Mental Conditioning In Brave New World

Both Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984 are haunting dystopias, but each display a different outlook on the future. Huxley believes that the use of mental conditioning and drugs will bring about a dystopia and Orwell thinks that manipulation of media and tight surveillance will do the same. Although they are both compelling prophecies, the ways of controlling the masses in Brave New World are more pertinent to society today.

In Brave New World, mental conditioning or “hypnopaedia” is used as a means of promoting groupthink in the community, much like how religious groups try to influence people’s minds today. Straight out of the bottle, babies are influenced to think the same way as the community does. Through audio osmosis the children learn societal standards, group mottos, and the importance of conformity of thought. Bernard, who is an expert

on hypnopaedia, says that “Sixty-two thousand four hundred repetitions make one truth” (Huxley 47). From a young age, the government can make the children believe anything they want them to. The government even created an entire hierarchal caste system, just by conditioning the children to believe that that was their place. Although babies born into religious families might not have a narrative drilled into their minds as exactly and scientifically as the babies of Brave New World do, they still are taught very young that they are to think a certain way to abide by the rules of their religion. Some children even have commandments repeated to them over and over again, much like how hypnopaedic slogans are memorized in Huxley’s novel. Brave New World’s citizens as well as children born to religious parents are conditioned to forget their individual thoughts and to embrace the wants and beliefs of the community or group. In both instances, this mental priming is deemed unalarming because the practice is so accepted and even encouraged by a superior entity such as the government and the church.
Huxley also wrote about the unnecessary and excessive use of happy pills or “soma” which is translated to our society already through nursing home’s overuse of prescription drugs.

Every citizen of Brave New World is completely dependent on soma to provide them with emotional stability. They are taught to not feel anything real because “a gramme is better than a damn” (Huxley 54). The government hands out pills for them to take whenever they are feeling down so they do not have to confront their emotions. This leads the citizens to be reliant on instant gratification to address their needs. Also, the eradication of human emotional highs and lows ushers in an extreme societal stability that the government strives for. In our world, nurses were discovered giving their elderly patients unneeded drugs just to shut them up. The nurses represent the government in Huxley’s novel with their unrestrained use of drugs on others to make them easier to control and use as they please. The patients relate to the citizens in the way that they are both the objects of control and manipulation by a higher

authority.
1984’s portrayal of manipulation of the media is a sinister symptom of the totalitarian controlled dystopia that is shown in life today through fake news. In 1984, the Party dictates what is true and what is false. They have a Ministry of Truth which is, ironically, where workers change previous documents to correspond to whatever lies the Party is presently saying is true. One of the Party’s slogans is “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell 248). This is entirely accurate in their world because citizens’ memories cannot be relied upon because of the practice of doublethink. The only tangible and dependable source for information is in the written history that is controlled by the government. Because of this paradox, the Party is an ultimate and absolute ruler. Manipulation of the media is closer to us than we think. On social media apps such as Twitter there are constant posts of fake news or propaganda. These posts are entirely false political statements that can mislead and misinform many citizens. If gone unchecked, these deceiving reports have the power to disrupt.
Orwell’s concern over tight surveillance was shown frequently in his novel and has proved to be valid through recent disturbing news of China grading its citizens over their everyday actions. Winston and Julia fear the discovery of their unorthodoxy because of the heavy use of telescreens, microphones, and Thought Police. Telescreens are devices installed in every home and building that can hear and see everything that a citizen says and does. Where it is impossible to install telescreens, like in the forest, microphones are placed for the Party to further monitor the civilians for any act of rebellion. Thought Police are undercover agents who work for the government to discover citizens who engage in thoughtcrime (basically any actions or thoughts that oppose the Party). The head of the Party is the ambiguous Big Brother who is more of a menacing symbol than a real person. All over the city there are posters stating that “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” (Orwell 2). This adds to citizens’ fear of the authority by creating a sense of paranoia of their surroundings. The threat of constant eyes on the citizens lead them to be on edge and terrified of what the Party might find, even if they are completely innocent. Recently, the Chinese government has been planning on enacting a grading system that would severely violate citizens' rights. This system would score people based on all aspects of their life including past purchases, social media posts, and credit scores. Those with a high score would be offered many privileges, such as discounted services and admittance to elite private schools. Those with a low score would be restricting from doing many things such as running for office or access to welfare.
Even though both Huxley’s and Orwell’s novels are startling in the accuracy of their relation to present society, the devices used to control the citizens of Brave New World are the most prevalent today. While political manipulation of media and extreme surveillance are unfortunate occurrences in our present society, conditioning of the mind and abuse of drugs are most likely to be our downfall. Human beings are naturally free thinking and rebellious individuals. The main characters in both Brave New World and 1984 display this rebellious nature. Change takes time and people would not just stand idly by while their privacy, freedoms, and rights are taken away from them. However, if drugs that make people happy are given out, they might not think twice before taking one to ease emotional hardships. Also, mental conditioning can be used without the subject even being conscious of it. In our time of consumerism and immediate gratification, it is the most probable that the things that will bring down society are what we welcome and are not suspect of, not the things that we hate and are watchful of.
The dystopias created in Brave New World and 1984 are expertly crafted to bring attention to sinister symptoms of the world that Huxley and Orwell were fearful of. Huxley was weary of agents of control that can seem unsuspecting to people such as unconscious suggestion and the use of prescription medicine. Orwell was more concerned with subjects that would traditionally illicit fear, like governmental revision of documents and invasive spying. While both novels hold gloomy predictions for the future, Brave New World describes a time to come that is the most plausible and the closest to our present reality.