INDOCTRINATION

Ale Gallegos, Alberto Nordmann 9ºC

Objective

Develop your critical thinking skills

by deepening your conceptions of

Brave New World

What is indoctrination?

To teach someone to fully accept the ideas,

opinions, and beliefs of a particular group &

not consider others.

Indoctrination in Brave New World

Brave New World is based in a dystopia

happening in the future. Aldous Huxley

used a bunch of symbols and metaphors

to show how the government can

control everyone without them

noticing.

Indoctrination in Brave New World

The people in Brave New World are almost all clones,

and the ones that are not, live outside the cities in

reservations. They all believe in the same religion,

beliefs, and culture. The government indoctrinates

them, so they all think equally. They always say

“History is bunk” which means to live in the present,

and not in the past, and prohibit books. This is because

they are all sources of knowledge, which could change

the way they think.

Indoctrination in Brave New World

The whole purpose of all the clones is to create income

for the government, and make them richer. That’s why

they persuade people to consume drugs & alcohol every

time through propaganda, and keep them busy with

consumerism. Then, in order to keep them happy and

not revolt, they create social classes and give the

clones predetermined lives, so they are born thinking

their social class is the best.

Example #1: Islamic State

Islamic State (ISIS)

What is Islamic State (ISIS)?

Islamic State is the biggest terrorist group in the world. They

operate in the Middle East. They are muslims, and kill in the

name of god, because they think it’s the only religion people

should follow.

Islamic State kills 21 christian

egyptians

5 days ago, in Middle East, the Islamic State kidnapped

21 christian egypts, locked them in cages and marched

with them in their cages. Afterwards, they uploaded a

video online, of how they killed them.

Islamic State Indoctrination

Islamic State (ISIS) has become the biggest terrorist

group in history, because of 2 main reasons. First, they

have a lot of money, which gives them power and

control. But most importantly, they have a lot of

people. Islamic State has the record for most followers

in human history in a terrorist group.

Islamic State Indoctrination

But how have they achieved so many people to join?

Through indoctrination. They take religion as their

reason to kill. They convince everyone that islam is the

only true religion, and if someone disagrees, they

should be punished with death. They convince young

boys and adults that if they kill in the name of their

god, then they will be rewarded with infinite paradise.

And if they don’t, they will be punished for life.

Islamic State Indoctrination

Young boys are raised all their life with these beliefs.

They are taught day to day, that they should please

their god by killing others that don’t think like them.

They don’t know it’s wrong, because they have been

taught all their life it’s the right thing to do. So is it

really evil to kill someone if they think it’s O.K? I don’t

know, but what I do know, is that the real evil is

making them believe it’s O.K.

Example #2: China (communism) vs

USA (capitalism)

What is Communism?

Communism is an economic and social system

in which resources are shared equally

throughout citizens.

Communism in China History

● Communism in China started in 1921. Mao Zedong, who

was under control at that time, led to a revolution.

This whole point was so the communist party achieved

control. This was a success in 1947.

● One of their influences and inspirations were the

Soviet Model of development of industry so peasants

could participate too. In the 1950´s, Mao developed

Maoism, which is the way Chinese see communism.

Continuing history

● Mao got mad because of the peace coexistence

between communists and capitalists. So Maoists,

started a huge communism tradition.

● Finally, this lead to the Cultural revolution so China

could be a great industrialized community.

Unfortunately, this didn't have a great impact in China

because many people starved to death.

● Therefore, Mao eradicated his enemies and this lead

to many deaths and persecutions.

Communism in China in Modern Days

● The most current constitution was created in 1982, it has

not been completely accepted because it is currently being

revised. This constitution states that people have free of

speech, press, worship and the right to have their own

private property.

● However, most of these rights have not been followed.

Nothing has been done to ensure that new laws protecting

these rights are instituted in the constitution.

● The judicial system has no method for the revision of this

laws.

Continuing Communism in Modern

Days

● Computer usage in China has gotten insane. There are

over 210 million internet users and over 400 million

phone users. As a result, there has been a huge increase

in technology. Privacy, censorship, public ownership and

work ethic has become a huge ethical issue because the

government is able to control it.

What does it have to do communism

in China with indoctrination? Communism is one of the best examples of indoctrination.

In China, freedom is not a great choice for people. They

have rights like every other citizen, but the government

controls how much they can do and what they can have.

An example can be how China is making people have more

access to technology easier so they think they can have

the lifestyle they want to. But in reality, everything they

are doing if creating ideas in peoples head so they think

they can live the way they want to, but the only thing

they are really doing is getting more power over them and

gaining control.

What is Capitalism?

Capitalism is an economic system that treats

everyone as individuals with the means for producing

and distributing goods.

● United States first became predominantly capitalist by

1900’s. The earlier periods, while they began to form

a system, were divided into 3 periods.

● The first one came from 1600 to 1790 is considered the

semi-capitalist economy because of commercial

production of tobacco, along with other elements. All

the work they did was done by enslaved and semi-

enslaved workers.

Capitalism History

● Finally the third period was from 1865-1920 were the

economic development was growing in an

extraordinary pace in industries and also agriculture

was increasing subsequently in all capitalists forces.

● The second period came between 1790-1865 where

several industries became more organized throughout

capitalist lines and also some parts of agriculture were

lost until the end of the period were agriculture

became a full production market.

● “All capitalist economies are commercialized but not

all commercialized economies are capitalists.”

Continuing Capitalism History

Capitalism in USA in Modern Days

● The current situation over capitalism in the United

States in the point where the government should let

markets get the resources they need, or get the power

from taxation to influence regular market outcomes.

One of the main discussing in the policy and analysis is

the advantages of free governments. This involves the

Cato Institute.

● The Economic Policy Institute is the center of a

thinking programme where the workers with low

income are protected and they can get a benefit from

it.

Continuing Capitalism in Modern Days

● Its objective is to have an amplitude of a public

debate including strategies to make a stable and fair

economy.

● There is also another Foundation called “The Heritage

Foundation” which is another institute that was

created to promote public political talks that can

encourage other people and other governments who

use this for more freedom and a limited government

between countries.

What does capitalism in the US have

to do with indoctrination?

Capitalism is also a great example for

indoctrination. Maybe not in the same way as

communism but they are still trying to make

people like capitalism and prefer it as their

favorite economic system. This is because the

USA has taken everything they can, resources,

money and people, to make them believe it is

the best lifestyle they can have.

Continuing capitalism and

indoctrination

Capitalism has had huge fights between countries like

China because they don't agree with their thinking of the

best system. Unfortunately, this economic system have

also caused many issues around the country. Poverty and

people raising their voices to change the way things are,

but who has the control to decide?...The government

itself. That’s why in my opinion, capitalism is the best

way to have a country set up because you get the

freedom you need, and they don’t make you be something

you don’t want to.

Conclusion between capitalism and

communismOne of the best examples, as said before, of indoctrination is communism.

Many fights between countries have been made because of the differences

between communism and capitalism. China has fought many times against

USA ideologies with capitalism, but what do you think about both economies?

As you can see, In China there is still 99 million people living in poverty, so

even though people are used to communism and living in those conditions, no

one deserves to live like that. Also, girls are still being killed or given in

adoption because they want a bigger man population, as the government says

“It is better to have strong people than weak.” Also, they depend in

everything in the government. It is much less freedom because, yes, everyone

has rights, but they have the exact same rights for the same health care,

money, etc. Everyone receives the same amount of goods and services from

the government.

Continuing conclusion

In the contrary, USA has a stable economy. Yes, it has a lot of debts between

other countries but people are not forced to anything but to pay taxes so they

can have a better life style. Capitalism is an example of much more freedom

because people don’t depend that much in the government. The government

asks for taxes just so their country keeps growing with new resources to make

it a better place to live in.

Either way they both have examples of indoctrination, both are trying to

convince their citizens that their economic system is the best way to live, but

at the end of the day, we think, that every person has the right to say what

they think either if it is against or not their country.

Conclusion Alexandra Gallegos

In my opinion I think Aldous Huxley was right as he was wrong in many things.

Beginning with indoctrination, how the doctors in the factory treated the

clones was completely wrong. You don't have the right to control a person by

making them believe other stuff that you want to. Also, he didn´t change my

way of thinking. Maybe a little but not a huge difference. He changed my way

of thinking of how people can control so much and others can’t even notice.

What he did do was make me think way outside the box. That I don’t have to

generalize everything I feel. An example could be how I said I didn’t like

Islam because they were all terrorists. But one thing I did not take into

consideration is that not every islamic person is a terrorist. I can’t generalize

in something that can be offensive to other people. As well, how people say

Mexico is only formed by burros and sombreros of mariachis. It is an insult to

the religion or/and the country.

Conclusion Alberto Nordmann

I think Aldous Huxley is a genius, I think his way of warning

people of what could happen to society through all this

metaphors and symbols is amazing. After reading the book,

most people would summarize it as a fictional book where

there are clones and Bernard, Watson, whatever. But in this

class, we paid attention to every symbol and metaphor and

tried to connect it to real life. I think it’s amazing how we

don’t notice how this symbols are in our day-to-day life. For

example: Indoctrination in filtered news, consumerism through

propaganda, social classes, etc.

Bibliography

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13904437

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/07/how_communist_is_china.ht

ml

http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/communism-computing-china/china.html

http://www.allshookdown.com/newhistory/CH01.htm

http://brechtforum.org/development-capitalism-united-states

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_state

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/15/us-mideast-crisis-libya-egypt-

idUSKBN0LJ10D20150215

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/16/us-mideast-crisis-libya-egypt-

idUSKBN0LJ10D20150216

https://news.vice.com/topic/islamic-state