A Clockwork Future

Recently I saw a column posted a couple of places, one of them was Facebook. The person that posted it happened to be the President of TZP. He commented that the novel A Clockwork Orange was prophetic. Honestly, I had never read the book, not in school and not on my own. So I read the column and then hit the (occasionally) reliable Wikipedia.

As it turns out a Clockwork Orange is a pretty accurate description. The novel is about a gang of boys who love violence and hurting people. They have their own language, called Nadsat a mix of Anglo-Russian. The characters all sounded like we would be much better off if they spent a loooong time in Sheriff Joe Arpio’s custody.

While searching to find out what A Clockwork Orange was about, I ran across a movie review from Roger Ebert. I kind of doubt Ebert is much of a conservative, but I could be wrong. Anyway, the thing that interested me about his review was how he accepted the anti-hero of the movie, Alex. Here’s a couple of excerpts from the review.

I don’t know quite how to explain my disgust at Alex (whom Kubrick likes very much, as his visual style reveals and as we shall see in a moment). Alex is the sort of fearsomely strange person we’ve all run across a few times in our lives — usually when he and we were children, and he was less inclined to conceal his hobbies. He must have been the kind of kid who tore off the wings of flies and ate ants just because that was so disgusting. He was the kid who always seemed to know more about sex than anyone else, too — and especially about how dirty it was.

…..

Now Alex isn’t the kind of sat-upon, working-class anti-hero we got in the angry British movies of the early 1960s. No effort is made to explain his inner workings or take apart his society. Indeed, there’s not much to take apart; both Alex and his society are smart-nose pop-art abstractions. Kubrick hasn’t created a future world in his imagination — he’s created a trendy decor. If we fall for the Kubrick line and say Alex is violent because “society offers him no alternative,” weep, sob, we’re just making excuses.

Interesting. Because how many movies and video games now have a “anti-hero” as the “hero”? To be honest, I don’t really go to movies. There’s not much I want to see, and I loathe to give some left-wing loon money they are going to use to advance a bully pulpit to work against me and the things I believe in. And, lack of time plays a very small part. But here is a review from 1972, and in it the reviewer is condemning the effort to portray a very bad person in a good light, and to make excuses for his behavior. How often do we see that now? Rachel Madcow? Chrissy “Tingly-leg” Matthews and on ad nauseam? What was decried by a liberal in 1972 has become the norm now.

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman has talked about the effect of the games on kids. He has a book out about it, but you can also read about it on his web site. He’s always worth reading or hearing.

So on to the story linked to this. A group of 40-60 teens swarmed a train in Oakland. They took over a car, robbed the passengers and beat a couple of them.

Trost said police arrived at the station in less than 5 minutes, but that the robberies took place in just seconds.

The gang then retreated in the the East Oakland neighborhood before the police arrived. Those security cameras that track us all and are suppose to keep us safer? Yep, they recorded the whole thing. Didn’t stop it of course, but they recorded it. Did BART then release the video so they could catch those responsible? No. In fact, they didn’t even warn passengers or tell them what had happened. Nor did they release the information via Twitter, Facebook or their phone app or…any of the media platforms they have. They did say it was recorded on the police blotter. Oh well, I’m sure everyone checks that before the head to the station. In the past I guess they have released video with the perpetrators faces obscured, since they are juveniles. How that is suppose to help catch anyone I’m rather unsure. But they didn’t even do that. I’m kind of curious why they haven’t. But one thing we can be sure of, since California is determined to be a gun free “sanctuary” state, all the residents of California can feel safe and secure. Yep, safe and secure.

Do I know these people are who committed the crime? Of course not! But here’s what I DO know, they are out there, somewhere. And always remember, when seconds count, no matter how good they are, the police are just minutes away.

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2 thoughts on “A Clockwork Future”

  1. After seeing the Clockwork movie “Singing in the Rain” had a different meaning to me.

    The more civilize people try to become appears to empower the barbaric even more. There are those who think love can conquer evil, IMHO that will get you mugged or worst, there is only one thing evil understands, having the CRAP BEAT OUT OF THEM or people who can defend themselves.

  2. I think it’s a safe bet that if the po-leece aren’t releasing the videos, it means they are protecting the guilty. Not, mind you, because they are juveniles, but likely because they are some kind of minority. Given where they went, I’d bet anybody living within 50 miles of the place can guess what minority that is. I live on the North Coast, so I don’t know.

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