"Taking a Risk on Those-At-Risk: Problematic Teenagers as a Means Of Production"

Taking a Risk on Those-At-Risk:
Problematic Teenagers as a Means of Production

an analysis of A Clockwork Orange (film), "Where Did The Future Go?" (essay by Randy Martin), and "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (essay by Althusser)

          Our faithful narrator, Alex of "A Clockwork Orange," is unequivocally a criminal at heart and mind. Engaging in senseless acts of violence, rape, and pillaging, he and his loyal droogs wander the night as serious threats to society. As an "at-risk" teenager capable of not only destruction but non-production, Alex is forced to go through the State Apparatus as well as Althusser's Ideological State Apparatuses. Alex becomes an investment for various ideologies which all target him as a possible means of production; the possible erasure of his criminal mind (by means of scientific measures) means that Alex, as an "at-risk teenager," is a huge investment. He becomes financialized by numerous domestic wars as well as people with a varied set of ideologies behind them.
          To understand the monetary gain on Alex's troubled head as presented in "A Clockwork Orange," one must first consider Althusser's Ideological State Apparatuses. Marxist thought argues that there is a State Apparatus which functions to repress proletarians and support the bourgeoisie. There is only one State Apparatus, and that consists of several repressive (ie, physical/violent) systems: the military, the government, the police, etc. Althusser states that this State Apparatus "enables the ruling classes...to ensure their domination over the working class." He also separates this Repressive State Apparatus with his concept, the Ideological State Apparatuses by claiming these, instead, are "distinct and specialized institutions" such as the Church and Education. Interestingly enough, he does not label any sciences as an Ideological State Apparatus. There are those who would argue that science, although compromised of facts, is still its' own ideology. For the purposes of this essay, we will not dwell on this argument but instead present privatized science--those requiring funding from the State, especially--as a Ideological State Apparatus. In "A Clockwork Orange," Alex is taken to a privatized science center in which he undergoes various chemical, psychological, and neurological experiments in order to correct his criminal mind. Althusser himself states that "all ideology hails or interpolates concrete individuals as concrete subjects"--therefore, the sciences Alex undergoes is, essentially, an ideology.

          With this understanding of ideology, we can look into Martin's argument of different ideologies playing a role in the financialization of the future--particularly, in this essay, the future of the youth. He argues that our society now functions capitalistically by playing into risk: "the prospect of a return in excess of expectation." Investors, able to take monetary risks, are now capable of running their own lives as well as the lives of others. Everyone who could not take these risks would be considered "at risk"; Martin argues it is these "at risk" people who are the "targets of all manners of domestic wars (on drugs, crime, kids and culture)." We now focus our future as monetary gains, through means of "pensions, kids educations, dept disbursement, home mortgages," etc. This ideology maintains that taking a chance on current risks will mean financial security (and, ultimately, financial gain) in the future.
          Knowing all of this, we can parallel Alex's predicament with a myriad of Ideological State Apparatuses, the State Apparatus itself, and how he ties in with these "investor's" future financial gains. The social worker's system is the first institution which Alex goes through. His social worker constantly checks up on him in the beginning, making sure he is staying out of trouble, going to school, etc. Eventually, this system fails him and he ends up in prison. Under the repression of the prison system--members are labeled with numbers instead of names--Alex is stripped of his individuality, choice, and freedom as a form of punishment. The problem of criminal violence is, in theory, supposed to be solved by isolation from society and rehabilitation. Interestingly enough, the prison system fails Alex in this regard and has no "cure" for any type of criminal. The State Apparatus, then, is proven to be not a solution for workers, but as a means of supporting the dominant sector of society..

          Alex then takes into the arms of the religious institution in the form of the prison's priest. The priest argues for salvation of Alex's soul through the eternal glory of god. This ideology, under the form of Althusser's Ideological State Apparatus, is vastly different from past religious ideology. Alex is not pre-determined to be a sinner, as it was considered in the past. Rather, he has the opportunity, the free will, to choose his destiny. Ideological State Apparatuses, then, are in flux dependent upon time and convenience. The priest is, of course, vehemently against the scientific treatment which aims to "cure" Alex. Salvation, he argues, goes hand in hand with choice. Does Alex, being robbed of his "choice" to be good or bad, still have a shot at redemption if he cannot choose?
          Now outside of the State Apparatus of the prison system, and away from the bounds of religious ideology, Alex enters into the radical scientific treatment program. These scientists, as backed by the government, argue that the prison system simply spurs hypocrisy. It teaches all criminals to "fake smile" and "rub elbows" until their release. There is no true change under this State Apparatus hellbent on force and violence.
          After just two years, Alex is released back into the world and is proclaimed by the science's ideological backers and investors to be "cured." As fate often has it, Alex ends up back in the writer's home; the writer who he brutally beat and who's wife he viciously raped. The writer's home is in agreement with his sentiment: he is surrounded by books, representing literacy, education, and intellect. Incidentally, education is one of the various Ideological State Apparatuses presented to us by Althusser. As such, even the writer's honorable intentions in the beginning are still backed by an ideology; the writer had taken pity on Alex, believing the treatment to be a despicable device used to hurt the common man. Interestingly, the writer takes Alex under his wing and attempts to take Alex in as an investment of sorts. The writer, and several of his intellectual friends, want to make Alex into a product by showing his scars to the world, convincing the rest of society that their ideology is right.

          Martin goes into some depth over this financialization of the future in terms of "domestic wars." As mentioned in the beginning, domestic wars include the war on drugs, on low SAT scores, on gangs, on culture (ie, obscene art), and on crime. All of these domestic wars, Martin argues, paved the way for "surveillance, property seizure, and prosecution" in order to fight the most recent war: the war on terror. Using Martin's words, "anew regime of discipline and punish" is evident in all of the Ideological State Apparatuses Alex undergoes. For instance, the film itself starts off with an interesting juxtaposition of classical music and violence. During Alex's treatment, we witness the same thing: classical music is juxtaposed to the violence presented on screen. This means that Alex with forevermore associate violence with physical sickness...as well as classical music, his one and only love, with physical sickness. One scientist even leans over to another and mutters something about this being Alex's proper punishment.
          The one thing which tied all of these ideologies together was the promise to Alex that everything he went through was "for his own good." The State Apparatus claimed that prison was needed in order to better Alex; it was "for his own good." So was the religious ideology presented by the priest, as was the scientific ideology presented by the scientists, and also the educational ideology as argued by the intellect. At the end of the film, the government steps in and insists that they are doing this all for Alex's "protection." Even the future becomes a much needed gamble in order to financialize and invest and take risks on those things which need to be invested in; all done, it can be argued, for your own benefit.

* this is a rewrite of an older piece, entitled "The State Cures."

Works Cited

“A Clockwork Orange.” Dir: Stanley Kubrick. Warner Brothers Pictures. 1971.

Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses." La Pensée, 1970. Translated from the French by Ben Brewster. Transcribed by Andy Blunden. http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm

Martin, Randy. "Where Did The Future Go?" LogosOnline. 2006. http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_5.1/martin.htm