Eliminating Risk, Risking Profit

Eliminating Risk, Risking Profit

Under the guise of public good, society can control the everyday lives of individuals through political laws and social ideology, which in many cases is centered around financial profit. In Louis Althusser’s “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” he critically analyzes the effect of repression by the ruling class, or capitalist class, on society at large. Similarly, in “Where Did the Future Go?” Randy Martin exposes this through the present consequences of financialization and “imperialism’s renaissance” (Martin 2). In Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian film, A Clockwork Orange, these ideas are embodied through society’s totalitarian control over the prevention of violence.

A Clockwork Orange follows the journey of Alex DeLarge, a young delinquent that belongs to the working class of society. Instead of attending school, Alex and his gang of “droogs” participate in unnecessary acts of violence especially towards those in the upper class. To Alex and his droogs violence is so enjoyable that inflicting pain on others brings them great pleasure. Although there is more than obvious disorder present through this pleasure, the disorder is multiplied through the actions the state takes against Alex to control his violent tendencies.

In accordance with Althusser’s “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”, after imprisonment Alex becomes a by-product of the “reproduction of the relations of production” (Althusser 48). Alex is sentenced to prison in order to be reproduced into a functioning, productive member of society. The prison is what Althusser, according to Marxist theory, would refer to as a Repressive State Apparatus. The State Appararatus, which includes, “the Government, the Administration, the Army, the Police, the Courts, the Prisons, etc.” (Althusser 11) functions to “ensure subjection to the ruling ideology” (Althusser 5). In this case, the state apparatus tries to repress and eliminate violence in any sense. This repression of violence to an exponential degree makes it all the more appealing and pleasurable to the rebels of society, or those who go against the ruling ideology. In order to eliminate even the probability of violence, the government comes up with a source of experimentation, or risk, which will link violence with feelings of sickness and helplessness in the delinquents’ mind. After undergoing a series of torturous experiments Alex subconsciously links violence with physical illness and pain. The repression of the State Apparatus is magnified by this inhumane experimentation that altogether eliminates choice and free will. Alex has not undergone a moral transformation but is thrown back into society incapable of future violence to become a non-threatening functioning member of society. The irony is that without freedom of choice, Alex is incapable of functioning in society.

According to Althusser, “no class can hold State power over a long period without at the same time exercising its hegemony over and in the State Ideological Appartus” (Althusser 42), which includes private schools, families, and churches. In A Clockwork Orange the ruling ideology is present in Alex’s family life. The DeLarge’s are ashamed of Alex who does not comply with the ruling ideology and are quick to exchange him for a more productive member of society, one that is socially and financially beneficial to them. In this futuristic dystopia, the institution of family is subconsciously controlled by the ruling, or capitalist, ideology.

In Randy Martin’s “Where Did the Future Go?”, “emancipation [is said to have] a price, really a value with its attendant political economy” (Martin 2). Alex’s freedom is based upon his compliance to the ruling ideology or so called political economy. The political economy in this case is intertwined with the repression of violence. Similar to Martin’s example of “’A Nation at Risk’ which fingered low test scores among public school children as a threat to national security via compromised market competitiveness” (Martin 4), in “A Clockwork Orange” this national threat is violence. Like the “new regime of discipline and punish, with tightly controlled content standards, [which] turned education into a battlefield” (Martin 4), the government tries to eliminate future violence in order to produce a financially and socially beneficial product of society. In essence, the government eliminates the future risk of violence in order to produce a more manageable and peaceful present environment. Ultimately, the government strips Alex of his freewill, his identity, in order to rid violence as a threat to national security.

In the U.S. today, many political and social motives are centered around financialization. In order to allow present purchases encouragement in investments in future finances, such as mortgages or government bonds, was ever increasing. This is what aided in the crash of our present economy. Not only did this affect the U.S., but other nations of the world. Iraq, a nation that was supposedly a threat to national security, has become subjected to the social, political, and economic demands of the U.S. under the guise of good will and the so called public good. Although “George W. is never going to give a press conference in which he proclaims that capital made him do it” (Martin 9), it has become increasingly evident that an obsession with economic gain is the predominant motive. Like in A Clockwork Orange, the U.S. is trying to eliminate the future problems, through present risk. With Alex as an example, unfortunately, in many cases the risk outweighs the profit.

Works Cited

A Clockwork Orange. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. 1971. DVD.

Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and ideological State Apparatuses." La Pensee (1970): 1-42. Web. 4 Oct. 2009. .

Martin, Randy. "Where Did the Future Go?" Logos 5.1 (2006): 1-12. Web. 4 Oct. 2009 .