Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Is there freedom with conditioning?

In the Brave New World, everyone is born to be dependent and without freedom. Humans are divided into differnet levels by a caste system and are forced to do certain jobs. For example, Epsilons are considered to be the lower caste who can only do jobs that don't require any knowledge. Mr. Foster's statement, "But in Epsilons, we don't need human intellegence", prevents them from doing things that the Alphas and Betas can do. In addition, conditioning also acts as a form of social and mind control thus giving them compliant values in the Brave New World.Another example of conditioning is expressed in the Beta's monologue:" I'm really awfully glad that I'm an Beta, becauseI don't work hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas." These statements show Betas are contemptuous of the lower caste people which indicates the divisions in the society and the lack of freedom for people to prosper beyond their own caste. Finally, infants are also being conditioned at a very young age in the Neo-Pavovian conditioning room. Thr director conditions the infants to stay away from books and flowers which block them from gaining knowledge and also keeps them away from nature. The Director's statement," It was decided to abolish the love of nature" shows his disire to keep society "stable" by forbidding people to explore and enjoy the outside world. Freedom will not exist in a society where everyone is conditioned only to do their own jobs, and not to think critically. There is no way for people to gain freedom in Brave New World since they are only able to do things that are related to their own caste.