a bell.

Conditioning in the World State Babies are brought in inside cages (like? ). Babies are presented with books and flowers and play happily. Babies are subjected to alarm bells and electric shock. Babies are presented with books and flowers and recoil in horror.

Why? Neo-Pavlovian conditioning is used to make future humans dislike nature and books. The lower castes should focus on their assigned tasks, not nature or reading. But look at the method of conditioning. In assuming the role of God, what has man lost? (He’s electrocuting babies!!!)

Smut 1 2 Smut: something that is obscene or pornographic. In the World State, words like father, mother, and family are considered smut (2324). 3 In the World State, children are raised in “State Conditioning Centers” where man is in control (24).

Hypnopaedia NOT useful for teaching facts that need to be remembered. Useful for teaching fundamental belief systems, “Moral education, which ought never, in any circumstances, to be rational” (26).

Moral Education Consider a child walking with a parent and seeing a homeless person. Seeing the parent stop and offer the homeless person money gives the child a far different moral lesson that watching the parent cross the street and avert her head (as if smelling something unpleasant) to avoid the homeless person.

Moral Education Today • While some morals are openly taught, most people form their belief systems mainly from what they see and hear in the world around them: their parents, their friends, television, social media, etc. • Think about how the messages have changed. In the 1950’s, on I Love Lucy, Lucy and Ricky slept in separate twin beds, fully clothed, with several feet between the beds. Bathrooms were NEVER shown on television. These were the prevailing moral guidelines. • What do children see on television today?

Moral Education in the World State Children are taught morals through recorded messages, hypnopaedia, they hear while they are sleeping. The messages become part of their unconscious belief system. They may or may not remember the words, but their moral fiber remembers the lessons, the beliefs concerning acceptable behavior.

Beta Moral Conditioning • “…all wear green, and Delta Children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I’m so glad I’m a Beta…. Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green…. ” (27)

Betas grow up believing their own class is the best class to be in. Beta Moral Conditioning Alphas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons would receive similar messages, making each class believe that his or her class is the best class to be in. Moral messages are provided on multiple subjects to help people develop the beliefs (about class, about sex, etc. ) that the World State wants them to have.

Hypnopaedia “The greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time” (28). “Till at last the child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind. And not the child’s mind only. The adult’s mind too – all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides – made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!” (28 -29).

Replacement… “Oh, Ford!” he said in another tone, I’ve gone and woken the children” (29). What word does the word Ford replace? Who is Ford? In the World State, who/what has been replaced? By what/whom?