on drink-driving ads (the Ludovico method)

"What exactly is it, sir, that you're going to do?"
"Oh," said Dr. Branom, his cold stetho going all down my back, "it's quite simple really. We just show you some films."
"Films?" I said. I could hardly believe my ookos, brothers, as you may well understand. "You mean," I said, "it will be just like going to the pictures?"
"They'll be special films," said Dr. Branom. "Very special films. You'll be having the first session this afternoon."

Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange, pg.73.

well... yes, and here we go again... (HST)

christmas creeps close and the government orders another round of anti-drink-driving advertisements for the Irish public, on them, bless their oily souls.

and every year they get a little more horrific...

scene one - people mangled in a car, don't drink and drive

scene two - pretty young thing in pieces on the road, don't drink and drive

scene three - pretty young thing turns around and shows that the other side of her face ain't pretty no more, don't drink and drive

scene four - paralysed kid, don't drink and drive

scene five - screams, pain, rehabilitation sucks, don't drink and drive

scene six - guy considers having a drink, remembers that ad he saw on tv and decides not to risk it. pretty young thing at the bar finds this sexy and lustily moves closer. wahay, i've pulled, definitely don't drink and drive

(scene seven, in which they're both sober, realise they've nothing in common and leave seperately but safely in their cars having had a really shit night, was apparently edited from the final version but will be available as a special feature on the easter bank holiday dvd release)

deaths caused by drink driving are tragic and avoidable - no argument there - but the government's method of deterring drink driving is hugely questionable

rather than dealing with cause, the government shoves effect down our throats on an annual basis

last night's launch of the new drink-driving campaign unsettled me, not because of the gross imagery involved, but rather because of something it slowly but surely brought to mind

a clockwork orange

...or more specifically, the Ludovico method...

Burgess presents us with a world in which adolescent violence has become such a heaving social problem that the government eventually resorts to an extreme kind of Pavlovian response treatment

anyone that's read the novel, or seen the film that did a very poor job of interpreting it, will know what this entailed

prison, drugs, and forced to watch reel after reel of violent and sexually explicit movies, run to a blasting Beethoven soundtrack

the drugs take hold and Alex, the protagonist, becomes violently ill when viewing the imagery

over time, even without the drugs, Alex is repulsed by the films or even the thought of violence

or even the classical music he has grown to associate with the treatment

association brings nausea

he goes from violence ("all the vesches i had done"), to programmed and reflective passivity ("very quiet and like yearny")

it works, but it's clearly wrong

wrong in an intuitive sense

wrong in a human sense

wrong

this Ludovico method (a play on Beethoven's first name) removes a key part of what it is to be human

...choice...

you don't do it, but not because you think it through and decide it's morally wrong, you don't do it because the thought of doing it causes a spasmic reflex that floods your mind, a reflex void of logic but overwhelming in effect

it's what Burgess termed "negative reinforcement"

a key passage from the novel reads:

"Choice," rumbled a rich deep gloss. I viddied it belonged to the prison charlie. "He has no real choice, has he? Self-interest, fear of physical pain, drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement. Its insincerity was clearly to be seen. He ceases to be a wrongdoer. He ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice."

"These are subtleties," like smiled Dr Brodsky. "We are not concerned with motive, with higher ethics. We are concerned only with cutting down crime-" (pg.94)

and so are our government

commendable as their wish to stop road deaths may be, the government should stop trying to shock us in to breaking our bad habits

"DRINK DRIVE AND YOU'LL KILL A KID JUST LIKE THIS ONE YOU FUCK. STOP IT NOW. COULD YOU LIVE WITH THE SHAME? DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, YOU'RE A BAD PERSON, YOU'RE GOING TO HELL, LOOK AT THIS, BLOOD, GUTS, FUCK YOU, STOP THINKING, YOU'RE WRONG"

or, we could, let's say, morally educate people from a young age instead of teaching them calculus

if people had more of a social conscience, a part of our development completely neglected in the education system, we wouldn't have nearly so many problems

...shame, guilt, prison...

this is the unholy trinity that's supposed to keep our society in check

and let's face it, if consequence was a deterrent from the act, our prisons would be empty

and hands wouldn't still be lopped off with a frightening frequency in Saudi Arabia

educate, educate, educate

for once in our fucking collective existence as a putatively evolved society, let's address the bigger picture, rather than the spilled milk

what sort of society would you prefer to live in? one in which we're shocked in to not doing something? or one in which we don't do it because we have respect for those we share this rock with? because we're good, educated, moral people? because we care more about others than we care about the shame of being caught?

so, i'll close with the words that open a clockwork orange:

"What's it gonna be then, eh?"