00:00:00
perhaps one of the strangest
00:00:01
protagonists in film history is Alex De
00:00:05
large from Stanley Kubrick's film
00:00:07
adaptation of A Clockwork Orange He is a
00:00:09
violent criminal who does unspeakably
00:00:11
horrific things to innocent people yet
00:00:14
we are meant to sympathize with him when
00:00:16
he is victimized by the state we're left
00:00:18
wondering how has he become such an
00:00:20
iconic figure why is he so fascinating
00:00:23
he's certainly not a hero there are no
00:00:26
heroes in A Clockwork Orange
00:00:28
nor is he even an anti-hero he is a
00:00:31
villain
00:00:32
he's a colorful figure in a world of
00:00:35
Grays standing out in stark contrast to
00:00:38
the compliant class of people around him
00:00:40
who live docile obedient lives Alex by
00:00:44
contrast is a man of desires of will of
00:00:46
strangely refined taste loving in
00:00:49
particular the music of Beethoven to a
00:00:52
religious degree and when you think
00:00:54
about it that's not really surprising
00:00:57
[Music]
00:01:00
Ludwig van Beethoven remains perhaps the
00:01:03
greatest figure of single rebellion in
00:01:05
the history of Music practically
00:01:07
spawning an entire movement within
00:01:09
classical music almost single-handedly
00:01:12
by ushering in the Romantic Period a
00:01:15
musical movement that reflected the
00:01:17
upheavals of the broader Romantic
00:01:19
Movement in art poetry and philosophy
00:01:22
figures like novales Gerta and Schiller
00:01:26
rejected the cold modern rationalism of
00:01:28
the Enlightenment exemplified by
00:01:31
thinkers like Descartes who had seen
00:01:33
animals as mere machines The Romantics
00:01:36
by contrast celebrated a new modern
00:01:39
emotionalism which idealized pathos
00:01:42
the quaintly prim serenades amusing
00:01:44
divertimenti and symmetrically tranquil
00:01:47
Symphonies of The Classical period gave
00:01:49
way in Beethoven's music to the revelry
00:01:52
of giants convention gave way to
00:01:54
Innovation the crowning achievement of
00:01:57
innovation being Beethoven's Ninth
00:01:59
Symphony which features crucially in A
00:02:02
Clockwork Orange
00:02:04
oh it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity
00:02:07
made flesh
00:02:10
bird of rarest spun Heaven metal
00:02:13
like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship
00:02:17
gravity all nonsense now in its final
00:02:20
movement Beethoven did something that no
00:02:23
other Symphony had ever done that no one
00:02:25
had ever dreamed of doing instead of
00:02:27
merely using instruments it used human
00:02:30
voices the symphony became a song
00:02:32
adapting the words of Friedrich
00:02:34
Schiller's poem
00:02:36
Ode to Joy
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[Music]
00:02:39
Joy beautiful spark of divinity daughter
00:02:43
of Elysium we enter burning with fervor
00:02:46
Heavenly being your sanctuary
00:02:49
The Ninth Symphony has a particularly
00:02:51
powerful meeting for Alex it defines his
00:02:54
character as exuberantly Joyful Joyful
00:02:57
Beyond any other character in the film
00:02:59
and indeed perhaps more joyful than
00:03:01
anyone we know in real life in this
00:03:04
respect Alex is fascinating because he
00:03:07
possesses and attains something utterly
00:03:09
unique like an athlete who can perform
00:03:11
Feats that no one else can or natural
00:03:14
beauty that only occurs in rare places
00:03:16
Alex holds our attention because he has
00:03:18
a kind of joyfulness that is strange and
00:03:21
wonderful the very word Charisma denotes
00:03:23
not only attractiveness and charm that
00:03:26
inspires others it also implies that the
00:03:28
charismatic person is attractive
00:03:30
precisely because they possess a sui
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generous power or talent that has been
00:03:36
bestowed upon them by a god his
00:03:38
superpower setting him Above the Rest of
00:03:41
humanity is his ability to Revel in evil
00:03:44
more than everyone else is able to Revel
00:03:47
in the good maybe this revolts us but it
00:03:50
also fascinates us like an abyss we
00:03:53
can't look away from the thing that
00:03:54
spells our doom and we find in it in odd
00:03:57
Beauty not in any beneficence but in the
00:04:01
form of its raw power when it comes to
00:04:03
this raw Charisma it doesn't matter that
00:04:06
Alex is a depraved scoundrel the power
00:04:08
of Joy doesn't discriminate between good
00:04:11
and evil as Schiller's poem States Every
00:04:14
Creature drinks in Joy at Nature's
00:04:17
breast good and evil alike follow her
00:04:20
trail of roses she gives us kisses and
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wine a true friend even in death even
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the worm was given desire and the Cherub
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stands before God
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regardless of morality Joy is what
00:04:34
allows a person to possess his soul and
00:04:37
call it his own Alex as a
00:04:39
preter-naturally enthusiastic person
00:04:42
seems to have more of a soul than those
00:04:45
around him
00:04:48
at least until he is conditioned by the
00:04:50
state
00:04:51
when he is no longer able to enjoy the
00:04:53
Ninth Symphony he ceases to be a
00:04:55
passionate and joyful person at the end
00:04:58
of the film when he is once more able to
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enjoy the ninth he is cured
00:05:03
if Alex's Free Will was taken away it
00:05:06
wasn't because scientists hacked his
00:05:08
brain or found the neurons where Choice
00:05:10
happens and rewired them it's because
00:05:13
his ability to be joyful was taken away
00:05:15
even the worm was given desire according
00:05:19
to Schiller but without desire humans
00:05:23
don't even rise to the level of worms
00:05:25
without the Rapture of all conquering
00:05:27
Joy our agency and personality begin to
00:05:31
freeze over a lie dormant
00:05:35
in his essay on the pathetic Schiller
00:05:38
further explains why we have this
00:05:41
attraction even admiration for truly
00:05:44
evil characters in stories he argues
00:05:48
that in order for us to be truly gripped
00:05:50
by any character that character must at
00:05:53
the very least be capable of good but in
00:05:56
order to be capable of good they must be
00:05:59
free and in order to be free they must
00:06:01
have energy force of will and power
00:06:04
within themselves thus rights Schiller
00:06:07
the degree of aesthetical energy with
00:06:10
which Sublime feelings and Sublime acts
00:06:12
take possession of our souls rests on
00:06:16
the interests of the imagination which
00:06:18
requires Conformity with good should be
00:06:20
possible or in other terms that no
00:06:23
feeling however strong should oppress
00:06:25
the freedom of the Soul now this
00:06:28
possibility is found in every act that
00:06:30
testifies with energy to Liberty and to
00:06:33
the force of the will and if the poet
00:06:35
meets with an action of this kind it
00:06:38
matters little where he has a subject
00:06:40
suitable for his art to him and to the
00:06:43
interest we have in him it is quite the
00:06:46
same to take his hero in one class of
00:06:48
characters or in another among the good
00:06:50
or the wicked as it often requires as
00:06:53
much strength of character to do evil
00:06:55
conscientiously and persistently as to
00:06:59
do good if a proof be required that in
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our aesthetic judgments we attend more
00:07:04
to the force than to the direction to
00:07:07
its freedom than to its lawfulness this
00:07:10
is sufficient for our evidence we prefer
00:07:13
to see force and freedom manifest
00:07:15
themselves at the cost of moral
00:07:18
regularity rather than regularity at the
00:07:21
cost of freedom and strength this is
00:07:24
certainly true of Alex De large most
00:07:26
people would rather see someone with the
00:07:29
strength of character to do something
00:07:31
truly evil rather than to be bored by
00:07:33
people who are harmless because they are
00:07:35
a robotic lazy lethargic or cowardly
00:07:38
grazing cattle don't make great stories
00:07:41
people who have no force of will cannot
00:07:44
be truly good or interesting whereas a
00:07:48
person who does have the force of
00:07:49
character to do something truly evil at
00:07:51
least has the possibility of being good
00:07:54
and they certainly do pique our interest
00:07:57
a vicious person continues Schiller
00:07:59
begins to interest us as soon as he must
00:08:01
risk his happiness and Life to carry out
00:08:04
his perverse designs on the contrary a
00:08:08
virtuous person loses in proportion as
00:08:11
he finds it useful to be virtuous
00:08:14
because the vices which show a great
00:08:17
force of will evidently announce a
00:08:19
greater aptitude for real moral Liberty
00:08:22
than do virtues which borrow support
00:08:25
from inclination seeing that it only
00:08:28
requires of the man who persistently
00:08:29
does evil to gain a single victory over
00:08:32
himself one simple upset over his maxims
00:08:35
to gain Ever After to the service of
00:08:38
virtue his whole plan of life and all
00:08:41
the force of will which he lavished on
00:08:43
evil thus in the aesthetic judgment that
00:08:47
which excites our interest is not
00:08:49
morality itself but Liberty alone and
00:08:52
moral Purity can only please our
00:08:54
imagination when it places in relief the
00:08:57
forces of the will in other words to be
00:09:00
truly good requires ferocious moral
00:09:03
energy only immense energy can resist
00:09:06
evil or our own weakness we are more
00:09:09
sympathetic with the evil like Alex than
00:09:12
with people around him because Alex is
00:09:15
the only person in the story who has the
00:09:17
force of character that would enable him
00:09:20
to be truly good if he were willing to
00:09:23
change whereas everyone else in the
00:09:25
story is language mechanical malleable
00:09:28
and harmless by comparison and as such
00:09:31
cannot without a radical change be truly
00:09:34
good if all of this is true and force of
00:09:38
character really is this important where
00:09:40
does this immense energy and power of
00:09:43
Personality come from it's difficult to
00:09:46
say the source of this river is as
00:09:48
difficult to find as was that of the
00:09:50
Nile and it's no doubt fed by many
00:09:52
tributaries the act of extravagant
00:09:55
devotion like the river or Rolling Stone
00:09:58
accumulates momentum and force in itself
00:10:01
the more it is fed or pushed one is
00:10:05
swept up by something outside himself
00:10:07
and Alex loses himself in Beethoven and
00:10:10
finds a near mystical guidance in the
00:10:12
music of Rossini when he's caught in
00:10:15
indecision it's only when he hears that
00:10:17
music that he immediately knows what to
00:10:19
do well now it was lovely music that
00:10:22
came to my Aid there was a window open
00:10:25
with a stereo on and I did it right at
00:10:28
once what to do
00:10:30
he enacts inquisitions in the name of
00:10:34
his devotion the very reason he and his
00:10:36
drugs beat the old homeless man the very
00:10:39
first Act of brutality in the film is
00:10:42
because the old man sounds grading when
00:10:45
he sings It's offensive to good music
00:10:48
and Alex says he can't stand the howling
00:10:50
of drunkards comparing it to a filthy
00:10:53
old Orchestra in stinking rotten guts
00:10:56
this is an important reminder that
00:10:58
contrary to Schiller's own hopes the
00:11:01
highest artistic beauty is not by itself
00:11:04
able to make us good not even when we
00:11:07
love it with abandon as Kubrick himself
00:11:09
pointed out saying I think this suggests
00:11:12
the failure of culture to have any
00:11:14
morally refining effects on society
00:11:17
Hitler loved good music and many top
00:11:20
Nazis were cultured and sophisticated
00:11:22
men but it didn't do them or anyone else
00:11:25
much good if there is a beauty that can
00:11:27
save the world it must be a beauty Far
00:11:30
Beyond art and culture and if Joy can
00:11:33
make us human it cannot make us
00:11:35
righteous without an unworldly righteous
00:11:38
object Alex's Shadow Anthem cast in the
00:11:41
shade of his Ode to Joy is funeral music
00:11:44
music for the funeral of Queen Mary by
00:11:47
Henry Purcell
00:11:50
foreign
00:11:55
which he whistles on the way home from a
00:11:57
night of Ultraviolence
00:12:00
[Music]
00:12:04
indicative not only of what he has done
00:12:07
to others but what will be done to him
00:12:11
one of the early test subjects described
00:12:13
it as being like death sense of stifling
00:12:16
or drowning
00:12:18
the music plays on the soundtrack as he
00:12:20
becomes a creature who is incapable of
00:12:22
either evil or good insinuating that the
00:12:26
ludovico technique by taking away his
00:12:28
passion and freedom and ability to
00:12:30
worship Beethoven has killed him he
00:12:33
ceases to be a wrongdoer he ceases also
00:12:36
to be a creature capable of moral choice
00:12:40
and again as he is beaten by the police
00:12:44
and again when he is in the hospital
00:12:46
after attempting to bid farewell to the
00:12:48
cruel cruel world
00:12:50
[Music]
00:12:54
in Brave New World Aldous Huxley argues
00:12:57
that individuality forcefulness of
00:12:59
character and Liberty both political
00:13:02
Liberty and freedom of Will Spring from
00:13:05
the idea of in connection with God which
00:13:08
in a perverted sense is true even of
00:13:11
Alex De large he has a God or gods in
00:13:15
the form of music Beethoven being the
00:13:17
foremost God whom he worships the
00:13:20
umbilical Act of devotion is what
00:13:22
energizes him and guides him and gives
00:13:24
him freedom in the midst of a herd-like
00:13:27
society in huxley's novel The worshiper
00:13:30
Dynamic is played out by a character
00:13:32
named John Savage an outsider who was
00:13:35
raised on a Native American reservation
00:13:37
in New Mexico unlike the citizens of the
00:13:40
Brave New World who were engineered in
00:13:43
Labs carefully conditioned and given no
00:13:46
conception of the supernatural he was
00:13:48
exposed to the worship of several Native
00:13:50
American deities as well as the
00:13:52
corrupted worship of Jesus self although
00:13:55
on the deepest level John feels a
00:13:58
connection with the Divine through
00:14:00
nature and the natural world which for
00:14:02
him is the Incarnation of a Divine being
00:14:05
the visible presence of God
00:14:08
and as something that somewhat reflects
00:14:11
the beauty of the natural world John
00:14:14
takes up the collected works of
00:14:15
Shakespeare as a kind of scripture whose
00:14:18
Beauty and profundity guide his actions
00:14:20
and help him make sense of the world
00:14:22
when John is brought back to England to
00:14:25
the conditioned dystopia where everyone
00:14:27
is happy he not only stands out as being
00:14:29
drastically different from everyone else
00:14:31
but he gradually becomes horrified at
00:14:34
what he sees in his view Humanity has
00:14:37
completely degraded itself with Pleasant
00:14:40
vices in the name of attaining a Utopia
00:14:44
the world controller Mustafa Monde
00:14:47
disagrees saying that new human beings
00:14:50
aren't degraded at all in fact as a
00:14:53
happy hard-working goods-consuming
00:14:56
citizen modern people are perfect of
00:14:59
course if you choose some other standard
00:15:01
than ours then perhaps you might say he
00:15:03
was degraded but you've got to stick to
00:15:06
one set of postulates you can't play one
00:15:08
game by by the rules of another John
00:15:11
rejects this moral relativism with the
00:15:14
words of Shakespeare quoting from
00:15:15
troilus and Cressida but value dwells
00:15:18
not in particular will said the Savage
00:15:21
it holds his estimate and dignity as
00:15:24
well wherein his precious of itself as
00:15:26
in the prizer if you allowed yourselves
00:15:29
to think of God you wouldn't allow
00:15:31
yourselves to be degraded by Pleasant
00:15:33
vices you'd have a reason for bearing
00:15:36
things patiently for doing things with
00:15:38
courage
00:15:39
the world controller surprisingly admits
00:15:43
that there probably is a God but since
00:15:46
everyone is happy now there is no longer
00:15:49
any need for patience or courage and
00:15:51
consequently there is no need for God
00:15:54
in fact God would upset the perfect
00:15:57
social order there isn't any need for
00:15:59
the Civilized man to Bear anything
00:16:01
that's seriously unpleasant and as for
00:16:04
doing things well it would upset the
00:16:06
whole social order if men starting doing
00:16:08
things on their own John continues to
00:16:10
press his point that if they had God
00:16:13
then God himself would be reason enough
00:16:16
to reject Pleasant vices and easy
00:16:19
happiness even if you didn't have to by
00:16:22
necessity if you had a god you'd have a
00:16:25
reason for self-denial you'd have a
00:16:27
reason for Chastity the world controller
00:16:29
responds that first of all industrial
00:16:32
society only works when there's no
00:16:34
self-denial and for another thing
00:16:36
Chastity would require passion and
00:16:40
passion and neurosthesia mean
00:16:42
instability and instability means the
00:16:45
end of civilization you can't have a
00:16:47
lasting civilization without plenty of
00:16:50
pleasant vices
00:16:51
but God's the reason for everything
00:16:53
Noble says the Savage everything fine
00:16:56
and heroic if you had a God my dear
00:17:00
young friend said Mustafa Monde
00:17:02
civilization has absolutely no need of
00:17:05
nobility or heroism where there are Wars
00:17:09
where there are divided allegiances
00:17:11
where there are Temptations to be
00:17:12
resisted objects of love to be fought
00:17:14
for or defended they're obviously
00:17:17
nobility and heroism have some sense but
00:17:20
there aren't any wars nowadays the
00:17:22
greatest care is taken to prevent you
00:17:24
from loving anyone too much there's no
00:17:27
such thing as a divided Allegiance
00:17:29
you're so conditioned that you can't
00:17:31
help doing what you ought to do and if
00:17:34
ever by some unlucky chance anything
00:17:37
unpleasant should somehow happen why
00:17:39
there's always some Soma to give you a
00:17:42
holiday from the facts the dark reality
00:17:45
of Brave New World is that it is in fact
00:17:48
not a Utopia but rather a dreadful
00:17:51
Society where negativity unhappiness and
00:17:54
a more profound despair are constantly
00:17:57
pushing their way in and they are
00:17:59
constantly held at Bay by using the drug
00:18:02
called soma which not only banishes all
00:18:06
negative feeling but helps keep people
00:18:08
subdued and controllable John tries to
00:18:11
cut to the core of this medicated
00:18:13
pseudo-utopian Misery by arguing that
00:18:16
human life needs struggle and sacrifice
00:18:19
what you need the Savage went on is
00:18:22
something with tears for a change
00:18:25
nothing costs enough here exposing what
00:18:28
is mortal and unsure to all that fortune
00:18:31
death and danger dare even for an
00:18:33
eggshell isn't there something in that
00:18:35
he asked looking up at Mustafa Monde
00:18:39
quite apart from God though of course
00:18:41
God would be a reason for it isn't there
00:18:44
something in living dangerously again
00:18:47
surprisingly the world controller admits
00:18:50
that there is in order to be healthy he
00:18:52
says human beings must have their
00:18:55
adrenals stimulated from time to time
00:18:57
even in this purportedly perfect Society
00:19:00
a person's system has to be artificially
00:19:03
flooded with adrenaline once a month
00:19:06
providing them with pure Sublime
00:19:08
excitement without any inconvenient
00:19:11
consequences as the world controller
00:19:13
says we prefer to do things comfortably
00:19:16
but I don't want Comfort says John I
00:19:19
want God I want poetry I want real
00:19:22
danger I want freedom I want goodness I
00:19:25
want sin in fact said Mustafa Monde
00:19:28
you're claiming the right to be unhappy
00:19:30
all right then said the Savage defiantly
00:19:33
I'm claiming the right to be unhappy not
00:19:37
to mention the right to grow old and
00:19:40
ugly and impotent the right to have
00:19:42
syphilis and cancer right to have too
00:19:44
little to eat the right to be lousy the
00:19:46
right to live in constant apprehension
00:19:48
of what may happen tomorrow the right to
00:19:51
catch typhoid the right to be tortured
00:19:53
by unspeakable Pains of every kind
00:19:56
there was a long silence
00:19:58
I claim them all said the Savage at last
00:20:05
now we seem to have arrived at a paradox
00:20:08
we begin with the idea that humans need
00:20:11
joy in order to be fully fledged selves
00:20:14
now we are arguing that fully fledged
00:20:17
humans must equally have the right to be
00:20:19
unhappy
00:20:21
but these two are not necessarily at
00:20:23
odds indeed Buddhism is correct in
00:20:26
identifying desire and passion as
00:20:29
sources of suffering and joy too must
00:20:31
exist alongside suffering on this
00:20:34
account if the kind of happiness that
00:20:37
exists in the Brave New World contains
00:20:39
contentment and good feelings it has no
00:20:42
hint whatsoever of anything like
00:20:44
triumphant revelry or blinding Joy
00:20:48
true Joy requires a certain Freedom a
00:20:52
certain awareness of what it is doing a
00:20:55
knowledge of its object the possibility
00:20:57
of failure a leap that cannot be had
00:21:00
without a fall here we are sorrowful yet
00:21:04
always rejoicing in all our Affliction
00:21:07
we are overflowing with joy
00:21:10
here we have John Savage the conflicted
00:21:13
penitent emancipated in sorrow and Alex
00:21:17
delarge the depraved beethovenian the
00:21:20
evolved romantic the byronic anti-hero
00:21:23
taken to its most corrupt extreme
00:21:26
Unshackled in Joy fundamentally
00:21:29
fascinating because he is beastly yet
00:21:33
through his beastliness shines something
00:21:36
that is far more human than we ourselves
00:21:39
have ever known we feel that if we could
00:21:42
separate this gold from this dross if we
00:21:45
could shake off such soiled robes in
00:21:48
exchange for the clean and possess a joy
00:21:51
draped in Perfect Purity
00:21:54
then
00:21:55
we would begin to live