"Brave New World" opens in a technically advanced future world. In the beginning, we see the Director of World Hatcheries lead the new hatchery students on a tour of a Conditioning Center in London where babies are produced in bottles and pre-sorted to determine which class level they will be born into. These class levels rank: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. There are no parents, and babies are conditions from birth to learn certain behaviors. All diseases have been eliminated, and when people are feeling down, they just take soma, a wonder drug, much like modern day Prozac. Also, people are conditioned from birth not to love one person, so there is no marriage and most people have many lovers. If one were to not be promiscuous, they would be considered an outcast. Children in the World State are conditioned and taught to play erotic games, so that they have no fear of sexual encounters. The United States does not use the fetal alcohol syndrome, bokanovskification, or hypnopedia to manipulate its population. Instead, it utilizes the human tendency to absorb and accept the traditions of the society for conditioning, allows social mobility to distribute people to their proper places in society, and vies a wide choice of amusements to occupy the time and spare the people unnecessary and painful thought on their conditioning. Some of the essentials of today's happiness include a car, a TV, a stereo, etc. Although many argue that we have a strong freedom of choice and individuality, the fact remains that we are so much like other people that we cannot recognize our own conditioning. We are astonished at the conditioning that takes place in the "brave new world," but in actuality, we are conditioned much the same. Aside from the sleep teaching and mandatory drug use, we rank ourselves. "Punks, jocks, preps, skaters, freaks, gothic, etc;" those are all castes that we use to rank others and ourselves.