Essay/Term paper: Power of the few over the many

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Humanities

The Eleventh Commandment portrayed the state church as being

the supreme dictator. It is through the eleventh commandment

that the church held it's power and control over the masses.

Without the church and it's leaders to guide the masses, their

society would have collapsed. However, compared to Brave New

World, the whole society is conditioned to "work for everyone

else"(Huxley 67) by the abuse and daily consumption of soma.

Without the drug called soma, their society would have also

collapsed due to withdrawal symptoms. The underlying reality

between the two societies is that the masses are manipulated,

controlled, and brainwashed, without resistance, to obey and

follow their leaders through various methods of enforcement.

The Brave New World is controlled by a select few who call

themselves Resident Controllers and Directors. These elite few

are able to control the production and selection process of

societies masses. Mustapha Mond, Resident Controller for Western

Europe, and the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, oversee

the conditioning of embryos. Their powers and control over these

particular jurisdictions gave them great power, and with that the

ability to manipulate others. "'You ass'... said the

Director,... 'Hasn't it occurred to you that an Epsilon embryo

must have an Epsilon environment as well as an Epsilon

heredity'"(Huxley 23). Through a hierarchy of Alaphas and Betas

down to the lower cast Epsilon, everyone was suited for their

job. The Director however, through his position of authority,

was able to "... condition the masses to hate the

country,"(Huxley 30). In doing so, the Director succeeds in

creating an obedient society, which obeys and bows to every whim

of his commands. The Resident Controller and Director were two

authoritative figures that were able to control whomever and

whatever each person worked at, even before they were conceived.

Each cast had pre-conceived morals preached to them through

conditioning, and to this end effectively brainwashed to the

point of utter obedience. The outcome of this brainwashing by

conditioning sets forth a society that exists in two tiers, the

guardians and the domesticated animals. [who? why?->BNW]

[who? why?->11th C]

The church and it's head archbishops are able to control and

manipulate the masses in North America by preaching the eleventh

commandment through strict laws and enforcement practices. The

eleventh commandment ordained that every man and women must be

fruitful and multiply. Because of this commandment and of the

militant ruling religionist enforcement, North America alone had

four billion people, and yet the church continued to preach the

eleventh commandment and it's practices. The competition between

continents was the driving force behind the eleventh commandment.

If it was not the competitiveness between ruling church states,

the eleventh commandment would have been abolished. Through

dictatorial control the repercussions of not being fruitful and

multiplying, or of using contraceptive devices were most severe

for any man or women, and quite often lead to punishment and

extermination. Coupled to the acts of punishment, often drugs and

other brainwashing techniques were used on those who did not obey

the eleventh commandment. Through control and brainwashing of

the masses the church was able to manipulate their society to the

point of total utter starvation.

[How? BNW]

Manipulation and enforcement to the masses in the Brave New

World was very easy for those who were in control. The

techniques used by those in power were varied between the usage

of subconscious persuasion, hypnopaedia, brainwashing, and

chemical persuasion. Pavlovian conditioning was used on young

children through constant manipulation and repetitive

hypnopaedia. The use of chemical persuasion however could be

seen to be more influent on the daily lives of the

differentiating casts. It was part violence and part

psychological manipulation for the people who lived in the Brave

New World. For those individuals who did not conform to the

standards set forth by their leaders, they were exiled to an

island where they were left alone for the rest of their lives.

[How? 11th C]

While chemical persuasion was prevalent in the Brave New

World, the accessibility and usage of drugs, especially

contraceptive drugs, was strictly forbidden by the church. While

the church enforced their commandments through a strict military

totalitarian enforcement agency, people continued to seek

contraceptive drugs. While some people were killed for their

digressions against the church, most people were brainwashed to

conform to the church commandments. "...it left a blankness

where there normally must have been thousands of mostly unnoticed

messages coursing to his brain. This was brainwashing!"(Lester

168). While most people did conform to the church's

commandments, there were still however a select few who resisted

the church and sought to move away from the 'arms of power' of

the church's Archbishops. Through manipulation however, the

church was able to offer food to those who conformed to the

church's wishes.

[Success BNW?]

As the Brave New World was set in an age of advanced

technology, anyone's ideas who went against the order of the

state was considered to be an anarchist. As the world state's

motto suggested, "Community, Identity, Stability"(Huxley 15) the

pillars of the social hierarchy where continuously being eroded

by those who thought and acted differently. The states

totalitarian controllers ability however to deal with this group

of individuals through strong persuasion tactics saw that most

people did keep in line with the states wishes and orders. For

those who did not coincide with the states beliefs, they were

exiled.

[Success 11th C?]

Although the church was able to preach it's commandments and

their other mystical religionist practices, there where still

over one billion people who were seeking to flee to Australia,

the supposedly safe haven for all Romish religion individuals.

The church, through it's methods of controlling their society,

was still able to control a large percentage of the population.

However, this dictatorial control over the masses was only

accomplished through the punishment and extermination of those

who did not conform to the church's propaganda and practices.

The successfulness of the church's ability to control and

manipulate, while at the same time brainwashing their followers

allows them to rule their continent with an 'iron fist'. If it

were not for the techniques that the church used, their ability

to control the masses would have been greatly diminished.

[Conclusion]

Through reinforcement of desirable behaviour and scientific

manipulation, the effectiveness of the Director's and Resident

Controllers ability to control the masses was greater than those

manipulation methods practiced by the church in The Eleventh

Commandment. Even though the church had a military totalitarian

enforcement agency, the leaders in the Brave New World were able

to repress the masses through dictatorial control through

punishment and extermination. While in both societies the

underlying human interaction was the inability to communicate,

both had the essence of being superficial worlds.