One of the tiny details I love in this film involves the head prison guard. In the movie he is depicted as a petty tyrant who views criminals as irredeemable and incapable of reformation and they should all be subject to his discipline for all time. And when Alex is being chosen and transferred to the Ludovico facility, he's the biggest skeptic. Yet when he's in the room to witness their demonstration of Alex's "reform", he watches it with a smug smile. He becomes a complete convert and highly approves of the fact that a criminal was effectively defanged. And it's this smile that is on screen when the chaplain starts his criticism of the procedure and you watch the guard's face change from a smile to a look of annoyance. Really hammers home how the chaplain is really the only good person in the movie. The main guard epitomizes the point in the first video of this series of how corrupt the entire system is in A Clockwork Orange.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. C. S. Lewis
@@marioarguello6989 I don't think so. To me Selfentitlement is more of an issue. Especially when paired with a blanco cheque legitimation for cruelty. When the end justifies the means...
Excellent exposition of one of the most important yet maligned of all films. And its biggest detractors were those who had the same shallow view of human behavior as those who ran the treatment program in the movie. Kubrick was even called a "Fascist with a nihilistic sense of humor." Today, the film would be cancellation material for Kubrick.
Really solid video essay which raises lots of interesting questions. Free-will vs determinism was one of Burgess' pet topics - from Pelagius vs Augustine to modernity - and the Irish chaplain, for all his flaws, is the moral backbone of both book and film. btw - Burgess was a teacher in post WW II Malaya, where in the native language 'Orang' is 'man'
Yes, as in the Malay phrase "orang utan:" literally, "old man of the forest." Like his literary hero Joyce, Burgess was a word-obsessed polyglot. His marriage of English to Russian in the novel is nothing short of brilliant ... Right right right, O my brother?
This is one of the only channels I bother to go out of my way to comment on videos for. Both because it's a smaller channel that I very much enjoy and want to encourage it's continuation but also because I just feel so moved to do so and want to interact in any way I can. I've come to the assumption from your content that you're a fellow Christian. I've only come to believe within the last few years but also come from a background of appreciating both film and philosophy (imagine my excitement finding this channel!) This has been a great little journey of re-examination of media and thoughts long held through a current and thankfully changed lense. Yours is a rarity in being content that is both entertaining but also thought provoking and encouraging for me. Thanks for all your hard work! Long winded not necessarily video specific tangent over!
Thank you, my friend! Glad you're here and enjoying the stuff I throw together. Hopefully it wasn't too hard to figure out that I'm a Christian! All the best on your journey.
Wasn't too hard to someone in the know! Just as soon figured most of your content was neutral enough as to make it more approachable to a wider audience while still showing the way to knowledge and truth. Likely missed you mentioning in previous videos but do you have a patron or any way one might help support the work you do?
@@mainelymaintaining Sorry for taking so long to respond… for some reason I didn’t see this comment. I do indeed have a Patreon: www.patreon.com/EmpireoftheMind
This is one of the few channels who actually break down films in a new and interesting way. Most others just recycle crap that’s been said before. Thank you for all the hard work
i subbed just because of the quotes from the actual greats of history - i can't image most people on youtube adding that type of heavy content to make you think
I have just discovered your channel thanks to my interest in Kubrick and my admiration for his work. Very good analysis that avoids the usual, and pathetic, liberal whining about "the rights of the individual" which are ignored and trampled on when it suits our "liberal, humane and democratic" governments. The case of Julian Assange is a perfect example of the aforesaid. Regards.
This is just so on point and eerily prophetic to our current situation in 2023 . I feel that about so many of Kubricks films. This was an incredible thought- provoking analysis that got me through a super mundane day of work . Cheers and thanks for the great vid ! Subscribed
There is great danger here, the danger its totality. Is Lovecraftian in scope and Eldritch in its horror... yet the only mosters preasent are man and his creations.
I just finished reading the novel as part of my reading of dystopian novels, and it turns out at the time that Kubrick made the movie he did not have the final chapter available to him; it was not in the American version. It does change a number of thing about the story--I'll ask you to read it for yourself and determine its effect. On another note, Malcom McDowell plays a conductor in Mozart in the Jungle. And in the first episode he is either putting on or taking off (I can't remember which) makeup on his eye which is a visual quote of ACO.
According to Malcom in an interview, the final chapter was only written at the behest of the British printers so that Alex would have a "normal" ending in which he was rehabilitated. Kubrick himself said it was a terrible ending.
@@narcissus79 I don't know if I would say it's a terrible ending, exactly. Anthony Burgess himself said the final chapter was removed from the American release because the American publishers said they hated it. I feel like it may remove or overshadow the ideas that were expressed up to that final chapter, changing the impression you got from the book, overall. It adds a different quality to it, one I think speaks of the path from boyhood to grown man, how Alex decides growing up is the best course for him -- essentially becoming "A Clockwork Orange" in a different sense, as he sets out on a path expected of him. I don't know, that was my takeaway from the final chapter and how it meshes with the rest of the story. I may have to read it again soon.
The final chapter is thematically essential and serves the purpose of demonstrating that Alex will *choose* to build his dome on rock rather than sand, in reference to the Charlie's sermon in Part 2, thereby turning the novel into an extended biblical parable. As you surely know, Burgess was profoundly Catholic and wanted the book to be interpreted exegetically. So be it.
Really ties in well with your essay about Interstellar. This stuff always makes me think. Barry Lyndon up next, will look forward to your thoughts on the final confrontation.
This film begs the question, at what point does Alex fulfill his “debt” to society, and what does his treatment (torture) say about the collectors of that debt? In the end, alex ends up back where he started, “cured.” The cure for criminality is purity, and in the context of clockwork orange, the now cured Alex has paid his debt to society and is purified through his purgatory. All the characters in the film little by little force alex to truly pay off his debt to society, thus reflecting their own immortalities along the way. Brilliant analysis.
I saw this film as a teenager and never really could make any sense of it. Read the book and got some more clues, but still find Kubrick's vision a little opaque.
My next favorite channel. Holy cow- mind blown by the depth and truth laid out in plain speaking here. This series of videos just illuminated personal struggles. Thank you Thabk you Thank you Thank you so much for the work taken to create these truth/love bombs.
A question the film raised for me is "how long until everyone, except the ruling class and their enforcers are given "the treatment?" A non violent populace, is a populace that cannot rebel. Even to attempt non-violent protest, the threat of violence could disrupt a political demonstration. Making opposition to authority impossible.
I once wrote to a friend to express that music, at that time it was a piece by Ravel, saved my life daily--this in the face of the vagaries of our contemporary condition--. Your videos do the same.
It is Ultamately our Free Will and ability to reason that makes Humanity Special. It is our ability to Comprehend the world and situations surrounding us that makes us Human. Humanity in itself is Devine. Needless of a God. Humanity is Sacred, and it should be sacred to you on the simple basis that your Human yourself. Never should a single Human be restricted from their own self determined Will, never should one restrict, impeed, hinder or snuff out the Free Will of another.
this video reminds me of the of a docuessay I watched like 5 years ago about the breakdown of the state mental asylum system in the US with the almost simultaneous assault by narrative farming journalists. I really wish I could find it again.
I have seen some excellent asylums in Europe and parts of Asia. Today in the USA, out-patient mental health care consists solely of prescribing Xanax; atypical antipsychotic drugs (SGAs) like Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Geodon and Abilify; and, serotonin-dopamine activity modulators (SDAMs) [aka chemical lobotomies]. Over time the Xanax causes enormous swaths of brain tissue to die, (it acts as a tourniquet - eventually leading to cell death - most countries ban long-term use); and, the SGAs & SDAMs cause akathisia & Extrapyramidal Side-Effects (EPS). EPS means the patient develops all host of facial and motor tics, Parkinsonian like deficits, etc. [Don't worry! It's terrific profit for the drug companies!] For those that can't afford the drugs or afford access to doctors, (eg, In the USA Xanax is marked up over 30,000% higher than its international generic equivalent - Alprazolam), many have learned to import the generic powder by the kilogram from China, and press their own pills to sell on the black market. In addition to street Xanax, those suffering various forms of mental illness have frequently found respite by abusing alcohol, opioids and narcotics. Unfortunately, the USA no longer seems to have many in-patient facilities. By the late 1980s, in-patient franchises like Charter Hospital were popping up all over the USA. Greed is Good - These in-patient franchises were charging tens of thousands of dollars per week for in-patient care (doping). Insurance companies lobbied (bribed - its legal) politicians to shut down in-patient facilities - like the Charter Hospital franchise - by around 2005. Therefore, in the USA, in-patient care is limited to the private corporate prison system. You can still find some highly profitable in-patient facilities: eg., so-called Residential Inpatient Treatment Centers. Once again - Greed lubricates the wheels of the machine (bribery of local government). Local police agencies are paid to have their officers involuntarily commit people to the local Residential Inpatient Treatment Center. Once in, the patient is trapped and bills rack up. Myself and another physician fought for almost three weeks to get someone wrongly committed to the Montgomery Co. (Maryland) in-patient facility. They were wrongly committed to generate revenue. The police committed the person without cause. In-patient involuntary commitments are supposed to be a max. of 72 hours; whereupon they are to be given access to a judge. The other physician with me on this matter was the persons primary care physician. We kept trying to get a court hearing. Montgomery Co. responded with a barrage of court hearing date resets at the last minute. Finally we got the patient in front of a judge - solely due to good luck. We managed to schedule a hearing in front of a sympathetic judge so suddenly that Montgomery Co. had no time to react. You may ask, "What about a lawsuit? Criminal proceedings?" WRONG! The local government is in on it; so there will be no criminal charges. We couldn't find any Maryland attorney to take the case - Seems they were all working to one degree or another for the Montgomery Co. treatment center. The attorney's told us they had to decline because, "Montgomery Co. (treatment facility) was their client". [I had the same experience in Florida regarding a personal injury matter relating to Disney. It seemed all the workman comp lawyers in the State got money from Disney.] Finally, I found legal counsel in NYC. But by then the victim had enough. She just wanted to get past it all. I don't blame her. Mental illness certainly has not gone away in the USA. To be sure, the ranks of the mentally ill have vastly expanded. Greed is Good. The pharmaceutical companies and mental health institutions have a specific duty to serve their shareholders - not the patients. If people can't afford the pricy insurance, they have to seek remedies "on the street". Frequently, they are simply processed into the corporate private prison industry like energy chattel. It's all good if you simply signup and join the gravy train!
I am the child of both a murderer and his victim. I wasn't going to say anything but I feel that I'm maybe one of the few who can answer your questions from this video... Yes, we can go on living knowing these people are out there while our loved ones were taken and our lives were upended forever.. It takes a whole lot of trauma processing and therapy though.. and a whole lot of luck in order not to become them. Maybe the strongest statement this movie got right.. it takes more than being a victim to become a survivor. It takes change, and that takes effort, consciousness.. and yeah.. also luck.. Meanwhile.. the PTSD lasts forever. My father was created by trauma into the broken person he became. My mother was the woman willing to start her life over and be a divorced and grieving mother to her children. Imperfect but our mom. The difference is in who they made their choices for. I ended up in a place where I was abused after. I went to the police. Both my father and his father ended up in prison for what they did.. and I know better than most how easily I could have become them. I didn't because I wanted a better future than my own past, and not just for myself. My father has been out of prison for years now. He always follows the same pattern. He finds a woman who likes him, he gets her pregnant as soon as possible. He proposes to marry, and maybe they do.. but when they find out what happened to my mother, she takes the kid and leaves.. rightly so.. Why? Because in the decades between then and now he has changed very little about himself. He is still an impulsive and at heart deeply pessimistic man. Hope takes courage. He is still capable of the same violence and rage that ruined his own life as well as (or possibly more than) ours. Empathy reaches outwards and eventually.. we learn we ourselves shouldn't be exceptions to our own empathy. We heal. He was turned inwards instead. There are many reasons for that. Not all of those are his fault.. but he couldn't look past himself and his own needs. No one else did, and he never grew from that almost childlike self centered state into mental maturity. We are all capable of horrible things. The will to not do them has to be found within us as well. Within love. Enough so it overrides the purely egocentric. It is also what is never addressed in this movie/story. The change is nothing but a surface veneer. True change comes from the inside out by taking ourselves out of the middle of it all.. In many ways, I see him as a man who never survived his own childhood, even though he is alive. I can only forgive him for my portion of the pain he has inflicted, and I have. I'll never stop missing my mother. The anger and my own pain isn't gone. I live with the fear and the loss and the grief his actions brought me. I live with PTSD.. but I honestly wish he'd go into therapy, and start his own journey healing.. because seeing him just act out the same pattern of what happened before, over and over.. it makes me sad.. My mother loved him once. I wish he'd remember that, and honor it by changing.. by the same kind of introspection we had to go through to get to where we are.. I have a staggering amount of half siblings from his side.. all of them without a father. We're better off.. but I wish for a time when that is no longer true.. and call me an optimist (which I know I definitely am) but I still think he can get to that point where maybe he won't have a wife or kids, but can finally just live with himself.. I know it is possible because I have lived it. I wish he'd find a good therapist, go into therapy, and not hold anything back. The worst judgement we face is usually our own. That self judgement is toxic though.. and drives us to more violence instead of towards self acceptance.. Self acceptance is the very first step towards healing.. healing is what allows us to love people.. and let them love us back without hiding anything of ourselves.. it breaks the cycle. It's not about making up with a few dozen fatherless kids or their mothers and families.. it's not about trying to trap people to stay with you.. it's in preferring to be by the side of someone you love.. in good days and bad ones.. it's not about sharing a bed, or even a home, or every day.. it's about sharing our time and our hearts.. even or maybe especially as "just friends".. Making that connection is what he has sought for all his life and never fully found.. I know he tried to find it, life happens.. it is never easy. Not for anyone.. but I hope everyone finds that, and that includes him.. 40+ years, a lot of therapy, more bad days, and optimism.. Because in the end the pessimistic people get to say "I told you so" but meanwhile the optimistic people in the world live a better life.. We die only once. Of all the times we think "I'm not going to make it" only one single time will we be right. The rest of the time, we will be wrong.. so stop listening to the toxicity of pessimism and try again. I'm not "special", I'm normal.. ordinary.. some things I'm good at, many things I'm not. That's okay.. actually it's really good because it can take some of the stress off when we take ourselves a little too seriously.. it also means that anyone can do what I have though, and that it is worth trying again if you tried and failed.. ❤ I wish all people the happiness and peace and wholeness I had to fight to find within myself, and none of the bad hair days ;) ❤ EDIT: P.S. clearly Nietzsche and I disagree yet again... 😂 Being strong enough to be gentle means taking a stand and having a backbone per definition. The reasons for incarceration should be to stop violence. No punishment ever fits what we have lost. It never can. It's not about that once the most accure rage fades and we begin to heal and see the people who hurt us as they actually are again. Some people *are* too dangerous to be free. In such cases, they shouldn't be. My grief is not a blank check though. People don't get to use it to add even more needless suffering to people's lives. Anyone's. Even those who would never extend it to others "deserve" to be treated humanely.. because it isn't something any of us "earn".. It's not a bank account.. Human rights include all human beings. Humane treatment should apply to any life that touches our own.. not because of who those lives belong to or not.. but because we are human beings. Fear and rage are great alarm clocks, but generally bad advisors..
I'm curious as to how long it generally takes you to make a video, there is quite a lot of citation in your works and I'm wondering if your writing process involves you actively looking for these quotes or do you just so happen to stumble upon them whilst reading the source material? Also, needn't be said really, but fantastic video, as usual.
Thanks, mate! Takes wayyy too long to be honest. For this series of videos, I started with a wide umbrella of researching everything Kubrick said about Clockwork in interviews, or researching experimentation in prisons in general, etc. Found them that way. That Nietzsche quote is one I keep in my back pocket for just such an occasion as this.
TH-cam needs more content like this. It's refreshing, like cool water on a hot day, or like the silence after some drunk moron who's been yammering on at you for six hours about cryptocurrency or golf finally passes out and topples over onto the floor. It's truly puzzling that you only have 57k subscribers. In any case, I look forward to your future contributions. Good luck and Godspeed, my friend.
What's done in prisons today? Prisoners, especially the mentally ill (since we closed our asylums in the 1980s) are kept locked up under chemical restraint. CS Lewis had some very compelling things to say about treatment vs. punishment. When punishment is over, it's over. But treatment continues indefinitely, until one is "cured." When Alex is recovering he tells the psychologist that while he was unconscious he felt as if someone was tinkering inside his head.
Very interesting trilogy.. interesting on how about an HR of your time on this video really took you countless more in building the foundation of this point of view and analysis. Thank you. I will take the bricks you gave me from your foundation and continue building upon my own foundation before me. I also will need to now watch the entirety of clock work orange as an adult and with a bigger foundation than when I saw it as a child 15-20yrs ago now ?.. very interested idea that makes sense without obfuscation or ignorance.
3:38 this kinda conditioning has happened in my town to young children with no crimnal record, just because the public school did not want to deal with kids who were differemt or asked too many questions
Great video, your Kubrick vids are real horrorshow! Given the trends in law of just releasing criminals over and over, Clockwork may have been too optimistic that the plutocracy wants the criminal impulse curbed as they replace common criminals with political prisoners in prison.
Punishment is not improving the criminal stats for the Americans. Already they house 30% of the world's prisoners and histories largest collection of children prisoners. To be sure, the USA will need better solutions than prisons, punishment and bombs. It will have to intellectualize itself out of these ever-growing problems. The entire culture has become sick: collectively suffering from a broken soul.
Morality and the debate of right and wrong. Some people would believe something is right and other believe that same thing is wrong. The debate will last a lifetime, but the reality is things/actions are either good or bad. And who ever believes a evil is good or a good is evil is wrong. It’s just getting someone to see truth is the difficult when they believe they are moral. Are more wrongs committed under the idea of being good then wrongs committed for the notion that they are wrong?
24:24 - The fall did not reverse his conditioning, the state did. They even make the big show at the end to demonstrate that point. It's unclear, but it seemed to be some kind of surgical procedure because his head is wrapped up as it would be after brain surgery.
Said the human being who chooses to continue to be. The question: “to be or not to be?” is answered by the fact of having asked the question in the first place, we have no other choice but to be, to “not be” is not an action and so cannot be the answer.
Finally watched A Clockwork Orange yesterday. I can thank you for that. Got a question though: do you think the ending is positive, negative or neither? Should we be happy, sad, or simply accept the dystopian statement?
I would say it’s bittersweet. Because Alex gets his “humanity” back, but also likely has a future as part of the evil dystopian Government. Or maybe starting again with a new gang. It’s not like the ending to the book which I will say is much more positive.
As in Lolita or Dr Strangelove, there is no cause cause for joy or hope. There is a final chapter added to the novel by the author that does offer something -- but no spoilers!
In the book there’s a last chapter that Kubrick didn’t include in the movie, it’s years later and Alex he runs into Pete at a bar, and he’s just sort of grown out of it.
With hindsight, I feel the film was delivering a stark warning of the shape of things to come. The moral relativism promulgated by the cultural marxist's via the 'long march' through the institutions being illustrated by the brutalist architecture and the scientism of Alex's therapy. The vindictiveness of the left wing writer is presciently mimetic of the modern progressive woke virtue signaller, for even the smallest deviation from their inculcated ideology, whilst the priest seems to represent an anachronistic remnant of the morals and ethics of the previous 2,000 years. Indeed the finer points of both Stoicism and Christianity are negated through the universal lack of forgiveness that is displayed. Dystopian for sure, but a reminder for those that are still able to chose: Even in a world where there are so many bad people, chose to be good.
We have been there for a long time. Rockefeller & Dewey created the American education system specifically to "create cogs in the wheel of society". Rockefeller & Dewey created the US education system by using the philosophy of Hegel & Wundt. The same two men to whom Marx & Trotsky used to create Communism! Hegel wrote that he was fearful of the educated man! In their own words, an education system must dumb down the population and "to create a passive society of people who merely act as cogs in the wheel of society" Thus, Americans are NOT critical thinkers - They just "go along". That is why the nation is completely & utterly Bankrupt. According to the CBO and IMF in 2011, the current US Federal Debt is 211 Trillion! Removing critical thinking from education was simple & genius! In summary, the Western Education system is not education at all. But rather a system of social conditioning! Interesting piece: How John Dewey Used Public ‘Education’ to Subvert Liberty illinoisfamily.org/education/how-john-dewey-used-public-education-to-subvert-liberty/?fbclid=IwAR2FLkcmnak6pcFggRlJBlzA6hsAcYhSDoxVR8556GZ7-d5yJCRpBczNOAI
The moral theologians at the catholic university I attended recommended we watch ACO on movie night. Considering the mockery of the chaplain and the dancing Jesus montage, I thought it was big of them. Indeed it explores many knotty issues of moral theology, and comes to no favorable conclusions.
Great videos, thank you for being an intellectual voice and showing that everyone worships something, if your God isn’t a theological god it might be Beethoven or the government or the status quo.
I am sure you will get to the shining in time but I want to give you my view on it. Each character is an archetype or a symbolic representation of a dysfunctional family. They drunken emotionally stunted father. to the mother who is powerless and emotional in her own right, unable to even protect her child. And a emotionaly and possibly sexually abused child seeing his gods act in ways he can't comprehend. The shifts of tonality thoughout the movie as well as the actual physical items shifting is symbolic of the view points shifting between each character as well, is to encourage the constant state of discomfort and disorder that comes with these people. If you look at the movie through this lense it makes a lot of sense. And it is often the realistic relatable horrors that create the longest lasting and impacting scares. And the movie ends with a picture of Jack who as an abuse father has always been there in society and sadly will be there one day again.
Fascinating. I've never sat through A Clockwork Orange as it never appealed to me. I might now do so. Edit. Your Nietzche reference is something I have heard from activists recently, suggesting that punishing criminals is amoral and that we should instead seek to address the societal issues that lead people into criminal activity. Personally, I think that position is dangerous. People have freedom of choice, and are able to choose to behave well or badly. Removing that freedom seems to me to be a dangerous path to follow. While it would eradicate crime, in theory, it would also eradicate freedom. We would end up living in Demolition Man world, which by the way, you would do well to review!
Punishment is not improving the criminal stats for the Americans. Already they house 30% of the world's prisoners and histories largest collection of children prisoners. To be sure, the USA will need better solutions than prisons, punishment and bombs. It will have to intellectualize itself out of these ever-growing problems. The entire culture has become sick: collectively suffering from a broken soul.
I don't see the two things as either/or: a civilized society should pursue the best possible social and economical justice, so that everyone has access to a dignified life and the socio-economic breeding ground for crime is removed. At that point, but only at that point, when crime really becomes a choice, it can be punished in an exemplary and deterring way. Then the punishment will be really for the common good, and not just for the protection of economical and political privileges, as it is in most societies today.
Very interesting, classic film. Don't know why the chaplain's views were described as "gullible, naive, simplistic" etc... unless the implication is that Christian faith itself is such things, in which case I would have to disagree. Very good video though IMHO.
Christian faith is far from being gullible, naive, or simplistic-yet on this side of paradise, we imperfect Christians can easily fall into these mistakes; I described the Chaplain this way because Kubrick himself described him this way. I think his sermon on hell is simplistic, and his implicit trust in Alex, taking him at face value, is (to me) naive and gullible. His argument for free choice is fundamentally correct, but not the most sophisticated or rhetorically effective.
We’re all potentially vulnerable to people who use our beliefs to manipulate us. I’m sorry to have to put this out there, but that so many Christians, particularly evangelicals, have naively fallen for Trump, and still are….if that’s not gullible not sure what is. He successfully played on every fear, bias and ideal he could think of. That particular gullibility is doing immeasurable damage. If there’s another word for this, please tell me.
@@joeanthony7759 I would say its the exact opposite , Trump has pointed out how thoroughly corrupt and criminal the crooked establishment is and every day that fact is confirmed more and more. If you can't see that then I don't know what to say for someone like you.
Man is not integrating well with his unconscious mind - which is much older and far more powerful than the conscious. It evolved before language; and communicates with symbols. Religion leverages this human artifact. Religion is childlike when analyzed critically. As is the belief that some Messiah is here to save one's arse. To be sure, the universe punishes those who are not self-reliant. The fundamental flaw with society is this childlike refusal to be self-reliant. Out of it many pathologies - both individual and societal - develop. Neither science nor religion can cure the person or society. Man must learn to integrate his unconscious in a meaningful way; to find his inner light - And to live by his own directives. Seeking salvation from something outside will keep man in an infantile state. Neither the State nor some Messiah will save him. He must do that for himself.
To paraphrase George Carlin... you have no rights. You've got a few temporary privileges. Let's say the government went all "tyrannical mad men" and decided they were going to disarm the population, by any means necessary, using all resources available, to hell with the moral and ethical concerns! How does that scenario play out in your mind? I'm genuinely curious.
Nietzsche is here following Robespierre and his master Beccaria. I would say, since crimes are different, punishments should be different. When a punishment that's not death or prison for life has been served, liberty should be restored.
"I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: ye have still chaos in you. Alas! There cometh the time when man will no longer give birth to any star. Alas! There cometh the time of the most despicable man, who can no longer despise himself. Lo! I show you the last man. "What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?"-so asketh the last man and blinketh. The earth hath then become small, and on it there hoppeth the last man who maketh everything small. His species is ineradicable like that of the ground-flea; the last man liveth longest. "We have discovered happiness"-say the last men, and blink thereby. They have left the regions where it is hard to live; for they need warmth. One still loveth one's neighbour and rubbeth against him; for one needeth warmth. Turning ill and being distrustful, they consider sinful: they walk warily. He is a fool who still stumbleth over stones or men! A little poison now and then: that maketh pleasant dreams. And much poison at last for a pleasant death. One still worketh, for work is a pastime. But one is careful lest the pastime should hurt one. One no longer becometh poor or rich; both are too burdensome. Who still wanteth to rule? Who still wanteth to obey? Both are too burdensome. No shepherd, and one herd! Every one wanteth the same; every one is equal: he who hath other sentiments goeth voluntarily into the madhouse. "Formerly all the world was insane,"-say the subtlest of them, and blink thereby. They are clever and know all that hath happened: so there is no end to their raillery. People still fall out, but are soon reconciled-otherwise it spoileth their stomachs. They have their little pleasures for the day, and their little pleasures for the night, but they have a regard for health. "We have discovered happiness,"-say the last men, and blink thereby."
Although Alex was chemically lobotomised by the state his real personality was protected in deeper layers of his brain and eventually rose back to the surface to restore him to his former state.
Some have the idea that the phrase "the meek shall inherit the earth" was mistranslated. It doesn't really make sense. A better translation might be "He who has a sword and can use it, but keeps it sheathed, shall inherit the earth." A concept we have no word for. A man physically incapable of assaulting another man so doesn't hasn't made a moral decision. But a rational one. A man who can assault another man and chooses not to has made a moral choice. Weakness is not virtue.
And lets not understate the cruelties often lasting and disfiguring in prisons when the government has the custody. Add this to the lack of meaningful engagement once free, things should change
_"cognitive behaviour therapy"_ Is not to be imposed and reimposed on unwilling, especially who have already shown more than once that they have borne provocation after provocation without violence.
Did you read the book? The last chapter does have optimism..and as i age i find it appeals to be more. It adds an entire epilogue chapter which SPOILERS: has alex back to his old bad behavior before of his own accord realizing that he wants to change and does so freely after coming across ome of his old droog buddies who was now a normal functioning, contented family man.
we know the meaning. its also about how certain male youths / young men just wanna be bad / naughty, be and a gang of 'very naughty buys' and break the law , be violent, etc, the rolling stones becamse famous around the same time the book came out, part of their 'a gang of bad boys' shtick was modeled on the droogs. so many of us when we were young were badly behaved, usually thankfully nowhere near as bad as the droogs, obviously. but stuff like smoking ciggys / boozing, getting in a fist fight or two, other low level petty crime- eg vandalism , drining and driving. alex doesnt coem from a horrible abusive family situation, he just wants to act out and be tough, i assume the whole bad boy thing is an immature attempt to prove bravery and toughness in a way. this is why its good to get young men and boys to play physically violent sports such as rugby instead.
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One of the tiny details I love in this film involves the head prison guard. In the movie he is depicted as a petty tyrant who views criminals as irredeemable and incapable of reformation and they should all be subject to his discipline for all time. And when Alex is being chosen and transferred to the Ludovico facility, he's the biggest skeptic. Yet when he's in the room to witness their demonstration of Alex's "reform", he watches it with a smug smile. He becomes a complete convert and highly approves of the fact that a criminal was effectively defanged. And it's this smile that is on screen when the chaplain starts his criticism of the procedure and you watch the guard's face change from a smile to a look of annoyance. Really hammers home how the chaplain is really the only good person in the movie. The main guard epitomizes the point in the first video of this series of how corrupt the entire system is in A Clockwork Orange.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C. S. Lewis
Just read that essay the other day. It's so so good.
Thats frightening , im living in a real live nightmare with no chance of waking up , sleep paralysis
No one worse than a True Believer.
@@marioarguello6989
I don't think so. To me Selfentitlement is more of an issue. Especially when paired with a blanco cheque legitimation for cruelty. When the end justifies the means...
@@Calimerothesadbird Are your randomly put together words supposed to mean something?
Excellent exposition of one of the most important yet maligned of all films. And its biggest detractors were those who had the same shallow view of human behavior as those who ran the treatment program in the movie. Kubrick was even called a "Fascist with a nihilistic sense of humor." Today, the film would be cancellation material for Kubrick.
I'm pretty sure Pauline Kael hated it.
Really solid video essay which raises lots of interesting questions.
Free-will vs determinism was one of Burgess' pet topics - from Pelagius vs Augustine to modernity - and the Irish chaplain, for all his flaws, is the moral backbone of both book and film.
btw - Burgess was a teacher in post WW II Malaya, where in the native language 'Orang' is 'man'
Interesting-didn't know that...
How much "free will" does any man have if he cannot control his inner drives, compulsions - He cannot understand his unconscious mind or integrate it.
Also related to orangutan, the biological organism, with all its juices--both sweet and bitter....
Yes, as in the Malay phrase "orang utan:" literally, "old man of the forest." Like his literary hero Joyce, Burgess was a word-obsessed polyglot. His marriage of English to Russian in the novel is nothing short of brilliant ... Right right right, O my brother?
@@charlesspissu4647 real horrorshow
All the "Clockwork Orange" videos are excellent in this channel. Great analysis and insight.
This is one of the only channels I bother to go out of my way to comment on videos for. Both because it's a smaller channel that I very much enjoy and want to encourage it's continuation but also because I just feel so moved to do so and want to interact in any way I can. I've come to the assumption from your content that you're a fellow Christian. I've only come to believe within the last few years but also come from a background of appreciating both film and philosophy (imagine my excitement finding this channel!) This has been a great little journey of re-examination of media and thoughts long held through a current and thankfully changed lense. Yours is a rarity in being content that is both entertaining but also thought provoking and encouraging for me. Thanks for all your hard work! Long winded not necessarily video specific tangent over!
Thank you, my friend! Glad you're here and enjoying the stuff I throw together. Hopefully it wasn't too hard to figure out that I'm a Christian! All the best on your journey.
Wasn't too hard to someone in the know! Just as soon figured most of your content was neutral enough as to make it more approachable to a wider audience while still showing the way to knowledge and truth. Likely missed you mentioning in previous videos but do you have a patron or any way one might help support the work you do?
I’m an atheist and i approve of these comments :-)
@@mainelymaintaining Sorry for taking so long to respond… for some reason I didn’t see this comment. I do indeed have a Patreon: www.patreon.com/EmpireoftheMind
Right on! I'd be happy to contribute what I can to support one of my favorite channels!
This is one of the few channels who actually break down films in a new and interesting way. Most others just recycle crap that’s been said before. Thank you for all the hard work
i subbed just because of the quotes from the actual greats of history - i can't image most people on youtube adding that type of heavy content to make you think
I have just discovered your channel thanks to my interest in Kubrick and my admiration for his work. Very good analysis that avoids the usual, and pathetic, liberal whining about "the rights of the individual" which are ignored and trampled on when it suits our "liberal, humane and democratic" governments. The case of Julian Assange is a perfect example of the aforesaid. Regards.
99% of those calling themselves "Liberal" are not, in case you haven't noticed.
This is just so on point and eerily prophetic to our current situation in 2023 . I feel that about so many of Kubricks films. This was an incredible thought- provoking analysis that got me through a super mundane day of work . Cheers and thanks for the great vid ! Subscribed
There is great danger here, the danger its totality. Is Lovecraftian in scope and Eldritch in its horror... yet the only mosters preasent are man and his creations.
This movie is more relevant today than ever before.
Your videos are like a light in a cave. The world becomes just a little clearer, and I am ever grateful for your help 😁
Thank you, my friend!
Fantastic content. Very relevant to current year. Keep up the great work and analysis!
Your videos are a masterpiece. Never stop what you're doing. Congratulations for you amazing job!
I just finished reading the novel as part of my reading of dystopian novels, and it turns out at the time that Kubrick made the movie he did not have the final chapter available to him; it was not in the American version. It does change a number of thing about the story--I'll ask you to read it for yourself and determine its effect.
On another note, Malcom McDowell plays a conductor in Mozart in the Jungle. And in the first episode he is either putting on or taking off (I can't remember which) makeup on his eye which is a visual quote of ACO.
According to Malcom in an interview, the final chapter was only written at the behest of the British printers so that Alex would have a "normal" ending in which he was rehabilitated. Kubrick himself said it was a terrible ending.
@@narcissus79 I don't know if I would say it's a terrible ending, exactly. Anthony Burgess himself said the final chapter was removed from the American release because the American publishers said they hated it. I feel like it may remove or overshadow the ideas that were expressed up to that final chapter, changing the impression you got from the book, overall. It adds a different quality to it, one I think speaks of the path from boyhood to grown man, how Alex decides growing up is the best course for him -- essentially becoming "A Clockwork Orange" in a different sense, as he sets out on a path expected of him.
I don't know, that was my takeaway from the final chapter and how it meshes with the rest of the story. I may have to read it again soon.
The final chapter is thematically essential and serves the purpose of demonstrating that Alex will *choose* to build his dome on rock rather than sand, in reference to the Charlie's sermon in Part 2, thereby turning the novel into an extended biblical parable. As you surely know, Burgess was profoundly Catholic and wanted the book to be interpreted exegetically. So be it.
B5 pfp spotted in the wild :O
Sadly, we are still living through the aftermath of the havoc wrought by the Behaviourists.
No going to lie, I hear Andrew Ryan saying "A man chooses, a slave obeys". Great part 3 analysis 👍
Again, fantastic interpretation and explanation of Kubrick's work.....wow
Really ties in well with your essay about Interstellar. This stuff always makes me think. Barry Lyndon up next, will look forward to your thoughts on the final confrontation.
This film begs the question, at what point does Alex fulfill his “debt” to society, and what does his treatment (torture) say about the collectors of that debt? In the end, alex ends up back where he started, “cured.” The cure for criminality is purity, and in the context of clockwork orange, the now cured Alex has paid his debt to society and is purified through his purgatory. All the characters in the film little by little force alex to truly pay off his debt to society, thus reflecting their own immortalities along the way. Brilliant analysis.
Just found your channel with this excellent 3 parts essay on one of my all times favorite movies. Subscribed!
The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics (CCLE) has been sounding the alarm on this for over a decade.
Barry Lyndon is one of my favourite films, can't wait for that analysis!
Pretty Moving Pictures.
His parents were not happy to be seeing him again. Great video.
I saw this film as a teenager and never really could make any sense of it. Read the book and got some more clues, but still find Kubrick's vision a little opaque.
My next favorite channel. Holy cow- mind blown by the depth and truth laid out in plain speaking here. This series of videos just illuminated personal struggles. Thank you Thabk you Thank you Thank you so much for the work taken to create these truth/love bombs.
A question the film raised for me is "how long until everyone, except the ruling class and their enforcers are given "the treatment?"
A non violent populace, is a populace that cannot rebel. Even to attempt non-violent protest, the threat of violence could disrupt a political demonstration. Making opposition to authority impossible.
Is there a way out ?
Analysis is on point, and also why A Clockwork Orange is my fav movie.
The crime of having taken away Alex's ability to defend himself from criminals seems to be missing here.
I once wrote to a friend to express that music, at that time it was a piece by Ravel, saved my life daily--this in the face of the vagaries of our contemporary condition--. Your videos do the same.
It is Ultamately our Free Will and ability to reason that makes Humanity Special.
It is our ability to Comprehend the world and situations surrounding us that makes us Human.
Humanity in itself is Devine. Needless of a God. Humanity is Sacred, and it should be sacred to you on the simple basis that your Human yourself.
Never should a single Human be restricted from their own self determined Will, never should one restrict, impeed, hinder or snuff out the Free Will of another.
this video reminds me of the of a docuessay I watched like 5 years ago about the breakdown of the state mental asylum system in the US with the almost simultaneous assault by narrative farming journalists. I really wish I could find it again.
I have seen some excellent asylums in Europe and parts of Asia. Today in the USA, out-patient mental health care consists solely of prescribing Xanax; atypical antipsychotic drugs (SGAs) like Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Geodon and Abilify; and, serotonin-dopamine activity modulators (SDAMs) [aka chemical lobotomies]. Over time the Xanax causes enormous swaths of brain tissue to die, (it acts as a tourniquet - eventually leading to cell death - most countries ban long-term use); and, the SGAs & SDAMs cause akathisia & Extrapyramidal Side-Effects (EPS). EPS means the patient develops all host of facial and motor tics, Parkinsonian like deficits, etc. [Don't worry! It's terrific profit for the drug companies!]
For those that can't afford the drugs or afford access to doctors, (eg, In the USA Xanax is marked up over 30,000% higher than its international generic equivalent - Alprazolam), many have learned to import the generic powder by the kilogram from China, and press their own pills to sell on the black market. In addition to street Xanax, those suffering various forms of mental illness have frequently found respite by abusing alcohol, opioids and narcotics.
Unfortunately, the USA no longer seems to have many in-patient facilities. By the late 1980s, in-patient franchises like Charter Hospital were popping up all over the USA. Greed is Good - These in-patient franchises were charging tens of thousands of dollars per week for in-patient care (doping). Insurance companies lobbied (bribed - its legal) politicians to shut down in-patient facilities - like the Charter Hospital franchise - by around 2005. Therefore, in the USA, in-patient care is limited to the private corporate prison system.
You can still find some highly profitable in-patient facilities: eg., so-called Residential Inpatient Treatment Centers. Once again - Greed lubricates the wheels of the machine (bribery of local government). Local police agencies are paid to have their officers involuntarily commit people to the local Residential Inpatient Treatment Center. Once in, the patient is trapped and bills rack up. Myself and another physician fought for almost three weeks to get someone wrongly committed to the Montgomery Co. (Maryland) in-patient facility. They were wrongly committed to generate revenue. The police committed the person without cause. In-patient involuntary commitments are supposed to be a max. of 72 hours; whereupon they are to be given access to a judge. The other physician with me on this matter was the persons primary care physician. We kept trying to get a court hearing. Montgomery Co. responded with a barrage of court hearing date resets at the last minute. Finally we got the patient in front of a judge - solely due to good luck. We managed to schedule a hearing in front of a sympathetic judge so suddenly that Montgomery Co. had no time to react. You may ask, "What about a lawsuit? Criminal proceedings?" WRONG! The local government is in on it; so there will be no criminal charges. We couldn't find any Maryland attorney to take the case - Seems they were all working to one degree or another for the Montgomery Co. treatment center. The attorney's told us they had to decline because, "Montgomery Co. (treatment facility) was their client". [I had the same experience in Florida regarding a personal injury matter relating to Disney. It seemed all the workman comp lawyers in the State got money from Disney.] Finally, I found legal counsel in NYC. But by then the victim had enough. She just wanted to get past it all. I don't blame her.
Mental illness certainly has not gone away in the USA. To be sure, the ranks of the mentally ill have vastly expanded. Greed is Good. The pharmaceutical companies and mental health institutions have a specific duty to serve their shareholders - not the patients. If people can't afford the pricy insurance, they have to seek remedies "on the street". Frequently, they are simply processed into the corporate private prison industry like energy chattel. It's all good if you simply signup and join the gravy train!
I am the child of both a murderer and his victim.
I wasn't going to say anything but I feel that I'm maybe one of the few who can answer your questions from this video...
Yes, we can go on living knowing these people are out there while our loved ones were taken and our lives were upended forever.. It takes a whole lot of trauma processing and therapy though.. and a whole lot of luck in order not to become them.
Maybe the strongest statement this movie got right.. it takes more than being a victim to become a survivor. It takes change, and that takes effort, consciousness.. and yeah.. also luck..
Meanwhile.. the PTSD lasts forever.
My father was created by trauma into the broken person he became.
My mother was the woman willing to start her life over and be a divorced and grieving mother to her children. Imperfect but our mom.
The difference is in who they made their choices for.
I ended up in a place where I was abused after. I went to the police. Both my father and his father ended up in prison for what they did.. and I know better than most how easily I could have become them.
I didn't because I wanted a better future than my own past, and not just for myself.
My father has been out of prison for years now. He always follows the same pattern. He finds a woman who likes him, he gets her pregnant as soon as possible. He proposes to marry, and maybe they do.. but when they find out what happened to my mother, she takes the kid and leaves.. rightly so..
Why? Because in the decades between then and now he has changed very little about himself. He is still an impulsive and at heart deeply pessimistic man. Hope takes courage. He is still capable of the same violence and rage that ruined his own life as well as (or possibly more than) ours.
Empathy reaches outwards and eventually.. we learn we ourselves shouldn't be exceptions to our own empathy.
We heal.
He was turned inwards instead. There are many reasons for that. Not all of those are his fault.. but he couldn't look past himself and his own needs. No one else did, and he never grew from that almost childlike self centered state into mental maturity.
We are all capable of horrible things. The will to not do them has to be found within us as well. Within love. Enough so it overrides the purely egocentric.
It is also what is never addressed in this movie/story. The change is nothing but a surface veneer. True change comes from the inside out by taking ourselves out of the middle of it all..
In many ways, I see him as a man who never survived his own childhood, even though he is alive.
I can only forgive him for my portion of the pain he has inflicted, and I have. I'll never stop missing my mother. The anger and my own pain isn't gone. I live with the fear and the loss and the grief his actions brought me. I live with PTSD.. but I honestly wish he'd go into therapy, and start his own journey healing.. because seeing him just act out the same pattern of what happened before, over and over.. it makes me sad.. My mother loved him once. I wish he'd remember that, and honor it by changing.. by the same kind of introspection we had to go through to get to where we are..
I have a staggering amount of half siblings from his side.. all of them without a father. We're better off.. but I wish for a time when that is no longer true.. and call me an optimist (which I know I definitely am) but I still think he can get to that point where maybe he won't have a wife or kids, but can finally just live with himself..
I know it is possible because I have lived it. I wish he'd find a good therapist, go into therapy, and not hold anything back.
The worst judgement we face is usually our own. That self judgement is toxic though.. and drives us to more violence instead of towards self acceptance..
Self acceptance is the very first step towards healing.. healing is what allows us to love people.. and let them love us back without hiding anything of ourselves.. it breaks the cycle.
It's not about making up with a few dozen fatherless kids or their mothers and families.. it's not about trying to trap people to stay with you.. it's in preferring to be by the side of someone you love.. in good days and bad ones.. it's not about sharing a bed, or even a home, or every day.. it's about sharing our time and our hearts.. even or maybe especially as "just friends"..
Making that connection is what he has sought for all his life and never fully found.. I know he tried to find it, life happens.. it is never easy. Not for anyone.. but I hope everyone finds that, and that includes him..
40+ years, a lot of therapy, more bad days, and optimism..
Because in the end the pessimistic people get to say "I told you so" but meanwhile the optimistic people in the world live a better life..
We die only once. Of all the times we think "I'm not going to make it" only one single time will we be right. The rest of the time, we will be wrong.. so stop listening to the toxicity of pessimism and try again.
I'm not "special", I'm normal.. ordinary.. some things I'm good at, many things I'm not. That's okay.. actually it's really good because it can take some of the stress off when we take ourselves a little too seriously..
it also means that anyone can do what I have though, and that it is worth trying again if you tried and failed..
❤
I wish all people the happiness and peace and wholeness I had to fight to find within myself, and none of the bad hair days ;)
❤
EDIT: P.S. clearly Nietzsche and I disagree yet again... 😂
Being strong enough to be gentle means taking a stand and having a backbone per definition.
The reasons for incarceration should be to stop violence. No punishment ever fits what we have lost. It never can. It's not about that once the most accure rage fades and we begin to heal and see the people who hurt us as they actually are again. Some people *are* too dangerous to be free. In such cases, they shouldn't be.
My grief is not a blank check though. People don't get to use it to add even more needless suffering to people's lives. Anyone's. Even those who would never extend it to others "deserve" to be treated humanely.. because it isn't something any of us "earn"..
It's not a bank account..
Human rights include all human beings. Humane treatment should apply to any life that touches our own.. not because of who those lives belong to or not.. but because we are human beings.
Fear and rage are great alarm clocks, but generally bad advisors..
Though sheer luck I too found this and am going to happily watch .My favourite director apart from Hitchcock is Kubrick.
Thank you, this interpretation was very interesting and fantastic! Bravo!
I'm curious as to how long it generally takes you to make a video, there is quite a lot of citation in your works and I'm wondering if your writing process involves you actively looking for these quotes or do you just so happen to stumble upon them whilst reading the source material?
Also, needn't be said really, but fantastic video, as usual.
Thanks, mate! Takes wayyy too long to be honest. For this series of videos, I started with a wide umbrella of researching everything Kubrick said about Clockwork in interviews, or researching experimentation in prisons in general, etc. Found them that way. That Nietzsche quote is one I keep in my back pocket for just such an occasion as this.
Kubrick was a pure genius!
The best channel when it comes to this stuff
Another great video! So happy I found you on here. Kubrick is one of my favorite directors.
Mine too and I cherish my DVDS of many of his films, I am retired and a chronic insomniac so your work is heavenly and so interesting.
Fun fact the old English word for for fate is wyrd better known in modern English as “weird”. Godspeed
Hence the "Weird Sisters" in Macbeth...
TH-cam needs more content like this. It's refreshing, like cool water on a hot day, or like the silence after some drunk moron who's been yammering on at you for six hours about cryptocurrency or golf finally passes out and topples over onto the floor. It's truly puzzling that you only have 57k subscribers. In any case, I look forward to your future contributions. Good luck and Godspeed, my friend.
You're too kind-thank you!
What's done in prisons today? Prisoners, especially the mentally ill (since we closed our asylums in the 1980s) are kept locked up under chemical restraint.
CS Lewis had some very compelling things to say about treatment vs. punishment. When punishment is over, it's over. But treatment continues indefinitely, until one is "cured."
When Alex is recovering he tells the psychologist that while he was unconscious he felt as if someone was tinkering inside his head.
Very interesting trilogy.. interesting on how about an HR of your time on this video really took you countless more in building the foundation of this point of view and analysis. Thank you. I will take the bricks you gave me from your foundation and continue building upon my own foundation before me. I also will need to now watch the entirety of clock work orange as an adult and with a bigger foundation than when I saw it as a child 15-20yrs ago now ?.. very interested idea that makes sense without obfuscation or ignorance.
You are doing amazing work sir!!!
3:38 this kinda conditioning has happened in my town to young children with no crimnal record, just because the public school did not want to deal with kids who were differemt or asked too many questions
Indeed. It is quite common.
Fantastic commentary. I like the analysis vis-a-vis the three negations of liberty.
I hope you will analyze Eyes Wide Shut on this channel.
That's the plan!
Yes one of my favourite films as I am totally obsessed with the subject matter and enjoy this immensely.
“Oh no! The consequences of my actions!” - Alex when the people he hurt enact justice
Popping up to say hi and to congratulate you for such great analysis! Great channel, by the way!
Hey, thanks!
Great video, your Kubrick vids are real horrorshow! Given the trends in law of just releasing criminals over and over, Clockwork may have been too optimistic that the plutocracy wants the criminal impulse curbed as they replace common criminals with political prisoners in prison.
Punishment is not improving the criminal stats for the Americans. Already they house 30% of the world's prisoners and histories largest collection of children prisoners.
To be sure, the USA will need better solutions than prisons, punishment and bombs. It will have to intellectualize itself out of these ever-growing problems. The entire culture has become sick: collectively suffering from a broken soul.
Morality and the debate of right and wrong. Some people would believe something is right and other believe that same thing is wrong. The debate will last a lifetime, but the reality is things/actions are either good or bad. And who ever believes a evil is good or a good is evil is wrong. It’s just getting someone to see truth is the difficult when they believe they are moral. Are more wrongs committed under the idea of being good then wrongs committed for the notion that they are wrong?
Not bad! I got a lot out of this beautiful and thoughtful discussion.
I’m ready For the Barry Lyndon!!!
Mr. Oblivious here, thanks for helping me to become less so.
24:24 - The fall did not reverse his conditioning, the state did. They even make the big show at the end to demonstrate that point. It's unclear, but it seemed to be some kind of surgical procedure because his head is wrapped up as it would be after brain surgery.
In the book he briefly wakes up as they're operating on his brain so I believe it was brain surgery in the movie as well.
@@Allthegoodnamesweretaken69 Thanks me droogie! Vidy well my brohter, vidy well!
@@Generalfund Real horror show indeed my brother!
Big thank's for this, so well made, i have thinking this movie's message and spirit near 40 years. I think same with you.
Great Video very insightful !!!
When you find out what a human being is you won't want to be one.
Said the human being who chooses to continue to be. The question: “to be or not to be?” is answered by the fact of having asked the question in the first place, we have no other choice but to be, to “not be” is not an action and so cannot be the answer.
Finally watched A Clockwork Orange yesterday. I can thank you for that. Got a question though: do you think the ending is positive, negative or neither? Should we be happy, sad, or simply accept the dystopian statement?
I would say it’s bittersweet. Because Alex gets his “humanity” back, but also likely has a future as part of the evil dystopian Government. Or maybe starting again with a new gang. It’s not like the ending to the book which I will say is much more positive.
Well he seemed to revert back to what he was, with the possibility of being in government
As in Lolita or Dr Strangelove, there is no cause cause for joy or hope. There is a final chapter added to the novel by the author that does offer something -- but no spoilers!
@@robertruge2916 Don't forget THX 1138...the crime of "criminal drug evasion."
In the book there’s a last chapter that Kubrick didn’t include in the movie, it’s years later and Alex he runs into Pete at a bar, and he’s just sort of grown out of it.
Love the video, especially the use of the Detroit: Become Human soundtrack in the background.
Did TH-cam remove my right to join channels is this even a thing? Can they do that to the public? What a waste of a company.
WE'RE BREAKING THE CONDITIONING!!!
With hindsight, I feel the film was delivering a stark warning of the shape of things to come. The moral relativism promulgated by the cultural marxist's via the 'long march' through the institutions being illustrated by the brutalist architecture and the scientism of Alex's therapy. The vindictiveness of the left wing writer is presciently mimetic of the modern progressive woke virtue signaller, for even the smallest deviation from their inculcated ideology, whilst the priest seems to represent an anachronistic remnant of the morals and ethics of the previous 2,000 years. Indeed the finer points of both Stoicism and Christianity are negated through the universal lack of forgiveness that is displayed. Dystopian for sure, but a reminder for those that are still able to chose: Even in a world where there are so many bad people, chose to be good.
We have been there for a long time. Rockefeller & Dewey created the American education system specifically to "create cogs in the wheel of society".
Rockefeller & Dewey created the US education system by using the philosophy of Hegel & Wundt. The same two men to whom Marx & Trotsky used to create Communism! Hegel wrote that he was fearful of the educated man!
In their own words, an education system must dumb down the population and "to create a passive society of people who merely act as cogs in the wheel of society"
Thus, Americans are NOT critical thinkers - They just "go along". That is why the nation is completely & utterly Bankrupt. According to the CBO and IMF in 2011, the current US Federal Debt is 211 Trillion!
Removing critical thinking from education was simple & genius!
In summary, the Western Education system is not education at all. But rather a system of social conditioning!
Interesting piece: How John Dewey Used Public ‘Education’ to Subvert Liberty
illinoisfamily.org/education/how-john-dewey-used-public-education-to-subvert-liberty/?fbclid=IwAR2FLkcmnak6pcFggRlJBlzA6hsAcYhSDoxVR8556GZ7-d5yJCRpBczNOAI
@@markhuntermd Yes! interesting link detailing the genesis of the 'Know nothing's'.
The moral theologians at the catholic university I attended recommended we watch ACO on movie night. Considering the mockery of the chaplain and the dancing Jesus montage, I thought it was big of them. Indeed it explores many knotty issues of moral theology, and comes to no favorable conclusions.
Great videos, thank you for being an intellectual voice and showing that everyone worships something, if your God isn’t a theological god it might be Beethoven or the government or the status quo.
6:38 I think George Orwell's Room 101 puts this assertion to rest, although admittedly human beings are spiritually wrecked in the process.
I am sure you will get to the shining in time but I want to give you my view on it. Each character is an archetype or a symbolic representation of a dysfunctional family. They drunken emotionally stunted father. to the mother who is powerless and emotional in her own right, unable to even protect her child. And a emotionaly and possibly sexually abused child seeing his gods act in ways he can't comprehend. The shifts of tonality thoughout the movie as well as the actual physical items shifting is symbolic of the view points shifting between each character as well, is to encourage the constant state of discomfort and disorder that comes with these people. If you look at the movie through this lense it makes a lot of sense. And it is often the realistic relatable horrors that create the longest lasting and impacting scares. And the movie ends with a picture of Jack who as an abuse father has always been there in society and sadly will be there one day again.
There are MANY layers of the Shining, indeed. Hard to pinpoint just one angle to analyze.
Fascinating. I've never sat through A Clockwork Orange as it never appealed to me. I might now do so.
Edit. Your Nietzche reference is something I have heard from activists recently, suggesting that punishing criminals is amoral and that we should instead seek to address the societal issues that lead people into criminal activity.
Personally, I think that position is dangerous. People have freedom of choice, and are able to choose to behave well or badly. Removing that freedom seems to me to be a dangerous path to follow. While it would eradicate crime, in theory, it would also eradicate freedom. We would end up living in Demolition Man world, which by the way, you would do well to review!
Punishment is not improving the criminal stats for the Americans. Already they house 30% of the world's prisoners and histories largest collection of children prisoners.
To be sure, the USA will need better solutions than prisons, punishment and bombs. It will have to intellectualize itself out of these ever-growing problems. The entire culture has become sick: collectively suffering from a broken soul.
I don't see the two things as either/or: a civilized society should pursue the best possible social and economical justice, so that everyone has access to a dignified life and the socio-economic breeding ground for crime is removed. At that point, but only at that point, when crime really becomes a choice, it can be punished in an exemplary and deterring way. Then the punishment will be really for the common good, and not just for the protection of economical and political privileges, as it is in most societies today.
@@musamusashi Commies, gotta love their cluelessness.
@@marioarguello6989 just like believers in trickle down fairy tale must love theirs, i guess. But why are you telling me this?
Think it was a CNN poll, was asked, would you trade your freedom for security, 80% said yes, this was only asked last year.
Very interesting, classic film. Don't know why the chaplain's views were described as "gullible, naive, simplistic" etc... unless the implication is that Christian faith itself is such things, in which case I would have to disagree. Very good video though IMHO.
The Chaplain was also one of the few noble characters in Paths of Glory as well.
Christian faith is far from being gullible, naive, or simplistic-yet on this side of paradise, we imperfect Christians can easily fall into these mistakes; I described the Chaplain this way because Kubrick himself described him this way. I think his sermon on hell is simplistic, and his implicit trust in Alex, taking him at face value, is (to me) naive and gullible. His argument for free choice is fundamentally correct, but not the most sophisticated or rhetorically effective.
We’re all potentially vulnerable to people who use our beliefs to manipulate us. I’m sorry to have to put this out there, but that so many Christians, particularly evangelicals, have naively fallen for Trump, and still are….if that’s not gullible not sure what is. He successfully played on every fear, bias and ideal he could think of. That particular gullibility is doing immeasurable damage. If there’s another word for this, please tell me.
@@joeanthony7759 I would say its the exact opposite , Trump has pointed out how thoroughly corrupt and criminal the crooked establishment is and every day that fact is confirmed more and more. If you can't see that then I don't know what to say for someone like you.
Man is not integrating well with his unconscious mind - which is much older and far more powerful than the conscious. It evolved before language; and communicates with symbols. Religion leverages this human artifact.
Religion is childlike when analyzed critically. As is the belief that some Messiah is here to save one's arse. To be sure, the universe punishes those who are not self-reliant.
The fundamental flaw with society is this childlike refusal to be self-reliant. Out of it many pathologies - both individual and societal - develop.
Neither science nor religion can cure the person or society. Man must learn to integrate his unconscious in a meaningful way; to find his inner light - And to live by his own directives. Seeking salvation from something outside will keep man in an infantile state. Neither the State nor some Messiah will save him. He must do that for himself.
27:34 Those rattan chairs tho
Can you put this in a playlist on your channel
It should be in the playlist called "Film │Thinking About Movies." Let me know if it doesn't show up.
@@EmpireoftheMind I see it
This movie is an advertisement for the "right to bear arms".
To paraphrase George Carlin... you have no rights. You've got a few temporary privileges.
Let's say the government went all "tyrannical mad men" and decided they were going to disarm the population, by any means necessary, using all resources available, to hell with the moral and ethical concerns! How does that scenario play out in your mind? I'm genuinely curious.
Nietzsche is here following Robespierre and his master Beccaria.
I would say, since crimes are different, punishments should be different.
When a punishment that's not death or prison for life has been served, liberty should be restored.
"I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: ye have still chaos in you.
Alas! There cometh the time when man will no longer give birth to any star. Alas! There cometh the time of the most despicable man, who can no longer despise himself.
Lo! I show you the last man.
"What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?"-so asketh the last man and blinketh.
The earth hath then become small, and on it there hoppeth the last man who maketh everything small. His species is ineradicable like that of the ground-flea; the last man liveth longest.
"We have discovered happiness"-say the last men, and blink thereby.
They have left the regions where it is hard to live; for they need warmth. One still loveth one's neighbour and rubbeth against him; for one needeth warmth.
Turning ill and being distrustful, they consider sinful: they walk warily. He is a fool who still stumbleth over stones or men!
A little poison now and then: that maketh pleasant dreams. And much poison at last for a pleasant death.
One still worketh, for work is a pastime. But one is careful lest the pastime should hurt one.
One no longer becometh poor or rich; both are too burdensome. Who still wanteth to rule? Who still wanteth to obey? Both are too burdensome.
No shepherd, and one herd! Every one wanteth the same; every one is equal: he who hath other sentiments goeth voluntarily into the madhouse.
"Formerly all the world was insane,"-say the subtlest of them, and blink thereby.
They are clever and know all that hath happened: so there is no end to their raillery. People still fall out, but are soon reconciled-otherwise it spoileth their stomachs.
They have their little pleasures for the day, and their little pleasures for the night, but they have a regard for health.
"We have discovered happiness,"-say the last men, and blink thereby."
Although Alex was chemically lobotomised by the state his real personality was protected in deeper layers of his brain and eventually rose back to the surface to restore him to his former state.
Very good point of view.
Some have the idea that the phrase "the meek shall inherit the earth" was mistranslated. It doesn't really make sense. A better translation might be "He who has a sword and can use it, but keeps it sheathed, shall inherit the earth." A concept we have no word for. A man physically incapable of assaulting another man so doesn't hasn't made a moral decision. But a rational one. A man who can assault another man and chooses not to has made a moral choice. Weakness is not virtue.
Good old Rob Ager did a video on "Why the Ludovico therapy did not work". I am about 75/25 leaning his arguments.
And lets not understate the cruelties often lasting and disfiguring in prisons when the government has the custody. Add this to the lack of meaningful engagement once free, things should change
_"cognitive behaviour therapy"_
Is not to be imposed and reimposed on unwilling, especially who have already shown more than once that they have borne provocation after provocation without violence.
My debates, they are debates. They cannot justly be reduced to someone's trying to help me with cognitive therapy.
Also Ive been pre-shown more torment in my future.
I'm a bit of a dullard, I felt these ideas and themes watching the movies, but I never knew it or had them fleshed out so well before.
What is the penitentiary if not dehumanizing?
We as a whole are literally Engineering the Humanity out of ourselves. We are so fallible 😮we cannot see the forest before the trees???
Did you read the book? The last chapter does have optimism..and as i age i find it appeals to be more. It adds an entire epilogue chapter which SPOILERS: has alex back to his old bad behavior before of his own accord realizing that he wants to change and does so freely after coming across ome of his old droog buddies who was now a normal functioning, contented family man.
Alex kicking the coke bottle across the very dusty casino floor was telling.
Next bottle is kicked outside a not fit for purpose human lifting device
Sometimes it hurts my eyes and gives me headaches.
Lore of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE Analysis Pt. 3 | The Necessity of CHOICE & the Real History of CONDITIONING momentum 100
Spot on
Isnt this what they trying to do with Jordan Peterson
Newly proposed legislation would allow those incarcerated in Massachusetts to donate organs and bone marrow for sentence reductions!
It gets worse and worse.
i love a A CLOCKWORK ORANGE nice video
we know the meaning. its also about how certain male youths / young men just wanna be bad / naughty, be and a gang of 'very naughty buys' and break the law , be violent, etc, the rolling stones becamse famous around the same time the book came out, part of their 'a gang of bad boys' shtick was modeled on the droogs. so many of us when we were young were badly behaved, usually thankfully nowhere near as bad as the droogs, obviously. but stuff like smoking ciggys / boozing, getting in a fist fight or two, other low level petty crime- eg vandalism , drining and driving. alex doesnt coem from a horrible abusive family situation, he just wants to act out and be tough, i assume the whole bad boy thing is an immature attempt to prove bravery and toughness in a way. this is why its good to get young men and boys to play physically violent sports such as rugby instead.
What's so beneficial about tackle rugby? Do you like the idea of potentially getting a brain injury?
@@lukeaustin4465 you sound exactly like the kind of wimpy coward who would directly benefit from playing rugby / being in a rugby team.
can you make a bladerunner video essay?
The highest morality is effectiveness
I wonder who is doing this to me and why?
Excellent!
Good stuff.
Yes; this is like the abortion issue. When is ok to kill another life? The death penalty and abortion are 2 issues that warrant this type of debate.
They've been doing experiments like this since the fifties my grandma was done like this in the sixties
25:56 Nietzsche
And ' shepherds of human nature' i like, vs rwentieth century view in psych that anything can be learned