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Do you believe the Ludovico experiment was immoral?

posted 9 years ago by cartesianthought
3 replies | jump to latest

The argument against the experiment is that removing one's ability to choose from right or wrong disables the person's free will and it's a huge dystopic breach of freedom.

Does it do so anymore than prison, or the death penalty for that matter? Had the sentence been "put him to death", it would've been a much simpler controversy.

In this situation, Alex consented to be part of this experiment. It allowed him to skip the vast majority of his prison sentence, be free and to potentially stay out of prison. Not to mention, he was a reprehensible sociopath and criminal to be

Before I watch the movie, I heard things like "Alex gets what's coming to him", but in all honesty, Alex got a pretty good deal. He got his prison sentence waived, he got medical treatment and, even after things didn't go according to plan, he even got a sweetheart deal from the PM. The experiment was only two weeks long and it wasn't nearly as gruesome as something like the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Most of the harm he faced in the third act of the movie were private citizens getting revenge on him (and even so, he wasn't dealt nearly as much pain as he inflicted). And it worked out for him in the end too.

There can, of course, be questions about the effectiveness of a program like this. But the moral arguments seem to be glib. It's kind of like opposing stem cell research because it's "playing God", or taking the passive side on "the lever problem".

[–] bradhbbrd 8 years ago

It seems the moral of this film has completely slipped by you.
The experiment is very much the same kind of criminal violation of peoples rights as what Alex did in his day.
The system and all those who are morally superior to Alex are deep down inside just as bad if not worse because they hurt even more people.

[–] BobbyDupea 8 years ago

I can't think of a worse thing to do to a person than to take away what makes that person a human - their free will. In that way, the Ludovico treatment was worse than prison. Stem cell research is not at all a valid comparison, as it does not in any way do to a person what the treatment does to Alex.

The fact that in the end Alex was restored to his previous, violent self was perfectly in line with the trajectory of the story and the universe Alex lived in - hypocritical, corrupt, and treacherous.

My real name is Jeff

[–] kenny-164 8 years ago

The focus by the OP on the length of time spent taking the Ludovico treatment is revealing as missing a large point of the film. While the treatment was uncomfortable, and there even was acknowledged an "element of punishment" in the way the treatment affected his love of music, the treatment itself was not anywhere near the sum total of the punishment. It was only out on the street that the real and full effect of the treatment was realized by Alex, and evident to the viewer. Loss of free will was involved, but that can sound like a concept removed from practical considerations. What the film showed was that the treatment effectively left Alex not capable of dealing with social interaction. And then in turn while Mr. Alexander and his friends in effect led/forced him to try and kill himself, I think it was implicit that this was merely pushing such decision forward in the sense that he would eventually reach that point. That is immoral at least in the sense that the proponents of the treatment had not sold it as such to Society. It also at least in view of the length of the prison sentence a comparatively harsher treatment in net effect than what was directed by the legal system.

A related problem I always thought in watching this film is that in Alex's case the Ludovico proponents had taken someone the viewer knew was guilty of not only the crime for which he was serving his sentence, but a great deal more in terms of wrongdoing, including at the least the way their rape of mrs. Alexander led to her death. But I always thought the viewer was led to consider why it would only be applied to those who in some sense deserves it. The Ludovico technique certainly had implications regarding its usefulness as a tool of totalitarianism. This connection was implied in the Interior Minister's reference to the need to clear prison space for political prisoners. Perhaps they could also be programmed to "avoid" undesirable political behavior. Programming civilians along those lines has the most monstrous moral implications.