Civilization Conditioned like Clockwork through the System of Education (Research Paper Sample)

Rios
Professor Williams
English 103
November 25, 2014
Civilization Conditioned like Clockwork through the System of Education
Civilization is asupport construct in a society with a superior level of organization which enhances productivity and objectivity of individuals in a group. A group offers protection and security which an individual could not manage on their own as it outlines the behavior and the norms that are expected of individuals in the group and also towards the group or other human groups. These conventions are standardized, and humans are expected to follow them despite the changes apparent in human behavior. Thus, to follow the standards that define a civilized society is to suppress natural instincts that are not in parallel with the ones stipulated. Freud, in Civilization and Its Discontents, suggests that civilization is based on rejection of natural instincts in favor of an artificial code of defining character. In other words, it is a system that dictates happiness or pleasure of satisfying natural instincts by conditioning an individual’s cognizance of right and wrong. The connection between conditioning and civilization is the basis of our education system. Through education, one does not only learn but is conditioned to think in a certain way. This concept of conditioning and civilization is demonstrated through Alex in the A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Burgess demonstrates the effects of civilization towards natural instincts like aggression and the measures the overseers of civilization take towards any deviation from civilization. As Freud suggests, man derives pleasure and satisfaction when he is at odds with civilization. Freud also talks extensively on conditioning as the method used to civilize individuals in a system that is based on suppression of instincts.To emphasize the importance of conditioning towards civilization, Freud describes personality in three different theories of personality: Id, ego and superego. The Id is present from birth and is the source of our bodily needs. It controls a wide range ofthings and is driven by instinct and unresponsive to reality. Education is one of the established systems to defeat the Id with the superego. The superego plays a critical role of striving to make us behave and live is a socially acceptable manner. Therefore, it is highly sensitive to reality demands whereas the Id is oblivious to reality and seeks instant gratification. The ego is our perception to reality and its aim is to satisfy the Id in a realistic way. Super-ego, therefore, acts as a checker for what one does. Civilization is the act of conditioning the super-ego so that one can understand between right and wrong. Civilization is conditioned like Clockwork through the system of Education.
The concept of conditioning and its relationship to civilization is best exemplified in a school education setup. First of all, consider a child in kindergarten. By the time that child leaves the 12th grade, he or she is a product of a civilization system that has been built over the timespent in school. In a school setup, conditioning plays a great deal in correcting the behavior of children considered rebellious. Individuals rebellious to civilization are usually conditioned to conform to the standards of civilization through various methods. For instance, a child at a kindergarten level is driven by an almost absolute Id personality. The child is primarily driven by their instincts rather than reason. After undergoing education, by the time the child leaves the 12th grade, they will have not only been shaped towards a particular way of thinking but also become repulsive towards natural instincts that are considered uncivilized.Freud asserts that the adult’s ego cannot have been the same from the beginning and therefore it must have gone through a process of development, which cannot, of course, be demonstrated but which admits of being constructed with a fair degree of probability. An infant at the breast does not yet distinguish his ego from the external world as the source of sensations flowing in upon him. He gradually learns to do so, in response to various promptings (Freud 13-14).At young ages, civilization is adopted through early education. It is through education that a child learns the behavior and the expectations of the society as far as the social conduct is concerned. Education therefore acts as a conditioning system. Similary, Alex’s fight with civilization, just like the kid in the kindergarten is primarily driven by his natural instincts. To correct his perceived wrong choices, he is subjected to Ludovico’s technique such that by the end of the experiment, Alex becomes aversive to his own natural instincts much more like education conditions one against natural aggressive instincts.
School keeps checks and balances for behavior that deviates from the set codes. For instance, a child when he or she becomes rebellious may be punished. Through these punishments, aggressive instincts are continuously repressed. At this point, a child associates the aggressive behavior with wrong doings. As they continue learning and advancing to upper levels, their superego slowly becomes conditioned according to the standards expected by the society.A perpetual question that rises in discussions on civilization is about what it does to the individual and who eventually benefits from the whole system of conditioning. For instance, after Alex was subjected to Ludovico, to whose benefit was it? Is it the state, country or company? To answer this question is to first understand the purpose of civilization. Even though civilization does involve suppression and eventual renunciation of one’s natural instincts, what are the prevailing principles that incline us to condition ourselves that way? In other words, what made Alex renounce his natural instincts or what makes one get education and eventually renounce their natural instincts? From this, we come to learn of man’s inclination towards aggression. Civilization thus is a conditioning system to alleviate the impacts of aggression from people in the society. It does this by setting up a code of behavior for the society within which people are expected to follow. It is hard to dissociate the benefits of such conditioning to the state or country from those of an individual. This is because, this inclination of aggression natural to us is the sole factor that destabilizes the good relations we have with our neighbors and which forces civilization into such high moral demands. Due to this inherent hostility in humans, societies are continually facing the potential danger of disintegration. Even a common goal would not hold together individuals because the instinctual interests the Id are sometimes stronger than realistic super-ego interests. Therefore, this conditioning not only sets limit to man’s manifestation of their aggressive behavior but also keep check of such. Hence, the methods are intended to help people identify how to relate with others, the restrictions in the relations with other people and the probablesolutions should the conditions be unfit for a good relation. Despite these efforts, civilization has not achieved much on its own. It only hopes to prevent excess use of instinctual behavior such as aggression to cause violence while assuming the right to use such excessive force against criminals for example. Although at times, even the law is not able to escape from applying such or equivalent force. It also comes a time when one gives up on the expectations especially when one assumes that the pain they are undergoing is as a result of their inability to choose right. At the same time, it would be biased to accuse this conditioning with trying to do away with conflicts and competition from human activities. The situations are essential but strong opposition against them is unnecessary.
School has for a long time been used as the vehicle of civilization. Once a child is enrolled in a kindergarten, there are many activities that they participate in besides learning for instance playing as well as other outside class learning activities. As John Dewey regularly enforced the view of that the degree of social adjustment one attains is dependent upon the degree to which one speaks thinks, dress and act; education is therefore a social adjustment system. Civilization that is built on such conditioning is does of course have repercussions to the individual being civilized.First, schools have a much defined system that sets the limits within which one should act in. Dewey asserts that the school system aims for the non-transactional assimilation of all students to white habits of all students to white habits of life. Students of different races did not intermingle so as to create for all a transformed outlook. The habits of white students generally were strengthened and enforced, not changed, while the habits of nonwhite students were forced to become more like those of the white people, with the pain of failure in the school system a threat if this did not happen (Dewey 118).Dewey for example explored on the repercussions of civilization to individuals with a focus on the education system in relative to the white and nonwhite people in the United States. From his observation, we see that correct behavior has some inclination to a preferred way of behaving that is the white people’s way of life. In this case, a nonwhite person is forced to behave in a certain way through the provision of education. Eventually, this nonwhite person is expected to more or less behave in accordance with the white man’s behavior. This kind of conditioning is no more less than civilization. Focusing on the above system of civilization, there are things that we can infer. In behavioral aspect, civilization tends to endorse certain behaviors at the expense of others...