The thirst for power

ByRimsha Khalid

For AP English2011-2012

Passage from the “ The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism”

“The two main aims of the party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought. There are therefore two great problems which the party is concerned to solve. One is how to discover, against his will, what another human being is thinking, and the other is how to kill several hundred million people in a few seconds without giving warning beforehand. In so far as scientific research still continues, this is its subject matter. The scientist of today is either a mixture of psychologist and inquisitor, studying with extraordinary minuteness the meaning of facial expressions, gestures, and tones of voice, and testing the truth-producing effects of drugs, shock therapy, hypnosis, and physical torture; or he is a chemist, physicist, or biologist concerned only with such branches of his special subject as are relevant to the taking of life” (Orwell, 193).

Explanation

In the novel 1984 the author George Orwell presents a society that is governed by totalitarianism. The philosophy behind totalitarianism is that it is an authoritarian political system that regulates every aspect of an individual’s life. It mobilizes an entire population in support of the state or an ideology. Totalitarian governments do not tolerate activates by individuals or groups; people have no freedom to share their thoughts, speak in public or fight for their rights. The entire community is under control of the government; they live their lives in a manner that is chosen for them by the government. In the passage above, Orwell relates the cruelty in the book to the time when Stalin and the German Nazis were in control of the government. During the World War the scientists invented new type of machinery and created poisonous chemicals which help them to kill thousands of people at the same time. The passage states that the ability to think and question the government is considered a crime.. The government does not want the people to interfere in the way they are ruling the country. Under the totalitarian regime the people get tortured and killed for going against the rules of totalitarianism. The dictators belief that the people shouldn’t have any kind of freedom; they should just follow the ideology of the government.

Current News Event

Syria — Protests (2011)  The wave of Arab unrest that started with the Tunisian

revolution of January 2011 reached Syria in mid-March, when residents of a small southern city took to the streets to protest the torture of students who had put up anti-government graffiti.

President Bashar al-Assad, who inherited Syria's harsh dictatorship from his father, Hafez al-Assad, at first wavered between force and hints of reform. But in April, just days after lifting the country's decades-old state of emergency, he launched the first of what became a series of withering crackdowns, sending tanks into restive cities as security forces opened fire on demonstrators.

  Neither the violence nor Mr. Assad's offers of political reform

— rejected as shams by protest leaders — brought an end to the unrest. Similarly, the protesters have not been able to withstand direct assault by the military's armored forces.

  The conflict is complicated by Syria's ethnic divisions. The

Assads and much of the nation's elite, especially the military, belong to the Alawite sect, a small minority in a mostly Sunni country.

Syria's crackdown has been condemned internationally, as has President Assad, a British-trained doctor who many had hoped would soften his father's iron-handed regime. But no direct intervention has been proposed, and support for protesters has been balanced against fears of instability in a country at the heart of so many conflicts in the world's most volatile region.

In July, the Obama administration, in a shift that was weeks in the making, turned against Mr. Assad but stopped short of demanding that he step down. By early August, the American ambassador was talking of a "post-Assad" Syria.

  By that time, a massive crackdown on the restive city of Hama — involving bombs, tanks, artillery and

snipers — and elsewhere drove the tally of estimated deaths kept by human rights groups over 1,700, mostly protesters, and well over 10,000 people were reported to be in custody or missing. The country's economy was headed toward the point of collapse, as tourism in particular withered.

  As the assaults on restive cities continued, cracks emerged in a tight-knit leadership that has until now

rallied its base of support and maintained a unified front. Though there are no signs of an imminent collapse, divisions among senior officials and even moves by former government stalwarts to distance themselves from the leadership come at a time when Syria also faces what may be its greatest isolation in more than four decades of rule by the Assad family. Yet until the protests reach the capital, Syria’s leadership will perhaps avoid the fate of its ossified equivalents in places like Egypt and Tunisia. And so far, Damascus — along with Aleppo, the nation’s second-largest city — has stayed firmly on the margins, as anger builds toward both cities from Syrians bearing the brunt of the uprising.

- “ Syria- Protests( 2011)”

Explanation of Connection Today, the world has become very similar to the time Orwell envisioned in

his book 1984. In the book Orwell projects a negative dystopia, of a future totalitarian society which uses terror, oppression and surveillance to exert total power over the individual. Syria on the other hand is going through the same kind of trauma; the people there are rebelling against the government and their ruler. The Syrians believes they should have more freedom of speech and that of making changes in the way the government works. It can be compared to 1984 in way that Syria is ruled by a dictator and that most of the Syrian population is unhappy with the way the government works; they have rarely any rights over the political system. The president of Syria launched massive crackdowns, sending military into the protesting cities and allowing them to open fire the demonstrators. As in 1984, Syria is also under the full control of the regime; the people are like slaves who are expected to obey all the decisions and believe of the ruler. It’s no problem for the cruel government to kill the innocent population as they know if the people get their all their right then it is going to be end of their reign.

“Roots of Dictatorship,” by Abdi-Noor Haji Mohamed.

Within the family we have a dictatorDad exercises power without a limitNever does he consult with anybody

He is an element of terror in the houseHis words are final and absolute

Any resistance can lead to punishmentMom is helpless. She just watches

 At community level we have a dictator

We have a chief with tremendous powerHe can rule in. He can rule out

He is believed to be a sacred personNo one can challenge to replace him

Only death can force him to move over 

In politics we have a dictatorHe is a cruel president-monarch

He runs government just like his houseWe cannot write as we please

In silence we speakThat is how we raise our voice.

Explanation of Poem

According to Mohamed, dictatorship is everywhere, from our surroundings to the outside world; it has always been hard to raise our voice. The politician’s play an important part in controlling the life of the citizens, they cannot share their opinions, make difference in the society or they way the system works. Mohamed’s poem is comparable to 1984 in ways that it talks about how a politician can become merciless, in order to keep his power. It takes many to change a society but the people have become so paranoid that they are not able to protest against the government. The government is finding new ways to control the society in whatever way they can as the rulers have become so proud that they are not willing to do any good for the entire civilization or give up their power. Orwell and Mohamed both shows the impact of a dystopian society on an individual.