Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Straight, Inc. and Derivatives
i'm still here
sullyceltic:
i'm still here hello one and all! sorry that i have been away for a while. it has been nice and busy at the job, which i love.
now that the basketball season is over, i guess i can sit back down at the old computer and do some posting.
wes's "a clockwork straight" had got me curious about kubrick's 1971 classic. so, i've dusted off my copy of "a clockwork orange" and "viddyed" it a few times, though usually by myself and not with any of my droogs or other malchicks around.
has anyone else seen the movies recently? for me, it brought back a lot of those feelings that i had in straight... the paranoia, fear, desperation...
but what i found most fascinating in the movie is the commentary it makes on what do do with people like "little alex". now most of us were not into the old "ultra violence" like the character in the movie, but
society dealt with us in a very similar manor - that is,
to store us away for a while, break us down, and try to reform us.
i think that beacuse of my straight experince, there will always be a little "clockwork orange" in me, in all of us for that matter.
the film also leaves a good discussion to follow...
what do you do with someone like "alex". someone who is a "bad person", who needs to be "cured". what do we do with them? the answer in the late 1980's was a warehouse in stoughton mass. called straight new england.
anyway, sorry to go off on this, but has anyone seen the movie recently? and have any thoughts on it?
viddy well then droogies! viddy well! i'm off to listen to a bit of the old "ludwig van".
feel free to email me if you'd like:
sullyceltic@yahoo.com
best regards,
Sully
BostonBrave:
i'm still here Droogs? Malchicks? Have you been hanging out with some Russians lately? I saw A Clockwork Orange some years ago, and found it violent and incomprehensible. But then I was never a client in Straight.
sullyceltic:
a clockwork straight yeah, i guess we never had our eyes locked
open like little alex did in the movie.
but the straight tried to "cure" me, much
like the government did in the 1971 classic.
one thing that i believe everyone, kids and parents
alike, can identify with is the scene where they
hold a demonstration to show how much "better"
alex has become. he is confronted by a guy who
insults him, ridicules him, then beats him, and
finally humiliates him by making alex lick the
bottom of his shoes.
after that, a woman wearing only a pair of underwear
walks in. alex reaches up to touch the woman, but begins to feel sick, and falls fo the ground in pain.
o.k., now how i can relate to that is like this: the first part is like when i would be stood up in group, yelled at,
and humiliated. if i did the slightest thing wrong, i would be blasted and embarrassed in front of my peers.
the second one, in this way: remember all the stupid rules? who can forget?? no this, no that. well, what about the whole "contact with the opposite sex" stuff, and how restricted that was? hell, we couldn't even talk to eachother until 4th phase (yes, i know, third if we worked or were at school together). but do you see the relationship between them? they broke us down. the broke us to the point of where i was afraid to even look at a girl in the building or on of the busses because i was scared that i would be yelled at. - truly, a clockwork straight. all that was missing was the beethoven!
alright, now for the parents, at the conclusion of that
scene in "a clockwork orange", the gentleman asks:
"any questions"? the prison chaplain stands and confronts the man on that the boy (alex) has not choice, that he has been altered to behave this way, and that when a man cannot choose, he fails to be a man. the gentleman, at that point, blurts out something like this: "the point is - it WORKS"!!!! followed by thunderous applause from the room.
sound familiar, dad?
i know of what the parents were being told. and it was all based on that: don't question, just let straight do it's job.
oh, i can hear the 9th symphony now, the slow part, that leads up to the "ode to joy", what beautiful music.
parents and kids alike. we were all duped, and fed a bunch of lies. the parents bought them first, then we kids did. we did cause we wanted to get out and never get back in again. something else we have in common with alexander delarge from our favorite movie.
i do not resent my parents at all for putting me into straight. i am thankful that i still get along with them.
it's pretty easy to do when you live 900 miles away though.
my mom is still thinks straight was a.o.k. in her book, but my dad knows what was going on in there.
plus, my dad likes the Celtics - just one of the many
good things about my dad.
Elle:
A clockwork straight I actually just rented the movie again last night! In AARC a song was played before and after every rap. Did Kids and The Straights do that too? Because you know, all the music I heard for those raps do make me sick now, and I can't even be in a store that might be playing them.
Alex's ultra violence scenes made more sense in the end of the film, to the point where I was deffinately on his side. I wouldn't be in real life, but I was relating to the transition of being someone odd and crazy, but living free will, to being contained, controlled, and knocked down to the point where the public humiliation is just a necessary task to try to get out and be yourself again. And then I don't know about the rest of you, but my after aarc life has seemed a bit like one hit after another like what Alex got.
Then again....I saw Cast Away and cried because it reminded me of all these things too....Well, either way they were both really good!
Elle.
Antigen:
AARC muzak? No, at all the programs I know of, we just sang silly songs with sillier hand motions. That's interesting. What kind of music did they play? -If there's a worse idea going than locking kids up for victimless crimes, it's probably locking them in close proximity to some tyrannical altruist bent on helping them even if it kills them.
Saving our Children from Drug Treatment Abuse
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