Clockwork Orange as a sign of the times

When I first saw Clockwork Orange in 1971, I was so horrified and shocked that it took me 20 years before I could see it again, and another 12 months before I could really study it. Alex DeLarge is a truly bad, bad boy, and he does terrible things. But the message of this picture, is that people have a right to make their own choices about their lives--even if these are bad choices.

At the stroke of Midnight on Jan 31, no only does the old year pass away, but so does the right of people to smoke in public places. Now the national nannies will tell you that they are banning a still legal behavior for your own good and for the whole good of society. What really happened is that insurance companies, who are making more incursions into your life than you know, have made it less profitable for businesses to operate with a smoking section. And their next stop is your local restaurant, where they will decide for you what you can eat. The medical community in Great Britain is now experimenting with the practice of refusing to treat people who are physically fit. The theory seems to be that if you are fat, for example, you deserve to die of a heart attack.

In all of the second hand smoking studies, I have yet to see one that separates out the harmful events of our polluted environment. There is big money to be made when singling out one industry as the cause of a rise in lung and heart disease. Second hand smoke may indeed have negative effects. I have no problem with being relegated to a smoking section. I abide by the no-smoking rules of my friends who have seen the light and kicked the habit. But now I cannot smoke within 15 feet of a building and I promise you we will all go the way of California and smoking will be prohibited even in the privacy of one's own home.

I have no problem with indoor smoking bans, but the outdoor bans are ridiculous. Which brings us back to Clockwork Orange. Alex was therapeutically cured of his anti-social tendencies, which leaves him open and defenseless to attack and makes him more socially acceptable but less of himself.