Brave New World and Education

One connection that I made between the video and Brave New World is the fact that kids are being medicated in order to help them stay focused and pay attention in class.  Around the five minute mark, the video states that more and more cases of ADHD have come about, and these children are given dangerous drugs in order “to get them focused and calm them down.  Although the kids in Brave New World are not necessarily taking drugs to help them focus, they are still taught that the use of soma can relieve all stress.  Linda makes this clear when she says to Bernard “why don’t you take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours.  You’d forget all about them.  And instead of feeling miserable, you’d be jolly” (92).  Although soma is not used for educational purposes, it still can be compared to the drugs that are used to calm down learners and get them focused.

Another connection I can draw between the video and the book is as the video puts it, the production line mentality.  He talks about how schools are still organized based on “factory lines” and also points out that “we still educate children by batches.”  I thought this was an interesting point, and it does go right along with Brave New World.  In the novel, all the children are educated by the batches, and not given any chance to express individuality.  As Mr. Foster continues his tour of the conditioning center he tells the people on the tour “I’d like to show you some very interesting conditioning for Alpha Plus Intellectuals.  We have a big batch of them on Rack 5” (17).  Mr. Foster’s statement goes to show that the members of the different groups are conditioned in large batches.  They are all taught the same thing and in large bunches.  This fits well with the videos idea of the factory line education.

The video does make a solid point about education today.  Education is being narrowed down, and less individualistic ideas are allowed to be expressed.  Kids are simply taught one way to do things and that is that.  I think this video definitely make us wonder, is today’s education foreshadowing a future education system similar to the one present Brave New World? I think this video poses a debatable argument that challenges us to review our public education system.

First Brave New World Posting

Mustapha Mond’s words make up a fitting quote that sums up the basis for the society in Brave New World.  There society is solely based on efficiency and productivity.  What Mond is saying is that in order to increase efficiency, there has to be men in society that are willing to take the lower end jobs.  These men have to accept their role or position and learn to find contentment in their work.  Therefore the entire society has become focused on breeding humans in a way that predetermines their profession.  These people are also programed to love what they do and enjoy their workplace.  The general philosophy is that if one is happy in his workplace, he will become more productive and therefore benefit society.  Thus, the government takes it upon their own hands to breed and create certain people for certain jobs and positions in the workplace.

With the creation of infants in an artificial and mass production manner, the feeling of family life is taken away.  Most of the youth in existence does not have any knowledge of what a family is.  Mustapha Mond gives an illustration of family life and explains that “The world was full of fathers-was therefore full of misery; full of mothers-therefore of every kind of perversion…full of madness and suicide” (39).  The youth is not exposed to the true meaning and feeling of a family.  Mond’s description of family life is blown out of proportion.  Rather than clarifying what a family is, Mond goes about manipulating the minds of his listeners.  He describes families as dangerous and ultimately bad for society because they are not as productive.  Mond is able to manipulate the minds of these people because they do not know any different.  None of them have experienced a family themselves, so all they know about a family is its unproductivity as described by Mond.  This is against the principles of the Henry Ford worshiping society, so the youth takes the position that family life is bad.  In taking this action, they prove themselves loyal to the government and do not challenge the beliefs of society.

The Ongoing Tempest Debate…. and preparing to write

When it comes to interpreting Shakespeare’s work, The Tempest, there are many different ways in which the meaning of the text can be looked at.  From one point of view, columnist George Will maintains that looking into The Tempest and interpreting the text as a message about imperialism is looking too deeply into the meaning.  Will speaks for the common reader and claims that the “academics that interpret Shakespeare in the light of colonialism…are rendering the plays unrecognizable to the ordinary reader” (110).  However, on the other hand, Stephen Greenblatt believes that The Tempest is without a doubt making reference to colonialism.  Greenblatt states that “it is very difficult to argue that The Tempest is not about imperialism” (114).  Greenblatt uses the conflict between the savage, Caliban, and the prince, Prospero to show that Shakespeare’s intentions were to raise awareness on the issue of imperialism.  Extending upon Greenblatt’s views, Aime Cesaire also looks at The Tempest in terms of colonialism.  Aime was active in restoring the cultural identity of black Africans.  He rewrites the play and emphasizes the dialogue between Prospero and Caliban.  He also includes dialogue to show a plot that Ariel and Caliban discuss about getting back at Prospero for making them suffer.  Therefore, after looking at the text in all of these different lights, we can see that Shakespeare’s text, The Tempest, does make reference to colonialism.  There are several instances where Caliban is portrayed as a savage, and even Stephano says that he “is some monster of the isle with four legs” (98).  Stephano and Trinculo both think that Caliban is some kind of a monster and even state that he looks like a fish.  This instance definitely relates to imperialism; outsiders coming in and passing extreme judgments on the natives.  In Prospero’s case, he feels that he is helping Caliban and doing him a favor by teaching him language.  Caliban, on the other hand, feels that he is mistreated and enslaved.  Without a doubt, I feel that The Tempest makes reference to colonialism.