Undercover Behaviorist: Odell’s Take on Skinner’s Theories
In Jenny Odell’s novel, How to Do Nothing, she incorporates her research and prior knowledge of outside literature to improve her argument, identify the counterargument, and provide examples of her ideas found in other authors’ work. In this novel, she cites B. F. Skinner’s 1948 book, Walden Two, which she explains very well in an objective manner and then inserts her opinion very subtly, sort of poking fun at Skinner’s idea of a perfect world. Odell and Skinner’s beliefs on how technology and behavioral modifications should be incorporated into society in order to bring it close to a utopia.
B. F. Skinner is historically remembered for his work in the behaviorism sect of psychology and was a professor at Harvard University through the mid to late 19th century. His most famous invention was the Skinner Box, demonstrating his beliefs in radical behaviorism and operant conditioning, where a subject’s behavior is rapidly changed through rewards and punishments. His work in psychology was key to the introduction of modern behaviorism, although his intentions were to become a renowned writer, exemplified in his mix of behavioral psychology and an all too common utopian/dystopian prose seen in Walden Two.
Skinner’s novel is not an overwhelmingly beautiful piece of literature, it is very easy to understand and does not require much brain power to examine the themes and ideas behind it. Walden Two is easily enjoyable by almost everyone as either a wonderful tale of a utopia where the residents are engineered to be the most perfect, most productive society, or a dystopian society where behavioral engineering and the advancement of technology has run amok and created a threat to the human experience. Through this book, it is easy to gauge Skinner’s views on behavioral engineering, including how and why he believes it should be done. In Walden Two, the main character, a psychology professor named Burrhis, is invited along with a few of his colleagues at a university to visit a new society that his college friend, Frazier, has created. Tagging along is Augustine Castle, a man Burris “…disagreed violently and exhaustively with.” (Skinner 9) but nonetheless was invited on the journey to see Frazier and his self-proclaimed utopia named Walden Two. As the group explores Walden Two, they find themselves to be immersed in a bizarre world that prioritizes optimum behavioral performance, as to eliminate any unnecessary situations such as eliminating negative emotions because “‘We don’t need them any longer in our struggle for existence…and [it is] certainly pleasanter, to dispense with them.” (Skinner 93). Frazier continually reveals more and more about Walden Two that surprises the group and stimulates many conversations on whether or not behavioral engineering is the most ethical way to create a utopia, although Skinner certainly seems to believe that it is the key to creating a perfect society.
Walden Two is introduced in Odell’s writing in Chapter 2, “The Impossibility of Retreat”, when she discusses her beliefs and the cultural significance of detoxing from technology and goal-oriented societal systems. She uses both supports to her ideas such as the communes of the 1960’s and 70’s and the Camp Grounded created by Levi Felix as well as negative examples of what not to do in societies, exemplified in her explanation of Walden Two and the proposal for the Seasteading Institute in 2008. Jenny Odell makes her stance on Skinner’s ideas for a predictable, controlled, optimally-functioning society clear when she writes “…the remaining question for Skinner was not how power could be redistributed, or injustice redressed, but how a technical problem might be solved with the very same methods as the Skinner Box…” (Odell 48). She does not agree with his ideas of using such an emotionless system to make a more productive society, especially that he supports the eradication of free will, this is disguised in Skinner’s novel in the Walden Code, where members are engineered to become obedient to these rules in order to work towards the Good Life. Odell also despises the use of behaviorism and technology such as the way babies and young children are raised so they do not become overly attached to a specific person or thing in order to make them more efficient in sustaining Walden Two and contributing to what Frazier thinks is a more advanced society. She conveys this contempt for such a predictable, semi-robotic society when she writes “in order for this ‘image’ to persist, every part must have a static, controllable function. Frazier addresses this first by conditioning all of the members of Walden Two so that…they exhibit predictable behavior.” (Odell 46).
However, behavioral engineering isn’t just a way to create a society of mechanical people and psychology experiments, it can be used for the betterment of society and reproduction of human individuality. In Skinner’s point of view he believes that the use of operant conditioning through the enforcement of Frazier’s Code and the eradication of unnecessary emotions and behaviors that hinder the development of Walden Two turn it into a flawless society where the human experience is only an illusion and everyone is always happy. Odell turns Skinner’s idea on its head whereas Skinner’s Walden Two was supposed to be a complete utopia, she shows the readers that his world was actually a dystopia that spits on the very nature of humans to be empathetic as well as illogical and irrational. Although Odell and Skinner have polar opposite views on how technology and behavioral modifications should be implemented in society, they also believe that behavioral engineering, either towards or straying from the results-oriented culture is key to achieving the best version of the society that they want.
Odell believes that behavioral engineering through the systematic and deliberate discontinuation of use, or reallocation of attention away from the sources of pressure to produce that technology enhances, are the ways society should be advancing right now in order to become more connected with oneself and the world at large. Behavioral engineering and modification can be used in ways completely opposite to those used in Walden Two. Instead of erasing human nature, it can be used to restore personality and mindfulness to a person who has been ‘sucked in’ by the culture of constant production and an economy of influencers and brands vying for every morsel of attention. Although she does not blatantly call her approaches to disconnecting from our attention-driven world behavioral psychology, almost all self-help books are essentially ways to ‘retrain your brain’ to achieve a certain behavior or mindset that the reader wants. This underlying theme of rewiring your brain through almost basic cognitive behavioral psychology techniques runs rampant in How to Do Nothing, although Odell fails to put a name to how her ideas of shifting your allocation of attention to become a better person and produce a better society. Odell and Skinner are incredibly similar in their basic ideology of controlling human nature and using behavioral psychology to produce a desired outcome.
Some people subscribe to Skinner’s belief that in order to create a ‘perfect’ society one must eradicate the unpredictability of human nature and emotions, most easily done by simple operant conditioning, but others, such as Odell, believe this is a completely unethical practice. But, if Odell were to explain how her readers can actually follow through on her ideas in their lives, she would see that in order to put those ideas into motion, you would need the same kind of behavioral modifications and conditioning demonstrated in Walden Two. In How to Do Nothing, Odell tells the readers about using the ‘I-Thou’ perspective instead of the ‘I-It perspective’, writing, “‘thou’ has the same depth as I. Seeing this way means forgoing all of the many easier and more habitual ways to ‘see,’ and as such, is a fragile state requiring the discipline to continue.” (Odell 119). If this idea would be put into motion, the reader would have to do a sort of cognitive behavioral therapy, a form of behavioral modification to retrain the way their mind works slowly but surely. When Odell writes about Skinner’s theories and approaches to creating his idea of a perfect society, she shows complete contempt for his “obsess[ion] with productivity”, but she fails to realize that her ideas will require his logic and theories to successfully complete them (Odell 47).
In How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell criticizes B. F. Skinner’s use and glorification of operant conditioning to create a more efficient society, however, she fails to realize that her ideas to engineer a more individualistic and mindful population are backed by the same kind of behavioral modification techniques as Skinner, just used for a completely opposite purpose. Odell subscribes to Skinner’s theories of behaviorism and behavioral engineering, but just uses her disapproval of his end product of the robotic society of Walden Two to justify why using conditioning to this extreme is a poor idea. Her upset at the use of attention-capturing and profit making devices such as social media and the ways she would ideally like society to evolve out of them uses Skinner’s design, but Odell fails to acknowledge herself as a supporter of behavioral modification.
Works Cited
ODELL, JENNY. HOW TO DO NOTHING: Resisting the Attention Economy. MELVILLE House, 2020.
Skinner, Burrhus F. Walden Two. Hackett Publ., 2008.
