Finished "A Clockwork Orange"

It was tough starting out, but as I figured out the slang terms the reading got easier. Amazingly, the social commentary, which I didn't completely agree with was still relevant today. I say amazingly because usually dystopian novels don't carry forward well.

In the novel one of the driving forces of the government is the reduction of street crime. This is accomplished through increased punishment (Jail or the Ludovico Method) and a get tough attitude by Police. The party (F. Alexander and friends) out of power sees this as an infringement on the basic liberties of the citizen. The same argument was made about Guilliani's efforts to reduce crime in NYC and in nationwide crime reduction efforts such as the war on drugs. What always amazes me is that people don't realize that by allowing the criminals free reign the basic liberties of the average citizen are infringed. I haven't made up my mind about the Ludovico Method, but it seems a logical extension of the rehabilitation effort that has been unsuccessfully applied to prison regimens in the past. The author obviously believes that such efforts are evil and on first examination I agree, but thinking about it overnight was it really evil or was the implementation in this first case just flawed?

The other basic theme of the novel seems to be that the government can never be trusted. I would say that depends entirely on the government. Again we see echoes of this in modern life, with the recent revelations about a number of anti-terrorism measures. The cries are out that the government is curtailing our civil liberties, but are they? Can anyone name a person who has had their rights curtailed in some way by NSA monitoring or by monitoring for attempted attacks using Nukes or Dirty Bombs. I can't. As a conservative I want the government limited as much as possible, but this is an area where they have a legitimate interest. Does that mean that such uses can't be pushed too far? No, but that is why we have a federalist system with checks and balances. As long as we do we are safe.

All in all an interesting novel. 3 out of 5 stars.

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