In "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, social conditioning is a central theme where individuals are conditioned from birth to fit into their predetermined societal roles. Techniques include hypnopaedia, a form of sleep-teaching, and the caste system, which assigns people specific roles based on genetics and conditioning. These methods ensure stability and conformity within the society depicted in the novel.
Also known as sleep-teaching, hypnopaedia involves playing recorded messages to individuals while they sleep. These messages instill societal norms, values, and beliefs into their subconscious minds. For example, children are repeatedly exposed to phrases like "everyone belongs to everyone else" to promote promiscuity and eliminate possessiveness. Beyond hypnopaedia, subliminal messaging is used extensively in advertising and propaganda to manipulate individuals' thoughts and behaviors. Inspired by the work of Ivan Pavlov, this technique involves associating certain stimuli with desired behaviors. In the novel, children are conditioned to associate books and flowers with discomfort and fear through mild electric shocks and nausea-inducing chemicals, discouraging intellectual curiosity and individuality. Moreover, society in "Brave New World" is divided into genetically predetermined castes ranging from the highly intelligent Alphas to the intellectually limited Epsilons. Each caste is conditioned from birth to accept their predetermined roles, ensuring stability and minimizing social unrest. This further reinforces societal norms and consumerism, ensuring conformity and social cohesion.
These techniques collectively create a dystopian society where individuality is suppressed, and citizens are conditioned to prioritize stability and hedonistic pleasures over personal autonomy and critical thinking.
If we talk about nowadays, the most vivid example of social conditioning similar to ‘soma’ from the Brave New World is drugs. Drugs are a powerful means of escaping from reality, the truth when a person comes to a dead end in his life and does not know how to get out. As a result of consumption, people turn a blind eye to their problems and become overly happy. During the covid-19 pandemic. namely, in 2021, the opioid crisis spread, as a result of deadly experiments with vaccines. According to data from the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction for 2022, 78.6 million people are constantly using cannabis, while 22.2 million people consumed it in 2021 alone. Also, in 2021, 3.5 million people used cocaine, of which 14.4 million were lifelong users (Micallef[1], n.d.). Drug use as a modern parallel with "soma" from "Brave New World" reveals the urgent problem of entrenched drug use as a form of self-medication. Drugs perform the same function as "soma", because they eradicate people's dissatisfaction with the living conditions in society and help to maintain a stable, good self-perception, suppressing real feelings. In turn, this raises serious concerns about the health of society and the disruption of the social structure. Thus Huxley was able to foresee the current situation of drug addiction as a social conditioning technique.
Besides, with the advent of big data and advanced analytics, modern technologies can predict, influence, and even manipulate behavior of people. It can be achieved through sophisticated media channels that can influence public opinion and societal norms. Advertising techniques, political campaigns aim to influence individual preference to shape particular perceptions and behaviors on a massive scale for their intentions. For instance, social media manipulation campaigns were identified in each of the 81 countries surveyed by Oxford Internet Institute in 2020. In addition, more than 93% of countries consider disinformation as part of political communication (University of Oxford, 2021[2]). The results of the study demonstrate how the use of social networks leads to widespread manipulation and the formation of general public ideology. In addition, the scale of these companies and their presence in many countries indicate a government approach to influencing public opinion through technology. They also resort to disinformation, which conveys their intentions to change public views according to their values and principles. Thus, modern technologies play a key role in social conditioning by the government, as they are able to effectively influence the changing worldviews of people.
Social conditioning is becoming more sophisticated and effective every day in our world due to the development of technology. In addition, modern research and scientific work have helped to gather more and more knowledge about how to predict human behavior and control it. The reason for all this is that in the 21st century, people prefer to exchange their freedom for pleasure and comfort. While Huxley's novel portrays a dystopian society where conditioning techniques are institutionalized and pervasive, real-life examples reflect the individual's response to societal pressures and personal struggles. Both scenarios highlight the human tendency to seek refuge from discomfort and unhappiness, whether through institutionalized conditioning or personal choices like substance abuse.