Behavioral conditioning is unacceptable

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2005)

Behaviorist B.F. Skinner's book 1971 book "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" was controversial. Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" is a great answer to Skinner, and a stunning accomplishment.
Briefly, Skinner argued that man is the product of behavioral forces and influences whether or not man consciously likes or approves; therefore, why not accept this, and use it to mold a "technology of behavior" which would be consistent with generally agreed social values (including, for example, repudiation of coercion as a behavioral tool). This "technology of behavior" would replace the socially inadequate (and undirected) processes which now exist; without such a technology, Skinner argues, man as a species may not be equipped to meet critical problems in the future, problems exacerbated by current scientific and technological progress.
Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" argues that a technology of behavior simply won't be accepted in principle, regardless of whether or not it is a good idea. Set at some point in the future -- perhaps 50 or 100 years -- the film tells the story of Alex, a young delinquent who roves the streets with his gang. He is caught, sent to prison, and given a treatment to cure his aggressive impulses. After the treatment, he is unable to either defend himself physically, respond sexually, or listen to his formerly favorite music, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (an inadvertent side effect of the treatment, since the background score during his reconditioning was a pop version of the Ninth). Significantly, the fourth movement of the Ninth contains Beethoven's setting of a Schiller poem titled "Ode to Joy." Released, Alex is very much adrift; after a suicide attempt, he recuperates to the point where he finds himself able to listen to the Ninth, and, at the same time, have a sexual fantasy. Left unanswered is whether Alex's criminal inclinations have also reverted.
The violence inflicted by Alex and his gang at the beginning of the film is so extreme and merciless, that the (normal) viewer is bound to be revolted by it all. Therefore, it is a peculiarly brilliant and perverse twist that Kubrick manages to make us feel it a triumph when Alex overcomes his reconditioning at the end. By setting up such an extreme situation, where virtually everyone in the audience would condemn Alex's activities, Kubrick has placed the issue of free will versus behavioral conditioning in the forefront. There are no mitigating circumstances in Alex's behavior to confuse us morally; if ever anyone should be reconditioned, Alex is the candidate. Thus, what a shock to discover in ourselves the feeling that even if Alex becomes a criminal again, it would be preferable. That's why Kubrick left the question of Alex's criminality unanswered at the end. We answer it for him, and that's even more disturbing than the passive experience of seeing it depicted on the screen. It is not only Alex's will which resists reconditioning -- it is our own.
In all of this, Kubrick carefully assumes a morally neutral posture. He is not arguing the merits of behavioral reconditioning so much as the possibility of accomplishing it at all, given human nature. It should be noted here, however, that Skinner emphasizes positive reinforcement, whereas the reconditioning in "A Clockwork Orange" involves negative reinforcement. Skinnerians would argue that Clockwork's reconditioning was just a bad job, and that's why the viewer rejects it in principle.
As in his other films, Kubrick again proves himself to be a master of extrapolation. Artistically, he is drawn to extreme situations, to circumstances and settings so polarized so that the issues or themes are especially clearly defined. "Paths of Glory" examined a suicidal attack order by the French in WWI; "Spartacus" dealt with a desperate slave revolt; "Lolita" with Humbert Humbert's obsession with his nymphet; "Dr. Strangelove" with the absurd and insane prospect of nuclear war; and "2001: A Space Odyssey" with the evolution of a future "superman." In the latter, Kubrick created the future by meticulous technological detail, by extension from what exists in the present. In "A Clockwork Orange" he applies the same principle, only instead of extrapolating from technology, he extrapolates from current value systems and trends in human interaction. There is little reliance on extraneous visual paraphernalia; the future is evoked by the social climate, by shifts in the way people act and react to various situations. Nevertheless, these actions are recognizable, for they are in fact extensions or exaggerations of elements which exist in the present. That's why we believe in the settings which Kubrick creates, in a way that we could never believe in, say, "Barbarella" or "Flash Gordon". For Kubrick, the emphasis in science fiction is on the fiction, not the science. He uses future settings as a convenient tool to create his art, not simply as an exercise for the imagination.
At times, "A Clockwork Orange" seems to broach upon the subliminal, though never quite strays in. For example, after his treatment and release, Alex meets in succession all the characters he'd abused in the first part of the film -- and they proceed to pay him back with interest. These encounters are too much to be explained as coincidences -- there's design in this, the kind of design which is usually attributed to dreams.
Because of this borderline level of consciousness, as well as Alex's personality, "A Clockwork Orange" invites comparison to Fellini's "Satyricon". In both films, the protagonists start out as hedonistic, corrupt youths, and in both, they undergo changes. But a major difference between the two films is that Satyricon's protagonist grows and changes voluntarily, as a result of his experiences, whereas Alex is changed by means of reconditioning -- and then reverts. Taken together, these two films complement each other over a broad spectrum of personality development: one, a trip into a hedonistic past, the other, into a hedonistic future; both examine good and evil, growth and change, and the processes by which these may or may not occur.