Mr. Foster was left in the Decanting Room. The D.H.C. and his students stepped into the nearest lift and were carried up to the fifth floor.
INFANT NURSERIES. NEO-PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING ROOMS, announced the notice board.
The Director opened a door. They were in a large bare room, very bright and sunny; for the whole of the southern wall was a single window. Half a dozen nurses, trousered and jacketed in the regulation white viscose-linen uniform, their hair aseptically hidden under white caps, were engaged in setting out bowls of roses in a long row across the floor. Big bowls, packed tight with blossom. Thousands of petals, ripe-blown and silkily smooth, like the cheeks of innumerable little cherubs, but of cherubs, in that bright light, not exclusively pink and Aryan, but also luminously Chinese, also Mexican, also apoplectic with too much blowing of celestial trumpets, also pale as death, pale with the posthumous whiteness of marble.
The nurses stiffened to attention as the D.H.C. came in.
“Set out the books,” he said curtly.
In silence the nurses obeyed his command. Between the rose bowls the books were duly set out—a row of nursery quartos opened invitingly each at some gaily-coloured image of beast or fish or bird.
“Now bring in the children.”
They hurried out of the room and returned in a minute or two, each pushing a kind of tall dumb-waiter laden, on all its four wire-netted shelves, with eight-month-old babies, all exactly alike (a Bokanovsky Group, it was evident) and all (since their caste was Delta) dressed in khaki.
“Put them down on the floor.”
The infants were unloaded.
“Now turn them so that they can see the flowers and books.”
Turned, the babies at once fell silent, then began to crawl towards those clusters of sleek colours, those shapes so gay and brilliant on the white pages. As they approached, the sun came out of a momentary eclipse behind a cloud. The roses flamed up as though with a sudden passion from within; a new and profound significance seemed to suffuse the shining pages of the books. From the ranks of the crawling babies came little squeals of excitement, gurgles and twitterings of pleasure.
The Director rubbed his hands. “Excellent!” he said. “It might almost have been done on purpose.”
The swiftest crawlers were already at their goal. Small hands reached out uncertainly, touched, grasped, unpetaling the transfigured roses, crumpling the illuminated pages of the books. The Director waited until all were happily busy. Then, “Watch carefully,” he said. And, lifting his hand, he gave the signal.
The Head Nurse, who was standing by a switchboard at the other end of the room, pressed down a little lever.
There was a violent explosion. Shriller and ever shriller, a siren shrieked. Alarm bells maddeningly sounded.
The children started, screamed; their faces were distorted with terror.
“And now,” the Director shouted (for the noise was deafening), “now we proceed to rub in the lesson with a mild electric shock.”
He waved his hand again, and the Head Nurse pressed a second lever.
The screaming of the babies suddenly changed its tone. There was something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave utterance. Their little bodies twitched and stiffened; their limbs moved jerkily as if to the tug of unseen wires.
“We can electrify that whole strip of floor,” bawled the Director in explanation. “But that's enough,” he signalled to the nurse.
The explosions ceased, the bells stopped ringing, the shriek of the siren died down from tone to tone into silence. The stiffly twitching bodies relaxed, and what had become the sob and yelp of infant maniacs broadened out once more into a normal howl of ordinary terror.
“Offer them the flowers and the books again.”
The nurses obeyed; but at the approach of the roses, at the mere sight of those gaily-coloured images of pussy and cock-a-doodle-doo and baa-baa black sheep, the infants shrank away in horror, the volume of their howling suddenly increased.
“Observe,” said the Director triumphantly, “observe.”
Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks—already in the infant mind these couples were compromisingly linked; and after two hundred repetitions of the same or a similar lesson would be wedded indissolubly. What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder.
“They'll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an ‘instinctive’ hatred of books and flowers. Reflexes unalterably conditioned. They'll be safe from books and botany all their lives.” The Director turned to his nurses. “Take them away again.”
Still yelling, the khaki babies were loaded on to their dumb-waiters and wheeled out, leaving behind them the smell of sour milk and a most welcome silence.
One of the students held up his hand; and though he could see quite well why you couldn't have lower-caste people wasting the Community's time over books, and that there was always the risk of their reading something which might undesirably decondition one of their reflexes, yet…well, he couldn't understand about the flowers. Why go to the trouble of making it psychologically impossible for Deltas to like flowers?
Patiently the D.H.C. explained. If the children were made to scream at the sight of a rose, that was on grounds of high economic policy. Not so very long ago (a century or thereabouts), Gammas, Deltas, even Epsilons, had been conditioned to like flowers—flowers in particular and wild nature in general. The idea was to make them want to be going out into the country at every available opportunity, and so compel them to consume transport.
“And didn't they consume transport?” asked the student.
“Quite a lot,” the D.H.C. replied. “But nothing else.”
Primroses and landscapes, he pointed out, have one grave defect: they are gratuitous. A love of nature keeps no factories busy. It was decided to abolish the love of nature, at any rate among the lower classes; to abolish the love of nature, but not the tendency to consume transport. For of course it was essential that they should keep on going to the country, even though they hated it. The problem was to find an economically sounder reason for consuming transport than a mere affection for primroses and landscapes. It was duly found.
“We condition the masses to hate the country,” concluded the Director. “But simultaneously we condition them to love all country sports. At the same time, we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport. Hence those electric shocks.”
“I see,” said the student, and was silent, lost in admiration.
There was a silence; then, clearing his throat, “Once upon a time,” the Director began, “while Our Ford was still on earth, there was a little boy called Reuben Rabinovitch. Reuben was the child of Polish-speaking parents.”
The Director interrupted himself. “You know what Polish is, I suppose?”
“A dead language.”
“Like French and German,” added another student, officiously showing off his learning.
“And ‘parent’?” questioned the D.H.C.
There was an uneasy silence. Several of the boys blushed. They had not yet learned to draw the significant but often very fine distinction between smut and pure science. One, at last, had the courage to raise a hand.
“Human beings used to be…” he hesitated; the blood rushed to his cheeks. “Well, they used to be viviparous.”
“Quite right.” The Director nodded approvingly.
“And when the babies were decanted…”
‘“Born,”’came the correction.
“Well, then they were the parents—I mean, not the babies, of course; the other ones.” The poor boy was overwhelmed with confusion.
“In brief,” the Director summed up, “the parents were the father and the mother.” The smut that was really science fell with a crash into the boys' eye-avoiding silence. “Mother,” he repeated loudly rubbing in the science; and, leaning back in his chair, “These,” he said gravely, “are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts are unpleasant.”
He returned to Little Reuben—to Little Reuben, in whose room, one evening, by an oversight, his father and mother (crash, crash!) happened to leave the radio turned on.
(“For you must remember that in those days of gross viviparous reproduction, children were always brought up by their parents and not in State Conditioning Centres.”)
While the child was asleep, a broadcast programme from London suddenly started to come through; and the next morning, to the astonishment of his crash and crash (the more daring of the boys ventured to grin at one another), Little Reuben woke up repeating word for word a long lecture by that curious old writer (“one of the very few whose works have been permitted to come down to us”), George Bernard Shaw, who was speaking, according to a well-authenticated tradition, about his own genius. To Little Reuben's wink and snigger, this lecture was, of course, perfectly incomprehensible and, imagining that their child had suddenly gone mad, they sent for a doctor. He, fortunately, understood English, recognized the discourse as that which Shaw had broadcasted the previous evening, realized the significance of what had happened, and sent a letter to the medical press about it.
“The principle of sleep-teaching, or hypnopaedia, had been discovered.” The D.H.C. made an impressive pause.
The principle had been discovered; but many, many years were to elapse before that principle was usefully applied.
“The case of Little Reuben occurred only twenty-three years after Our Ford's first T-Model was put on the market.” (Here the Director made a sign of the T on his stomach and all the students reverently followed suit.) “And yet…”
Furiously the students scribbled. “Hypnopaedia, first used officially in A.F. 214. Why not before? Two reasons. (a)…”
“These early experimenters,” the D.H.C. was saying, “were on the wrong track. They thought that hypnopaedia could be made an instrument of intellectual education…”
(A small boy asleep on his right side, the right arm stuck out, the right hand hanging limp over the edge of the bed. Through a round grating in the side of a box a voice speaks softly.
“The Nile is the longest river in Africa and the second in length of all the rivers of the globe. Although falling short of the length of the Mississippi-Missouri, the Nile is at the head of all rivers as regards the length of its basin, which extends through 35 degrees of latitude…”
At breakfast the next morning, “Tommy,” some one says, “do you know which is the longest river in Africa?” A shaking of the head. “But don't you remember something that begins: The Nile is the…”
“The—Nile—is—the—longest—river—in—Africa—and—the—second—in—length—of—all—the—rivers—of—the—globe…” The words come rushing out. “Although—falling—short—of…”
“Well now, which is the longest river in Africa?”
The eyes are blank. “I don't know.”
“But the Nile, Tommy.”
“The—Nile—is—the—longest—river—in—Africa—and—second…”
“Then which river is the longest, Tommy?”
Tommy burst into tears. “I don't know,” he howls.)
That howl, the Director made it plain, discouraged the earliest investigators. The experiments were abandoned. No further attempt was made to teach children the length of the Nile in their sleep. Quite rightly. You can't learn a science unless you know what it's all about.
“Whereas, if they'd only started on moral education,” said the Director, leading the way towards the door. The students followed him, desperately scribbling as they walked and all the way up in the lift. “Moral education, which ought never, in any circumstances, to be rational.”
“Silence, silence,” whispered a loud speaker as they stepped out at the fourteenth floor, and “Silence, silence,” the trumpet mouths indefatigably repeated at intervals down every corridor. The students and even the Director himself rose automatically to the tips of their toes. They were Alphas, of course, but even Alphas have been well conditioned. “Silence, silence.” All the air of the fourteenth floor was sibilant with the categorical imperative.
Fifty yards of tiptoeing brought them to a door which the Director cautiously opened. They stepped over the threshold into the twilight of a shuttered dormitory. Eighty cots stood in a row against the wall. There was a sound of light regular breathing and a continuous murmur, as of very faint voices remotely whispering.
A nurse rose as they entered and came to attention before the Director.
“What's the lesson this afternoon?” he asked.
“We had Elementary Sex for the first forty minutes,” she answered. “But now it's switched over to Elementary Class Consciousness.”
The Director walked slowly down the long line of cots. Rosy and relaxed with sleep, eighty little boys and girls lay softly breathing. There was a whisper under every pillow. The D.H.C. halted and, bending over one of the little beds, listened attentively.
“Elementary Class Consciousness, did you say? Let's have it repeated a little louder by the trumpet.”
At the end of the room a loud speaker projected from the wall. The Director walked up to it and pressed a switch.
“…all wear green,” said a soft but very distinct voice, beginning in the middle of a sentence, “and Delta Children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides, they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I'm so glad I'm a Beta.”
There was a pause; then the voice began again.
“Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfuly glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able…”
The Director pushed back the switch. The voice was silent. Only its thin ghost continued to mutter from beneath the eighty pillows.
“They'll have that repeated forty or fifty times more before they wake; then again on Thursday, and again on Saturday. A hundred and twenty times three times a week for thirty months. After which they go on to a more advanced lesson.”
Roses and electric shocks, the khaki of Deltas and a whiff of asafoetida—wedded indissolubly before the child can speak. But wordless conditioning is crude and wholesale; cannot bring home the finer distinctions, cannot inculcate the more complex courses of behaviour. For that there must be words, but words without reason. In brief, hypnopaedia.
“The greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time.”
The students took it down in their little books. Straight from the horse's mouth.
Once more the Director touched the switch.
“…so frightfully clever,” the soft, insinuating, indefatigable voice was saying, “I'm really awfully glad I'm a Beta, because…”
Not so much like drops of water, though water, it is true, can wear holes in the hardest granite; rather, drops of liquid sealing-wax, drops that adhere, incrust, incorporate themselves with what they fall on, till finally the rock is all one scarlet blob.
“Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too—all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides—made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!” The Director almost shouted in his triumph. “Suggestions from the State.” He banged the nearest table. “It therefore follows…”
A noise made him turn round.
“Oh, Ford!” he said in another tone, “I've gone and woken the children.”
福斯特先生留在換瓶室。孵化與條件訓(xùn)練中心主任和學(xué)生們步入最近的電梯,來到了五樓。
布告牌上寫著:“育嬰房,新巴甫洛夫(1)訓(xùn)練室”。
主任推開一道門,他們進(jìn)入了一個(gè)寬敞空曠的大房間,陽光明媚,非常亮堂,因?yàn)樗恼婺蠅褪且簧却蟠皯簟A邆€(gè)護(hù)士穿著那種黏膠纖維的白色制服,上衣加長褲,在忙碌著,為避免細(xì)菌污染,她們的頭發(fā)塞到了白色護(hù)士帽里面。她們正在地板上把一盆盆玫瑰花擺成一長排?;ㄅ璺浅4?,里面滿滿當(dāng)當(dāng)?shù)厥㈤_著花朵。有成千上萬片花瓣,飽滿,如絲般光滑,就像無數(shù)個(gè)小天使的臉蛋,不過,映照在明亮的陽光中的,不僅有雅利安小天使的粉紅臉蛋,還有中國和墨西哥小天使們光潔的臉蛋,也有一些小臉蛋似乎因?yàn)榇底嗵靽睦忍喽悬c(diǎn)中風(fēng)的癥狀,顯出死亡般的蒼白,大理石般的慘白。
看到中心主任走進(jìn)來,護(hù)士們站直了身子。
“把書擺上。”主任簡短地吩咐。
護(hù)士們默默地聽從他的吩咐,在玫瑰花盆中間擺上了書籍——一排四開本的兒歌圖畫書,每一本都翻開來,露出顏色鮮艷的動物,或者魚兒,或者鳥兒,非常誘人。
“現(xiàn)在,把孩子們帶進(jìn)來。”
護(hù)士們匆匆離開房間,一兩分鐘之后,每人都推著類似小型升降機(jī)的那種小車進(jìn)來,小車上面有四個(gè)網(wǎng)眼狀的隔層,每個(gè)隔層上都滿載著八個(gè)月大的嬰兒,全都長得一模一樣(很明顯,屬于一個(gè)波卡諾夫斯基組別),全都穿著卡其色的衣服(因?yàn)樗麄兊姆N姓屬于德爾塔)。
“把他們放在地板上。”
嬰兒們被放了下來。
“現(xiàn)在,讓他們轉(zhuǎn)過身,能看到花和書。”
轉(zhuǎn)過身后,嬰兒們立即安靜下來,然后開始往那些一簇一簇的漂亮色彩爬行,爬向那些白色頁面上的鮮艷圖案。他們爬著爬著,被云彩暫時(shí)遮蔽的太陽冒了出來,于是,玫瑰花顯得更加絢爛了,好像由一股從里到外煥發(fā)的激情照耀著;那些閃亮的書頁也仿佛充滿一種嶄新而深沉的意義。從正在爬行的嬰兒行列里傳出一陣陣興奮的歡叫聲、愉快的咯咯笑聲和嘰喳聲。
主任搓了搓手。“太棒了!”他說,“這太陽出的,好像是故意安排的一樣。”
爬得最快的嬰兒已經(jīng)到達(dá)他們的目標(biāo)前面了,小手顫巍巍地伸出來,碰到了,抓住了,把容光煥發(fā)的玫瑰花瓣弄掉了,把閃亮的書頁弄得皺巴巴的。主任等待著,看到所有嬰兒都高興地忙碌開了,才說:“仔細(xì)觀察。”接著,他舉起一只手,發(fā)出了信號。
護(hù)士長正站在房間另一頭的一個(gè)配電盤旁邊,她按下了一個(gè)小小的杠桿。
一聲劇烈的爆炸聲響起,接著,警報(bào)器嗚嗚地響起來了,一陣比一陣尖銳,警鈴也突然開始發(fā)狂般地亂叫。
孩子們嚇了一跳,尖叫起來,小臉兒因恐懼而扭曲變形。
“現(xiàn)在,”主任喊道(因?yàn)榇藭r(shí)的噪音已經(jīng)震耳欲聾),“現(xiàn)在,我們再給他們稍微用上點(diǎn)電擊,讓他們徹底記住這一課。”
他再次揮揮手,護(hù)士長按下了另一個(gè)杠桿。尖聲哭叫的嬰兒們突然變了一個(gè)腔調(diào),開始抽搐著發(fā)出一聲聲短促尖厲的號叫,透著絕望,近于瘋狂。他們小小的身軀抽動起來,變得僵硬,四肢也痙攣般地抽動,好像被看不見的電線牽扯著。
“我們可以把那整塊地板都通上電。”主任喊著解釋,“不過,這就夠了。”他向那個(gè)護(hù)士做了個(gè)手勢。
爆炸聲停止了,警鈴?fù)V沽?,尖銳的警報(bào)聲漸漸平息,一切都?xì)w于沉寂。孩子們僵硬的四肢停止了抽搐,慢慢放松了,他們像小瘋子一樣的抽泣和驚叫再次變成了嬰兒受到驚嚇時(shí)通常發(fā)出的那種嚎啕大哭。
“再把花和書給他們。”
護(hù)士們照著他的吩咐做了,但是,玫瑰花剛拿近一點(diǎn),剛剛看到書頁上那些色彩鮮艷的貓咪、大公雞和咩咩叫的黑羊,孩子們馬上嚇得向后躲,哭叫聲也突然變大。
“看吧,”主任得意地說,“注意觀察。”
書籍與巨大的聲響,花朵與電擊,孩子們的頭腦已經(jīng)把二者給聯(lián)系起來了,并且是對前者不利的聯(lián)系。同樣或類似的教訓(xùn)重復(fù)兩百次之后,這個(gè)聯(lián)系就密不可分了。這種人為的聯(lián)系,大自然根本無力解開。
“他們長大以后,會對花和書有一種心理學(xué)家們稱之為‘本能’的憎惡。這是經(jīng)過條件訓(xùn)練后的本能反應(yīng),根本無法改變。他們一輩子都不會再碰書和植物了。”主任轉(zhuǎn)向護(hù)士們:“把他們帶走吧。”
依然哭叫著的卡其色嬰兒們給裝上小車推走了,身后留下一股發(fā)酸的牛奶味,一陣令人愉快的寧靜。
一個(gè)學(xué)生舉起手來,雖然他完全能明白為什么不能讓種姓低賤的人讀書,因?yàn)檫@會浪費(fèi)集體的時(shí)間,他也明白他們讀到的內(nèi)容總有可能會破壞他們被訓(xùn)練出來的某個(gè)本能反應(yīng),這當(dāng)然是一大危險(xiǎn),是不可取的,但是,他不懂關(guān)于這些花兒的訓(xùn)練。為什么大費(fèi)周章地讓德爾塔們從心理上不可能喜歡花兒呢?
中心主任耐心地進(jìn)行解釋。讓孩子們一見到玫瑰花就尖叫,那是出于經(jīng)濟(jì)方面的考慮。不太久之前(大約一個(gè)世紀(jì)前吧),伽馬們、德爾塔們,甚至艾普西隆們,都是要受到條件訓(xùn)練,去喜歡花兒的,具體講是喜歡花兒,大致來講就是喜歡野外的大自然。當(dāng)時(shí)的觀念是,讓他們一有機(jī)會就想去鄉(xiāng)間,這樣就可以逼著他們在交通上消費(fèi)。
“難道他們不在交通上花錢嗎?”那個(gè)學(xué)生問道。
“非常多,”中心主任回答,“但除此之外,他們不花別的錢。”
他指出,報(bào)春花和美麗的風(fēng)景有一個(gè)很大的缺陷,那就是,它們都是免費(fèi)的。對大自然的熱愛不會讓任何一家工廠一直忙碌生產(chǎn)。人們決定,至少在下層階級,要消除這種對大自然的熱愛,但是,不消除他們花交通費(fèi)的傾向。當(dāng)然,盡管他們討厭鄉(xiāng)間,還是必須要讓他們不斷地往鄉(xiāng)間去。可問題是,如何找到一個(gè)除了喜愛報(bào)春花和風(fēng)景之外的理由,一個(gè)從經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)上來講更合理的理由,讓他們?nèi)匀辉诮煌ㄉ匣ㄥX?后來,這個(gè)理由被找到了。
“我們訓(xùn)練大眾憎恨鄉(xiāng)下,”主任總結(jié)道,“但是,同時(shí)呢,我們卻訓(xùn)練他們熱愛所有的鄉(xiāng)間運(yùn)動。我們還保證所有的鄉(xiāng)間運(yùn)動都需要使用極其復(fù)雜的設(shè)施。這樣,他們不僅在交通工具上消費(fèi),還要在工業(yè)產(chǎn)品上消費(fèi)。正因?yàn)槿绱?,才對嬰兒們采用電擊?xùn)練法。”
“我明白了。”那個(gè)學(xué)生說完,陷入沉默,心里佩服得不得了。
一陣沉默后,主任清清嗓子,說:“很久以前,我們的福帝(2)還在人世的時(shí)候,有一個(gè)叫魯本·拉賓諾維奇的小男孩,他的父母是說波蘭語的。”主任自己打了個(gè)岔,問,“你們應(yīng)該知道波蘭語吧?”
“一門死的語言。”
“和法語、德語一樣。”另一個(gè)學(xué)生好事地插了一嘴,賣弄著自己的學(xué)問。
“那‘父母’呢?”主任又問。
一陣不安的沉默。幾個(gè)男孩子臉都羞紅了。他們還不能體會淫詞穢語和純粹科學(xué)之間那條至關(guān)重要但經(jīng)常非常微妙的界限。最終,一個(gè)學(xué)生鼓足勇氣,舉起了一只手。
“人類過去是……”他遲疑著,血液一下子涌上了他的臉頰,“嗯,人類過去是胎生的。”
“非常正確。”主任贊許地點(diǎn)點(diǎn)頭。
“當(dāng)嬰兒們換瓶的時(shí)候……”
“出生的時(shí)候。”主任糾正道。
“這樣,他們就成為父母了,當(dāng)然,我指的不是嬰兒,是那兩個(gè)人。”這個(gè)可憐的孩子慌亂得不知所措。
“一句話,”主任總結(jié)道,“父母就是父親和母親。”對男孩們來說,這實(shí)為科學(xué)的淫穢詞語,猶如晴天霹靂,炸開了他們的沉默,他們的眼神因害羞而躲躲閃閃。主任身子往椅背上一靠,大聲地重復(fù)了一句“母親”,為的是讓孩子們記住這個(gè)科學(xué)道理。“這些,”他嚴(yán)肅地說,“是令人不快的事實(shí),我知道的。但是,大多數(shù)史實(shí)都令人不快呀。”
他又接著講起小魯本。有一天晚上,小魯本的爸爸和媽媽(霹靂,又一聲霹靂!)疏忽了,忘記關(guān)上他房間的收音機(jī)。
(“你們必須記得,在那些粗俗的胎生繁殖的日子里,孩子們總是由他們的父母養(yǎng)大的,而不是在國家訓(xùn)練中心長大。”)
這個(gè)小孩睡覺時(shí),倫敦的一個(gè)廣播節(jié)目突然開始了。第二天早晨,讓他的“霹靂”和“霹靂”震驚的是(膽子大些的男孩子竟然開始對著彼此咧嘴笑了),小魯本醒來后,居然開始一字不差地重復(fù)那個(gè)古怪的老作家的長篇大論,那個(gè)蕭伯納(3)(“作品獲準(zhǔn)留給我們的不多的作家之一”),他當(dāng)時(shí)正在講述自己的天賦,這個(gè)講自己天賦的傳統(tǒng)經(jīng)考證確實(shí)曾經(jīng)存在。小魯本自然是一點(diǎn)都聽不懂這個(gè)講座,他一邊背誦還一邊擠眉弄眼,嘻嘻傻笑,他的父母以為這個(gè)孩子突然發(fā)了瘋,趕緊請了醫(yī)生。幸運(yùn)的是,這個(gè)醫(yī)生懂英語,他聽出這是前一天晚上蕭伯納的廣播講座,并意識到了這件事的重要意義,于是馬上給醫(yī)學(xué)雜志寫了一封信。
“在睡眠中進(jìn)行教育的原則,或曰,睡眠教育法,就這樣被發(fā)現(xiàn)了。”中心主任意味深長地停頓了一下。
原則被發(fā)現(xiàn)了,但是,好多年過去之后,這個(gè)原則才真正為人所用。
“小魯本的這件事情發(fā)生在我們福帝的首輛T型車(4)推向市場后的第二十三年。”(說到這里,主任在肚子上劃了個(gè)T字,所有的學(xué)生也都恭恭敬敬地照做。)“可是……”
學(xué)生們拼命地記著筆記。“睡眠教育法,福特紀(jì)元214年首次正式使用。為什么之前沒有運(yùn)用呢?兩個(gè)原因。一……”
“那些早期的實(shí)驗(yàn)者,”中心主任繼續(xù)講著,“走錯(cuò)了路子。他們以為睡眠教育可以用作知識教育的手段……”
(一個(gè)小男孩向右側(cè)臥著在睡覺,右胳膊伸著,右手軟軟地垂在床沿上。透過一個(gè)匣子側(cè)面的圓格柵,一個(gè)聲音輕柔地講述著。
“尼羅河是非洲第一長河,全球第二長河。雖然其長度僅次于密西西比-密蘇里河,但從流域的跨度來看,尼羅河居于所有河流之首,其流域跨越了35個(gè)緯度……”
第二天早餐時(shí),有個(gè)人問:“湯米,你知道非洲第一長河是哪條河嗎?”搖搖頭。“你難道不記得那句話了嗎?尼羅河是……”
“尼羅河是非洲第一長河,全球第二長河。”這些話脫口而出,“雖然其長度僅次于……”
“那么,非洲哪條河最長呢?”
眼神空洞。“我不知道。”
“尼羅河呀,湯米。”
“尼羅河是非洲第一長河,全球第二……”
“那么,湯米,哪條河最長呢?”
湯米哇哇大哭起來。“我不知道。”他嗚嗚哭著說。)
這種嚎啕大哭,主任說得很明白,令最早期的實(shí)驗(yàn)者們非常氣餒。實(shí)驗(yàn)被放棄了。再沒有人嘗試在孩子們睡覺時(shí)教他們諸如尼羅河的長度之類的知識。放棄實(shí)驗(yàn)是非常明智的。你不懂科學(xué)是什么的時(shí)候根本學(xué)不了科學(xué)。
“哎呀,如果他們當(dāng)時(shí)開始道德教育就好了。”主任說,領(lǐng)著他們走向房門。學(xué)生們在后面跟著,一邊走一邊使勁記著,在電梯里也一路記著。“道德教育,在任何情況下,都永遠(yuǎn)不應(yīng)該訴諸理智啊。”
“肅靜,肅靜。”他們剛剛踏出電梯,上到十四樓,就聽見擴(kuò)音器在低聲叮嚀著。“肅靜,肅靜。”每隔一會兒,沿每條走廊安放的喇叭口就不知疲倦地重復(fù)一遍。學(xué)生們,甚至主任自己,都不自覺地踮起了腳尖。當(dāng)然,他們都是阿爾法,但即使是阿爾法們,也是受過良好訓(xùn)練的。“肅靜,肅靜。”整個(gè)十四層的空氣中都回響著這個(gè)命令。
他們踮著腳尖走了五十碼,來到一道門前,主任謹(jǐn)慎地推開門。他們跨過門檻,進(jìn)入一個(gè)昏暗的宿舍,百葉窗全拉得嚴(yán)嚴(yán)實(shí)實(shí)的。八十張嬰兒床靠墻擺成一排。人們能夠聽到輕微而均勻的呼吸聲和不間斷的喃喃聲,好像從遠(yuǎn)處傳來的竊竊私語。
看到他們走進(jìn)來,一個(gè)護(hù)士站了起來,在主任面前立正站好。
“今天下午是什么課?”他問道。
“前四十分鐘我們學(xué)習(xí)了基礎(chǔ)性知識,”她回答,“現(xiàn)在,已經(jīng)調(diào)到基礎(chǔ)階級意識了。”
主任沿著那排嬰兒床緩緩地往前走。八十個(gè)小男孩和小女孩躺在那兒,平靜地呼吸著,他們睡著了的小臉蛋非常放松,兩頰紅撲撲的。從每個(gè)枕頭下面都傳出輕柔的聲音。中心主任停下來,彎下腰,凝神聽著。
“你剛才說的是基礎(chǔ)階級意識嗎?把喇叭聲音稍微調(diào)大些吧。”
房間盡頭,一個(gè)擴(kuò)音器從墻上伸出來。主任走過去,按下一個(gè)開關(guān)。
“……都穿綠色,”一個(gè)輕柔但清晰的聲音說,正說到一句話的中間,“德爾塔孩子們穿卡其色。哦,我才不愿意和德爾塔孩子們玩呢。艾普西隆就更糟了,他們太笨了,既不會讀,也不會寫,況且,他們還穿黑色,那么糟糕的顏色。我是貝塔,我太高興了。”
短暫的停頓后,這個(gè)聲音又開始了。
“阿爾法孩子們穿灰色。他們比我們工作努力得多,因?yàn)樗麄兟斆鞯脟樔恕N沂秦愃?,我真是太高興了,因?yàn)槲也挥媚敲磁Φ毓ぷ鳌2⑶?,我們比伽馬和德爾塔們強(qiáng)多了。伽馬們很笨,他們都穿綠色,德爾塔孩子們穿卡其色。哦,我才不愿意和德爾塔孩子們玩呢。艾普西隆就更糟了,他們太笨了,既不會……”
主任把開關(guān)按回原位。聲音消失了,只有細(xì)細(xì)的余音還繼續(xù)在八十個(gè)枕頭下面縈繞著。
“在孩子們醒來前,這些內(nèi)容還會重復(fù)四十或五十遍,然后星期四一次,星期六還有一次。每次重復(fù)一百二十遍,每周三次,持續(xù)三十個(gè)月,之后,他們會升入更高級的課程。”
玫瑰花和電擊,德爾塔們的卡其色和一絲阿魏樹脂的氣味,在孩子們還不會說話時(shí),這之間的聯(lián)系就已經(jīng)密不可分了。但是,這種無言的條件訓(xùn)練是非常粗略的,而且是大批量進(jìn)行的,并不能讓孩子們真正掌握更細(xì)微的差別,也不能教會他們更復(fù)雜的行為。為此,必須要使用話語,毫無理由地使用話語。簡而言之,實(shí)施睡眠教育法。
“有史以來,這是進(jìn)行道德教育和社會教育的最偉大的力量。”
學(xué)生們在小筆記本上記下來了。直接受教于權(quán)威人士嘛。
主任又按了一下開關(guān)。
“……聰明得嚇人,”輕柔的聲音正在說著,充滿暗示,絲毫不知疲倦,“我是貝塔,我真是太高興了,因?yàn)?hellip;…”
這些話語,與其說像水滴,水滴確實(shí)也能在最堅(jiān)硬的大理石上磨出洞來,倒不如說更像一滴滴液態(tài)封蠟,能夠粘上、包覆并融入它們滴落到的物質(zhì),直到巖石也變成猩紅色的一團(tuán)。
“到最后,孩子的頭腦就是這些暗示,這些暗示就成了孩子的頭腦。不僅僅是孩子的頭腦,也是未來成年人的頭腦,并且終其一生。能夠判斷、產(chǎn)生欲望和做出決定的頭腦,就是由這些暗示構(gòu)成的。但是,所有這些暗示都是我們的暗示??!”主任得意得幾乎喊出來,“來自國家的暗示。”他敲打著離他最近的桌子,“因此呢……”
一個(gè)聲音使他轉(zhuǎn)過身來。
“哦,福帝!”他換了個(gè)聲調(diào),“我把孩子們給吵醒了。”
————————————————————
(1) 伊萬·彼得羅維奇·巴甫洛夫(Ivan Petrovich Pavlov,1849—1936),俄羅斯生理學(xué)家、心理學(xué)家、醫(yī)師。其關(guān)于狗的條件反射的實(shí)驗(yàn)非常著名。
(2) 指亨利·福特(Henry Ford,1863—1947),美國汽車工程師與企業(yè)家,福特汽車公司的建立者。他是世界上第一個(gè)使用流水線大批量生產(chǎn)汽車的人。他的生產(chǎn)方式不但革新了工業(yè)生產(chǎn)方式,而且對現(xiàn)代社會和文化有巨大影響。本書中世界國的國民尊福特為精神領(lǐng)袖,如同基督徒信仰上帝,因此,把“福特”譯為“福帝”。
(3) 蕭伯納(George Bernard Shaw,1856—1950),愛爾蘭劇作家,曾獲諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)。
(4) 福特T型車(Ford Model T)是福特汽車公司于1908年至1927年推出的一款汽車產(chǎn)品,它的生產(chǎn)是當(dāng)時(shí)先進(jìn)工業(yè)生產(chǎn)技術(shù)與管理的典范,為汽車產(chǎn)業(yè)及制造業(yè)的發(fā)展做出了巨大貢獻(xiàn)。
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