> B.F.Skinner Behavioral Psychologist
>
> The interest of the behaviorist in man's doings is more than the interest of the
> spectator - he wants to control man's reactions as physical scientists want to
> control and manipulate other natural phenomena. It is the business of behaviorist
> psychology to be able to predict and to control human activity. Watson says, "Why
> do people behave as they do - how can I, as a behaviorist, working in the interests
> of science, get individuals to behave differently today from the way they acted
> yesterday? How far can we modify behavior by training (conditioning)? These are
> some of the major problems of behaviorist psychology."
>
> As should be obvious to the reader that "behavioral psychology" has nothing to do
> with psychology per se, and all to do with managing behavior. It denies the very
> thing which separates Man from the rest of the animal kingdom - the human mind.
> It is a soulless pursuit which sees Man as an animal who must adapt to the
> environment, that is, the social system and political regime, rather than adapting
> the environment to his own vision and will. In this regard the subject has embraced
> by governments all over the world, as hopefully it would supply them with an
> effective way to finally get the public to finally behave as they desire. It hasn't
> exactly worked out that way, but that hasn't stopped them from continuing to try.
>
> Skinner uses the idea of global problems to justify research into and the attempt
> to manipulate people - pollution, food shortages, depletion of natural resources,
> overpopulation, war and crime. To him the question is how to induce Man to behave
> properly so as to use new forms of energy, eat less meat, form smaller families
> with fewer children, use birth control, and act decently to each other. A seemingly
> noble purpose with a devious means to achieving the end.
>
> As with all behaviorists he assumes Man is incapable of responsibility, self-
> discipline, self-determined morality and even autonomous achievement because there
> is no self in the first place. To him you simple "react" and "behave" to external
> forces, and thought and awareness are nothing more than annoying, meaningless
> by-products. The result of this is that the concepts of consciousness, awareness,
> self-control, will, self-determinism, and personal responsibility cannot and do
> not exist within their ideological frameworks. These are considered minor things
> and of no meaningful significance. At best all internal subjective states,
> including feelings, are nothing more than chemical reactions in the brain or
> stimulus-response reactions to evolutionary and immediate environmental forces.
>
>
http://www.sntp.net/behaviorism/skinner.htm
"Man isn't a noble savage, he's an ignoble savage. He is irrational,
brutal, weak, silly, unable to be objective about anything where his
own interests are involved - that about sums it up. I'm interested in
the brutal and violent nature of man because it's a true picture of
him. And any attempt to create social institutions on a false view of
the nature of man is probably doomed to failure." - stan
HTH.
A Clockwork Orange
Plot summary
[edit] Part 1: Alex's world
Set in a dystopian near future, the novel opens with the introduction
of protagonist, fifteen-year-old Alex, who, with his gang members
(known as "droogs") Pete, Georgie and Dim, roam the streets at night,
committing violent crimes ("ultraviolence") for enjoyment.
Essentially, the first part of the novel is a character study of the
protagonist. We learn that Alex and his "droogs" (Russian for friends)
have their own language known as Nadsat, and their own hierarchy, in
which Alex is the leader. There is a general disregard for the law and
for older generations — creating an image of a youth movement that is
taking control of this fictional future. (This of course being the
exaggeration of the concern that came with the changing values of the
1960s, in which teenagers were becoming decidedly more unruly and
rebellious.)
Part 1 involves Alex reflecting on his illegal activity (such as
beating strangers, inciting gang fights, the seduction of two 10-year-
old girls, and the rape of the wife of writer F. Alexander). It
describes the treachery of his droogs, resulting in Alex's capture and
prison sentence for murder.
The use of lyrical language and Nadsat somewhat masks the horrible
imagery of Alex's actions, and, to some extent, Alex is able to draw
empathy from the reader, through his friendly nature towards his
audience (referring to them as his "only friends," and to himself as
"Your Humble Narrator," etc.).
[edit] Part 2: The Ludovico Technique
After being caught for his crimes Alex is sentenced to 14 years for
murder. Alex gets a job as an assistant to the prison chaplain. He
feigns an interest in religion, and amuses himself by reading the
Bible for its lurid descriptions of "the old yahoodies (Jews)
tolchocking (beating) each other", imagining himself taking part in
"the nailing-in" (the Crucifixion of Jesus). Alex hears about an
experimental rehabilitation programme called "the Ludovico Technique",
which promises that the prisoner will be released upon completion of
the two-week treatment, and will not commit crimes afterwards.
Partially by taking part in the fatal beating of a cellmate, Alex
manages to become the subject in the first full-scale trial of the
Ludovico Technique. The technique itself is a form of aversion
therapy, in which Alex is given a drug that induces extreme nausea
while being forced to watch graphically violent films for two weeks.
Among the films shown are propaganda films such as Triumph of the
Will, which includes Alex's beloved Beethoven (last movement of the
9th symphony). He pleads with them to remove the music, but the
clinicians refuse, saying it's "for his own good," and that the music
may be the "punishment element". At the end of the treatment, Alex is
unable to carry out or even contemplate violence without crippling
nausea. He is also unable to listen to Beethoven's 9th Symphony
without experiencing the same jarring physical reaction..
[edit] Part 3: After prison
The third part of the novel concentrates mostly on the following
punishment to which Alex is subjected after his treatment. Alex
encounters many of his former victims, all of whom seek revenge upon
him. He finds himself powerless to defend himself against them, due to
feelings of sickness and fear of death, as a reaction to the violence.
He finds that his parents have replaced him with a lodger in his own
home, and wanders into the public library, only to be attacked by an
aging old man whom he had beaten up with his droogs in chapter one.
The police are called by the librarian and when they arrive, he sees
that the police are no other than his old 'droog' Dim, and arch-enemy
Billy Boy. Taking advantage of their positions, they take Alex into a
rural part of town to beat him up, and then leave him to his own
devices. While looking for solace, Alex falls into the hands of F.
Alexander, the husband to the woman whom he earlier raped. Friends of
the writer intend to use Alex as a weapon against the political party,
exposing the terrible things that have been done to him. Although it
is not clear whether the friends of F. Alexander intend it, their
playing of Beethoven's 9th Symphony below Alex's locked room drives
him to throw himself out of a window instead of enduring the sickness
of the treatment's conditioning. Alex's suicide attempt fails, and
leads to his being cured, after the bad publicity for the political
party that follows.
Touching on themes of the power struggles between old and young
generations, the corruption of the police, and also politics, and
attempted (but failed) suicide, the third section of the novel is the
most reflective of the troubles of future society, mostly shown
through the final chapter, where Alex reflects that he and his friends
have either been killed (Georgie), fallen victim to the state (Dim's
becoming a police officer) or outgrown their destructive behaviour
(Pete). Alex finds that he no longer finds pleasure in "ultra-
violence" and yearns for a wife and a child of his own. Alex knows
that the generation after his will probably be just as destructive,
and the one after that,"...and nor would he be able to stop his own
son, brothers. And it would itty (go) on till the end of the world..."
— perhaps revealing Burgess's ultimate deliberation on the unruly
youth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwork_orange
