This week I read Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange for my third time. It’s not because I particularly enjoy the novel. I just think it’s important. Below are three reasons I think it remains important, especially in current times.

First, Burgess saw big government for what it can be and often is–a vicious beast which hungers for nothing so much as feeding itself and growing its size, power, and control of the masses. The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen. Burgess saw this clearly.

Second, Burgess saw that the mass of people are easily led via false narratives. In the novel, after enough ‘experts’ weigh in on the efficacy of the ‘treatment’ (Trust the ‘experts’, right? Sound familar?) Alex is to receive for his misdeeds, and after the newspapers and TV pundits and media peddle the narrative, the masses of people just follow along like sheep. Burgess saw this clearly.

Third, Burgess saw that human depravity was real, not just a theological trope. That is, Burgess saw that we are all sinners in word and deed. Moral ‘progress’ in an illusion. We are just as wicked as we always were; only the means have changed. This month the focus of the puppet masters is on Hamas’ decapitating babies in Israel; last month, it was on Ukraine and Russian atrocities there. (For some reason not fully explained, Ukraine’s borders are vital, but America’s are not.) Burgess saw human depravity clearly. We’re more like Burgess’ droogs, little Alexes, if you will, than folks care to admit.