Today we're going to talk about the moral of the story or the central message
behind A Clockwork Orange.
As you know, the main character, Alex, is not the model citizen.
In fact, he's the opposite.
He's the worst person you could possibly imagine.
He's a murderer.
He's a rapist. He's a gang member and a sinner in every way.
In other words, a monster.
Nobody wants to be like him, and nobody should be like him.
The main plot behind Clockwork Orange is
that the moral choice gets taken away from him and he can no longer do violence.
Even in self-defense.
He becomes spineless and meek and he can't stick up for himself.
So, what happens?
Well, everyone in the town who he once wronged
victimizes him and he can't fight back.
This characteristic of meek, submissive persons
is one of the three people you can be.
First, he was a monster.
Then he became meek, or submissive and weak.
Obviously, the model citizen that you would strive to be
would be something in between monster and meek.
And that's what I would like to call a typical person.
Which is the last person you can be.
And that's all three types of people:
Meek, typical, and a monster.
But there's also a little lesson in the movie, too.
When Alex goes from monster to meek,
he wasn't better off.
He was actually worse off.
He became a total victim,
as well as anyone who tried to help him became a total victim.
The humiliation and torture that Alex endured was so bad
the federal government took his unconscious and almost dead tortured body
and did surgery on his brain to make him a bloodthirsty monster again.
Because they felt that it was for his best interests.
The movie is making a bold statement here.
Yes, it's bad to be like Alex the monster,
but it's even worse to be meek
or weak or unable to protect yourself or stick up for yourself and others.
At least, for the individual Alex as a whole.
So, the lesson the movie is really teaching here is not that evil is good
but more so that being meek is bad.
It's quite possibly best to be typical,
but leaning on the side of monster rather than leaning on the side of meekness.
Someone who can actively control his cruel impulses can actively use it when he needs to.
Which gives them the ability to actually stick up and defend themselves and their families.
Which are very important things.
That's better than to be meek and unable to take care of oneself or the people they look after.
In other words, those who have swords and know how to use them
but keep them sheathed until they actually need them
will inherit the world.
Let's say you're submissive and meek, right?
You allow monsters to feed on you and take advantage of you and your family.
Well, that's not preventing evil.
That's allowing evil to persist.
Being meek and weak will allow evil monsters to flourish in your society
and take advantage of you and feed off you and your family and others like you.
If meek and weak people didn't exist, then monsters couldn't thrive.
Weak victims or meek victims did almost nothing to prevent Alex from hurting them.
If they were more strong and had a little bit of monster in them themselves,
then they wouldn't become a victim.
They would prevent victimhood, in fact, by being stronger.
If you notice in the movie, too, that
that meekness,
when Alex was meek brought out the worst in everybody in the film.
In the film, even people that you knew were good people, good wholesome people,
well, once they found out how weak Alex was, they became evil.
So weakness even turns the the average citizen into a monster.
So it's important not to be meek or let people walk all over you.
So it's best to be typical leaning on the side of monster
so you can get on the monster's level on a split second and stop him in his tracks from being evil
and save the people that he's trying to hurt.
You preventing evil by not being meek and allowing evilness to happen to you,
that's preventing evil, too.
And being able to prevent evil from not just you but from those around you,
that's best for everyone. It gets rid of monsters altogether.
I think the movie's pretty clear about meek people
being the worst of the three types of people.
Let me know what you think.
But that's just my interpretation of the movie's message.
Do you think I'm wrong?
Do you think I'm right?
What do you believe the movie's message to actually be, if you disagree with me?
Let me know in the comment section.
Let me know if I hit the nail on the head here or if I missed.
Thank you for watching.
And remember: all that is necessary for the triumph of evil
is that good men do nothing.