Search for the definition of capitalism and you will find an economic system based on private ownership of capital. The world we live in is all about power and being on top. In the 1971 film Clockwork Orange directed by Stanley Kubrick, the government uses Alex, the main character, to gain public liking and raise positive awareness. In Randy Martin’s essay “Where did the future go,” and Louis Althusser essay “Ideology and Ideological state Apparatus”, both touch on capitalism as an issue. Money is power and that is what everyone strives for and in the film and the two essays capitalism is the focal point in achieving the goals of those involved.
In "Where did the Future Go" by Randy Martin, he says that former President of the United States, George W. Bush is not going to come out and say his decision to go to war was because of capitalism. They play it off as if it were another thing yet we all know that money was an issue to where we are as a country today. Bush was in high power and he used that to do what was best for him and his party. Same goes for Clockwork Orange as the ruling party which again is the government uses Alex, the main character, for self gain.
Alex is a troubled guy and is very violent in his actions. He kills the cat lady and ends up going to jail where capitalism takes over and he becomes an experiment for them in exchange for less time in jail. The higher power will do as they please and in this case did just that. Althusser talks about a person not perceived as what they are rather than from what society they are in. his views are that of the battle of the classes and this dream like state. In his point of view the nation thinks as a whole and not as individuals, ideology.
All three of these works relate and have capitalism in common. The higher class will always have the upper hand in doing things. In Clockwork Orange they did just that with experimenting on Alex and as Martin states, George Bush did that when we went into war with Iraq and Althusser says that social practices determine the human being and determines the limits that individual will have. The society that you live in has a major influence whether you think it does or not. You might try hard or think that it does not but you live and breathe the norms of that society so in one way or another you are going to conform to it. The upper-class has control over the middle class and capitalism rules in our society today.
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