After watching a screening of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange for another class, I found it to be an interesting display of how greatly the concept of choice in relation to ethics can truly be stretched to fit the preexisting notions of our world. One of the primary conflicts it illustrates is how difficult humanity's struggle to find forms of punishment and reconciliation that are both humane and appropriately just for crimes committed against society. Is the eradication of various sources of evil a means to preserve justice?
The movie challenges this idea, showing that humanistic tendencies will likely overcome the suppression of choice, and if unable to do so, will try to destroy themselves. If a seemingly effective method of psychological "cleansing" was ever introduced to the public world as a way of correcting actions we consider inappropriate or unlawful, would we be effectively surrendering our freedom to choose our own ethics and their consequences? Whether or not the absence of evil should intrinsically be considered good is a difficult question, fundamentally defining many philosophies and the ideas that echo from them. Could the possibility of an innate goodness within each person limit the boundaries of human capability and choice as a whole? As with all philosophy, these questions can only be answered with theory, but hopefully the meditation of ideas like these will help prevent a bleak future for humanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment