A Clockwork Chemistry
In Anthony Burgess’s novella (and Stanley Kubrick’s film) A Clockwork Orange, Alex, an unrepentant psychopath, has his eyes pried wide open and is forced to watch violent images. Today, however, biochemistry could be set to replace brutal behaviorism in making people morally better.
OXFORD – In Anthony Burgess’s novella (and Stanley Kubrick’s film) A Clockwork Orange, Alex, an unrepentant psychopath, has his eyes pried wide open and is forced to watch violent images. Like Pavlov’s dog, Alex is being programmed to respond with nausea to violence and sex. This scene remains shocking, but, like most science fiction, it has aged. The behaviorist psychology it drew upon has long expired, and the fear that science will be used to make, or even force, people to be morally better now sounds old-fashioned.
OXFORD – In Anthony Burgess’s novella (and Stanley Kubrick’s film) A Clockwork Orange, Alex, an unrepentant psychopath, has his eyes pried wide open and is forced to watch violent images. Like Pavlov’s dog, Alex is being programmed to respond with nausea to violence and sex. This scene remains shocking, but, like most science fiction, it has aged. The behaviorist psychology it drew upon has long expired, and the fear that science will be used to make, or even force, people to be morally better now sounds old-fashioned.