Here's a nasty little future courtesy of Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) in his novel A Clockwork Orange.  By the turn  of the 21^st century, men are on living on the Moon, but life on Earth has descended to a choice between the Scylla of rampant street violence and the Charybdis of a nascent police state.   Gangs of brutal young men rule the cities at night and roam the countryside in stolen cars to attack isolated homes in orgies of burglary and rape. 

The government's remedy to this epidemic of crime is an experimental programme to "reform" young hooligans with a rather sledgehammer variety of aversion therapy that involves strapping the offender down and showing him films of sex and violence while drug injections cause him to be violently ill.  Eventually, even the thought of committing a wrong act becomes so literally nauseating that the offender has to scotch the idea or face suffocation.  As an unfortunate side effect, it also causes violent illness while listening to Beethoven, but you can't make an omelette, etc.  etc.

Besides, I have the same reaction when I hear the theme song from Friends.

Anthony Burgess

If your only exposure to A Clockwork Orange was the Stanley Kubrick 1971 film, then your impression of it might be similar to my own, which was, "Whaaaaaaa?"  As the end credits rolled, I hadn't the slightest idea of what the point of story was.  That an evil nature will out?   That sex and violence should be gloried in?  Bowler hats make natty accessories to brutal street gangs?   What gives?

It turns out that when Kubrick adapted the book he used the American edition, which was printed without the last chapter.  By the time the American edition came out, Burgess was already sick of his novel and when the American editors complained that the book was too long and the final chapter would have to be cut, Burgess's attitude was pretty much "Fine.  Whatever."  The upshot is that Kubrick didn't have the end of the story and so we never see what finally happens to Alex and why having free will is so vitally important.

Though given Kubrick's notorious cynicism, I wonder if he'd have bothered to make the film if he'd known what the real ending was. 

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