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  • Essay / An article about the film A Clockwork Orange – 1971

    Liberalism and neoliberalism attempt to create a world order without wars with international organizations, a world government, in which all states are cooperative rather than competitive and without borders, especially on an economic and comprehensive level. of freedom. This is possible because they believe that human nature is not evil, but is good and useful. Although anarchism similarly believes that human nature is good, it asserts that there is no need for a government or state. He totally rejects the idea of ​​a world government. The human being himself is sufficient in himself to live happily according to the anarchist idea. In summary, as he mentioned, anarchism rejects in these terms the dominant theories and their later new versions. This critical theory affects many people and has been discussed in many books and films. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayOne of them is “A Clockwork Orange” which will be reviewed in this article. "A Clockwork Orange" is the film based on the novel of the same name written by John Burgess Wilson or Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) in 1962. At that time, Burgess became ill and needed to earn money, and at because of this, when he was writing to get paid, suddenly he created his frightening dystopia which deeply affected many people. The dystopian novel was adapted into a 136-minute American film of the same name by perfectionist director Stanley Kubrick in 1971. It was nominated for four Academy Awards and won numerous other awards. The story is about the long journey of a possibly disgusting young boy, Alex, from a horrible gangster lifestyle to prison, and from prison to a robotic lifestyle dictated by the state. This film is favored as anarchist but in reality in the film anarchism is not spoken about directly, in particular individualist anarchism can be seen rather than an anarchist revolution which attempts to destroy and eliminate the power of the state. It will be analyzed in several parts comparing and explaining with the theory of anarchism. At the beginning of the story, four young schoolchildren play the role of gangsters who do not care about the rules and order of society. These boys drink drugged milk every night, in a terrifying bar where there are many naked female bodies used as tables, which incites them to attack the lives and rights of innocent people. There is no exceptional night when boys extort someone, steal valuable watches or diamonds and rape women. Firstly, there is of course the state, but it is too weak. No one obeys the rules, especially young boys, and what's more, there are many gangs of school-age male human beings. And another point that stands out is sexuality in the story. The human body, both male and female, has no value and no one respects it. All walls, houses and bars are filled with images of naked human bodies and sexual organs such as portraits and statues. In short, the system is damaged and the atmosphere is very worrying. To relate it to anarchism, in reality this type of lifestyle is not directly related to anarchist theory. Because he sees that human beings are good and that when they become completely free from state pressure, human beings come into contact with others, cooperate and create a beautiful and peaceful world. However, in the film, the bad boys go on a rampage when they sense a decline in the strength of the state, as realism predicts. The drunk old man on the street who is beaten by these young people in the first scene says that there is no respect forthe oldest because there is neither order nor rule. This directly reflects the anarchy within the country and the anarchy stimulates the wickedness of the people and creates conflicts exactly the opposite of what anarchism says. Additionally, the same night, the gang fights against another gang who surprises a young woman and attempts to rape her. Then Alex and his boys enter the house of an old author and his wife that night. The gang beats the man and rapes his wife who tries to help them while they say there is an accident and they need to call the ambulance to be able to enter the house. This whole story makes people horrified because anarchist theory never talks about these possibilities when people drive alone. He just talks about the beautiful cooperation and kindness of human beings but isn't that a bit utopian? The film shows all the realities. Another striking aspect of the film is that the anarchist boys have a hierarchy within each other. Alex is the leader and when they rebel against Alex, he shows his power and makes them obey his rules. He says that even in a small group of just four young people, there is a hierarchical order and even within this hierarchy, there are conflicts. So how can it be possible for all the peoples of the world to govern themselves without war? This question also shows how anarchism is a utopian idea. And according to the theory, human being is good and cooperative but at the end of the first part of the film, Alex and other boys break into a mansion and Alex kills the innocent lady who lives with her dozens of cats. His friends leave him alone and the cops arrest him. This totally challenges the idea of ​​anarchism, firstly a good human kills an innocent person and also cooperative human beings leave their friend alone although they are all criminals. This makes anarchism a frivolous idea that cannot be verified with real examples and makes criticism of anarchism and mainstream theories fallacious. After Alex's arrest, the second part of the film begins. He is first beaten at the police station for killing an innocent human, then he is sent to prison. He spends his two years with murderers, rapists and thieves but he is lucky because the prison priest takes him to help with the rituals. After some abuse from other prisoners, he is chosen for a state-controlled experiment aimed at making people forget and disgust the violence in themselves. In experience, many things are used on Alex. For example, he is first vaccinated, then doctors show him very disturbing photos and videos showing murders, bombs and rapes of innocent people. He is not allowed to blink while using a special machine on his eyes. Most of the time he screams but the show doesn't stop. At the end of the experiment, Alex is put on stage in front of the statesmen to show the result of the experiment. They create a man without savagery or violence as before. A man is sent to beat Alex in front of all the spectators and as they expect, Alex does not fight with the man when he attacks him. After this scene, a naked woman is sent in and Alex doesn't even look at her. The entire public applauds him as they stand up because the State achieves its objective. She creates an angel from a murderer. The whole story since here is totally rejected by anarchism because the theory almost rejects the idea of ​​the state, but in these scenes the state itself uses its power on a weak human being who chooses to be evil with its own will and transforms into a good robotic creature without will. This is not only something that needs to be eliminated, it is also an immoral thing. While anarchism asserts thatthe state must leave people alone and it is an institution that must be gotten rid of, on the contrary, the state begins to resort to illegitimate and immoral experiments on its citizens. According to anarchism, conflict cannot be overcome by using power. If people are given a chance in full freedom, they choose to be good, but under state government, they cannot enjoy their freedom and rights, which causes conflict. The state has failed to establish order over citizens and in the international domain and will not succeed by using its immoral authority and corrupt power over the free will of human beings. In the film there is a guy who thinks like this: the state cannot use a person as a test subject. The State cannot take the right to choose to be good or bad according to the will of the citizens. -In fact, according to anarchism, there should be no citizenship.- This creates classes and differences between people as rulers and ruled. Who is this guy? The man is the author at the beginning of the film, when he writes something, there is a knock on his door and the stars of the stories - the four boys - come and enter his house and beat him and rape his wife, and also afterwards this violence, his wife commits suicide. He is not aware of it but with his ideas he helps Alex who is a brutal murderer and rapist. But he doesn't really know Alex. If he knows it, does he continue to try to stop the State's experiment? In fact, it is a directly anarchist idea that when someone beats another, there is nothing to stop this violence because the state is eliminated. In fact, the theory says that there will be no violence, but that's human nature, how can we believe that? In this film, this is questioned. Also, the third and final part of the film will provide an answer. After his release from prison, he is unable to adapt to his new life. He is beaten again by police officers and thrown around the author's home. He comes back to this house and is taken inside. At first the authors don't remember him, but after a while he recognizes who he is. After a while, he causes Alex to be shocked and throw himself out of the window. He is doing this for two reasons, first he is trying to use this suicide against this state demand and the other reason is to take revenge on his wife. Alex is injured and the suicide is written up in the newspapers as a failure of the government. At the end of the story, the president comes to Alex in the hospital and tries to bribe him to keep him from speaking to the newspapers against the government. All of these scenes show that theories, especially anarchism in the film, are sometimes fallible, so having big ideas, especially utopian ones, makes that fallibility even greater. First of all, the author is a human being and has desires, so he betrays his thoughts and spends his life as a young boy to take revenge on Alex himself and take advantage of his condition. Anarchism fails here because it asserts that human beings are good and cooperative rather than selfish. The defender of the theory first betrays the idea. Of course, the state also fails, but it does not verify the anarchist idea. Anarchism tries to protect human freedom, but the state also tries to protect human rights and security. In the end, the story shows all the complexity of theories and realities. From a general point of view, anarchism is a utopian theory while it has good prospects for life and order. As mentioned in the story, human being cannot be known exactly or defined as good by anarchist and liberal/neoliberal theories or bad by realist theory. In fact, as Kenneth Waltz says, human beings can be both, but.