Aside from being one of my favorite films, A Clockwork Orange is a lesson on society, management of society, and freedom. The book, more than the film, drives this home. The film, however, does outline some important aspects of choice and what happens when you reduce or limit the choices available to society and/or the individual.
Alex DeLarge suggests the man who chooses to be bad may be better than the one forced to be good, since at least a choice was made. This concept completely underlines my opposition to Socialism - because most people will choose to be good, while very few choose to be bad, if left to their own devices. In fact, the free market literally relies on good behavior, or it would fail on the whole. Without trust, the market is useless. The net result of the incentives provided by choice is increased productivity and value for all humanity. Alex lived in a Socialist world....and in being forced to be good, willingly chose to be evil, as it was the only choice he had available in a non-free society.
“By definition, a human being is endowed with free will. He can use this to choose between good and evil. If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange - meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or (since this is increasingly replacing both) the Almighty State. It is as inhuman to be totally good as it is to be totally evil. The important thing is moral choice. Evil has to exist along with good in order that moral choice may operate. Life is sustained by the grinding opposition of moral entities. This is what the television news is all about. Unfortunately there is so much original sin in us all that we find evil rather attractive. To devastate is easier and more spectacular than to create.”~Alex DeLarge
Alex was a creator, a creator of chaos within the order which was forced upon him. He, like most people, loved the process of creation. His form of creation, within the limits of the society he was raised, happened to be highly destructive.
