Sunday, August 18, 2013
Mindset
As I read Brave New World, I couldn't help but think about how different the lives of the people were who were raised in that lifestyle and how they thought that their lives were perfectly normal due to being raised that way. It is unsettling to think about how they did find our lives barbaric and strange when, for example, the director talked about history, which everyone found weird and strange. It is disturbing to think about how a person's infant years and childhood can affect them to that degree, yet we can see that even in the world today. A person who grows up believing that a certain group of people are lower than them can hold onto that belief for many years. How a person is raised affects them immensely, and this ties into the nature vs. nurture debate, which is a debate of whether genetics or how you are raised have a greater influence on you as a person. In Brave New World, both aspects are given a role; however, I believe nurture has a greater influence on the people of that world, and I was wondering how someone else felt on this topic. Do you think nurture played a larger role than nature?
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I think i have to disagree with you on that, i don't think one can necessarily determine which has more of an influence. But i mean, wasn't it human nature that allowed their society to get that far? Wasn't it their natural desire to escape pain and sorrow that led them to seek the relief of soma and the extinction of childbirth. Yes, nurture causes them to consume goods and fear certain things and act a certain way, but its the natural desires of man that causes them to pursue these things such as "community, stability, and identity" in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel that nurture played a larger role in the way the society functioned in Brave New World. In the society, each caste was conditioned to behave in a certain manner that would prove beneficial to the society. It is seen in the scene where the infants are being conditioned by electrical shocks and loud noises to be afraid of books and flowers. Also, it is seen throughout the book in the way that people behave, for example they did not fear death. I do not think that the society would have functioned in the same way had it not been for the way they were nurtured. For example, there would probably be no caste system had the children not been raised to believe that it is right, and that Alphas are meant to do different jobs than Epsilons or Gammas. Also, nature was manipulated by those in Brave New World that would chemically alter infants to be a certain way. I'm not sure if this would be considered nurturing, but it shows the limitations of nature in this society.
ReplyDeleteI agree that nurture did play a huge role on the way society functioned, but I don't think it was greater than nature. By nature people want to better themselves and have stability. If society in the book functioned in such a way it's because human nature made it do so. People are just nurtured to fit into society.
ReplyDeleteIn the real world, nature and nurture are pretty much at equal odds. Genetic predisposition and conditioned responses have an equal effect on our development. In BNW, genetic predisposition is practically thrown out the window. The world state has complete control on what grows in the bottle. Since it isn't very efficient time wise to allow a person to grow and adapt to an environment, the world state conditions the people into their respective roles. Nurture has taken complete control in the relationship as seen when characters recite mantras drilled into them through conditioning. There is no nature or nurture in the world state, rather creation and condition.
ReplyDeleteI think that nurture played a much larger role than nature on the society in Brave New World. This can be seen in the extensive conditioning the babies are given. They are electrically shocked, brainwashed, and even made with specific genes. The people in the caste system are also extremely obedient and follow their social rankings. This underscores how much impact all the conditioning had on the babies. If it wasn't for the immense conditioning, the inhabitants may have turned rebellious and defiant.
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