A Brave New World Quote Analysis

Falsehoods

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, explores many ideas of radical behavioral conditioning which we do not see today in the forms he discusses. However, we do tend to see different types of conditioning on much lower social levels than described. An interesting idea explored by both the scientific and secular world is that both “Classical as well as Pavlovian conditioning styles both rely on the two key factors of the elapsed time between the beginning of the first and second stimulus, and the order in which the subject material is presented (“Classical Conditioning”). Through the examples of behavioral conditioning in A Brave New World, it is made known to us how conditioning of any form plays such vital role in the development,

both socially and physically, of the people of today making itself present in people’s everyday lives through rather unexpected mediums both negatively and positively.
Behavioral conditioning in its very basic form is solely restricted to scientific experimentation and trials. However, on more current, more prominent times, we have seen conditioning in many different forms leaving the average individual or social class vulnerable to conditioning on many levels. No one on the face of the earth, in a third world country or first world country, has not been affected by some sort of conditioning. For example: A person can be socially conditioned by any medium such as social media, political constructs, or social trends. Even a person from a third world country can be conditioned to believe governmental or regimented idea so that they would believe something a certain group is trying to push which otherwize be repulsive.
Even though most conditioning is used for illicit or scientific purposes, conditioning on some scales can be beneficial to either the individual or the public.

Often times conditioning is used in a therapeutic way in order to change old habits into healthier habits. A superb example of this would be someone of negative habits being taught that said habit is immoral or socially unappealing which in turn would change the individual’s mindset to think of this habit as appalling thus rewiring his brain to stop the tendency. Likewise certain conditioning habits at a young age is extraordinarily beneficial teaching the child that unacceptable behaviors are both socially and morally unacceptable. This positive conditioning gives the child proper development skills necessary for everyday life to

function.
On the other hand negative conditioning is very prominent and a very dangerous when used on the mass public.

It is often used to conduct a widespread “brainwashing” process in which either the government or radical groups indoctrinate various groups of people to believe certain ideas and in certain aspects commit appauling acts they believe to be for the good of the people. Often times they teach their followers to commit horrid/ unnatural acts which are violent and often times widespread chaos making them believe this is the only way that society can function. If negative habits are instilled during childhood or even adolescents, the individual will develop with negligent and often violent behavioral issues. This style of life often leaves the child to end up unemployed or in prison setting up the child for failure for the rest of their life. With this type of development this leaves the child to live a life of poverty and criminal activity as this is the only form of placement they can find. They will often end up not identifying with the mass public of family and children and stick to the loose lifestyle often found in gangs and other criminal

constructs.
Brave New World offers to the reader strong examples of behavioral conditioning further allowing the reader to evaluate the true determinants of neutral or negative conditioning of young minds. Conditioning of any kind is extremely dangerous leaving Huxley himself to say that "It isn't only art that's incompatible with happiness; it's also science. Science is dangerous; we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled" (Huxley 231). It has been the task of scientists for years to find different mediums of of medication or procedures to correct mental health issues which has, as Huxley has portrayed, thrown a dark light over the idea of conditioning. This is unfortunately true to some degree. During the year of 1920 a behavioral experiment come to be known as the “Little Albert” Experiment was conducted to observe how a child reacts to fear as the child has no concept of the world at this point. John Watson, father of behaviorism, chose one child, Albert, from an orphanage and exposed him to certain animals and objects which were all white in color. Upon being shown a white lab rat Albert was unafraid. Watson would then bang a pipe to make a loud scary noise every time the child touched the rat.By doing this Little Albert began to “generalize his fear response to anything fluffy or white (or both)” (“Top 10 Unethical Psychological Experiments.”).
As this scientific experiment proves how one can be conditioned through simple association of sound and visualization, it ponders the question of whether or not a fully grown adult can be conditioned to partake in certain tendencies they did not as an adolescent. Every day the average individual faces countless choices and decisions that must be made in order to survive. People like routine and often become disgruntled or upset if this routine is interrupted or changed. This is one of the simplest forms of conditioning. For example, a smoker might have a usual schedule at work for when they will step outside for a smoke break allowing them to ingest the nicotine and continue on their day. Once the body has become addicted to the nicotine it begins to crave it making that break vital to the day. This is because the brain knows that is is time to have that flood of dopamine released into the body. Upon the individual not getting this flood of dopamine their “response to stimuli is more complex causing withdrawal” (Green). As the individual has now both broken routine and not gotten the desired brain response, they are now more likely to be stressed out, more irritable, and are prone to having mood swings.
Continuing the example above, conditioning could also be used as a means to assist this smoker in quitting this bad habit. Although conditioning by association of fear this late in life is almost never used and rarely works, it could, in effect, combat the habit. In a situation such as this would best be dealt with a method named behavior shaping. Burrhus Frederic Skinner developed the theory of behavioral shaping which “can be used to produce extremely complex behaviour if rewards and punishments are delivered in such a way as to encourage move an organism closer and closer to the desired behaviour each time” (McLeod). This, unlike other means, is not a form of “conditioning” that has previously been discussed such as operant or classical conditioning; but rather it is a style of mental/behavioral reshaping in order to begin a behavior or rid an individual of an old one. As this method of “conditioning” does not involve violent or traumatic stimulus, it would be the prefered choice of physicians or individuals with knowledge of these practices. This is simply because it has a better effect on the older population who have already gone through life and developed behaviors of their own.
Behavioral sciences, yes, have been proven to be successful in some situations, however, many of these experiments and procedures bring great misfortune to the patient. As previously stated above in the case of “Little Albert”, the child was left with permanent fear of all things white and fluffy. It could be argued that this was a valuable step in the right direction for the science of behaviorism but in truth, conditioning such as that and other radical means of conditioning in the world today are impractical and immoral to the patient. In society today conditioning is very present being in our pocket within the confines of our phones, on the billboards we see, and even the conversations we have with other people. It’s all around us influencing almost every decision we make. But conditioning in a scientific perspective for the purpose of habit change or other psychological disorders simply doesn't work at older ages. Medications have now come to the forefront of psychiatric care leaving these rather barbaric and inhumane ways of behavioral change in the past.
Conditioning will be forever present in the lives of those around the world from all walks of life. It is inevitable. Knowing what the human race does from the experiments from a time some years ago people can better understand how to make better decisions for themselves and for those they hold dear to them. Behavioral Conditioning was never intended to be used in the way Huxley described it in creating a Utopian society but rather, it was discovered so that we can each individually create better lives for ourselves and our fellow man. Humanity must follow its own path and cannot be confined to the constructs of institutionalized society or the cruel minds of those who seek to destroy the world. Live for yourself. Live for today. Live to make a better tomorrow.