Correcting for the Future: Analysis of A Clockwork Orange

Stanley Kubrick’s film A Clockwork Orange no doubt raised some eyebrows and turned some heads when it first premiered in 1972. The brutal nature of the future depicted in the film provided as a social commentary on the possibilities of the extended control of the established authority. Thirty-seven years later, A Clockwork Orange continues to speak for the many controversial issues that exist between the government in control and the established society in many different parts of the world. Randy Martin’s essay, “Where did the Future Go?” and Louis Althusser’s essay “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” discuss the notions of the government’s role in improving society for the intention of maintaining the current system and creating future prosperity.
Randy Martin’s idea of the government’s plans to improve the future economic market can be seen in the events that occur to the main character Alex of A Clockwork Orange. In his essay, Martin states, “No longer divided between labor and capital, society’s central cleavage would be played out along the lines of risk–the prospect of a return in excess of expectation,” meaning that the government invests in the present society with the expectation they will perform efficiently in the future. Martin’s theory is exemplified in Secretary of Education William Bennett’s comments about the lack of decent test score in America’s children being a “threat to national security.” In the film, Alex, a troubled and violent young adult, becomes the subject of a governmental experiment to rid him of his “ultra-violent” ways. The intentions of the government that is portrayed in the film is to create a Utopian-like society, free of violence and corruption by robbing those deemed hazardous to society, like Alex, of the freedom of choice and ideas, as evident when he becomes physically ill anytime he thinks about lewd acts. The government is deciding what choices he will make and that is what Althusser discusses.
In another perspective on the matter of government control for improvement of the future, Louis Althusser looks at the influences of the governments into the ideology of an individual. As he discusses the theory that certain ideas disappear, certain notions, like “subject, consciousness, belief, actions,” survive, and new rituals and an ideology coherent with the apparatus (the state) appear, all are heavily influenced by the government in place to the benefit of the desired society. During his “re-education” through the forced film watching, Alex was essentially hypnotized, or “cured,” into believing that all types of lewd acts were wrong. His brutal, yet confident, character was replaced was a compliant, gullible, and weak mindset that left him defenseless. Basically making Alex a drone of the government for whatever they needed him to do, which is visible in the end of the film when he agrees with the experiment’s director, the same man who put him through the misery that landed him homeless, defenseless, and hospitalized, to help him and government. Alex may not have wanted to help him but the reality is he is no longer in a position to bargain or make decisions for himself. His decisions are the government’s decisions; his ideology is the government’s ideology.
It is evident in today’s world where government has begun working towards securing the future of themselves and their preferred society, as seen with the high standards they have instituted for the performance of schools, according to Randy Martin. Regardless of its growing age and changing viewership, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange will continue to be a relevant piece of work, coinciding with the ideas of Randy Martin and Louis Althusser.

Works Cited
Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and ideological State Apparatuses." La Pensee (1970): 1-42. Monthly Review Press. 5 Oct. 2009. <http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm>
A Clockwork Orange. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Warner Bros., 1971.
Martin, Randy. "Where Did the Future Go?" Logos 5.1 (2006): 1-12. Logosonline. 5 Oct. 2009 <http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_5.1/martin.htm>