One thing that we discussed a lot both in the fishbowls and in class was the corruption of power. We blame the actions of the DHS on the fact that they went mad with power but I think we are forgetting another motivator that could be more influential the the DHS's flaws and that is the fact that the DHS was desperate. They needed to find a terrorist as soon as possible and had to deal with a city that had fallen into chaos. Their desperation caused them to act irrationally. The desperation of the citizens also contributed to the San Francisco area falling into a state of corruption. The citizens were so desperate for answers and to be safe that they let themselves fall into a state of submission to an immoral party that took away everything they wanted to be safe for.
Everyone has a breaking point when it comes to torture and once they reach their breaking point they will release and information you want them to. The problem with this is that people will tell you what they think they want you to hear whether it is true or not. Torture isn't a very good way to retrieve information because most of the information that you get isn't true. I don't know why tortured is still used as a form of interrogation when most of the information received isn't true.
There are two ways that our society could move. It could either become the totalitarianism nightmare of 1984 and the Hunger games. Or it could become the Utopia of Star Trek. Where society goes doesn't depend on the actions of the government like many people would like it to believe. It belongs in the power of the people and how they view the world around them. They can look at each other with fear and hate. A cycle that builds and builds until you reach a war torn world that is blind to anything but the false necessity of demolishing your enemy. Little Brother is an example of this. After the terrorist attacks people could see nothing but the horribleness of their enemy and they could feel nothing but hate to the people that they believed were responsible. Whether they were actually responsible or not became irrelevant as they could see nothing but the enemy. This is what happened in the case of Marcus. Marcus almost fell into this cycle as well. He could only see the evilness of the DHS not the fact that they were trying to originally accomplish the same objective as him (catching the terrorist). They were originally on the same side but hate blinded them to wage war against each other, which gave the true enemy an advantage. These cycles of hate are what lead to oppression. The people hate the government and lash out causing the government to crack down. Which causes more hate and more oppression. Question the government and challenge it but do not come to hate it. For hate only leads to more hate and eventually to the society of 1984.
One thing that we discussed a lot both in the fishbowls and in class was the corruption of power. We blame the actions of the DHS on the fact that they went mad with power but I think we are forgetting another motivator that could be more influential the the DHS's flaws and that is the fact that the DHS was desperate. They needed to find a terrorist as soon as possible and had to deal with a city that had fallen into chaos. Their desperation caused them to act irrationally. The desperation of the citizens also contributed to the San Francisco area falling into a state of corruption. The citizens were so desperate for answers and to be safe that they let themselves fall into a state of submission to an immoral party that took away everything they wanted to be safe for.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has a breaking point when it comes to torture and once they reach their breaking point they will release and information you want them to. The problem with this is that people will tell you what they think they want you to hear whether it is true or not. Torture isn't a very good way to retrieve information because most of the information that you get isn't true. I don't know why tortured is still used as a form of interrogation when most of the information received isn't true.
ReplyDeleteThere are two ways that our society could move. It could either become the totalitarianism nightmare of 1984 and the Hunger games. Or it could become the Utopia of Star Trek. Where society goes doesn't depend on the actions of the government like many people would like it to believe. It belongs in the power of the people and how they view the world around them. They can look at each other with fear and hate. A cycle that builds and builds until you reach a war torn world that is blind to anything but the false necessity of demolishing your enemy. Little Brother is an example of this. After the terrorist attacks people could see nothing but the horribleness of their enemy and they could feel nothing but hate to the people that they believed were responsible. Whether they were actually responsible or not became irrelevant as they could see nothing but the enemy. This is what happened in the case of Marcus. Marcus almost fell into this cycle as well. He could only see the evilness of the DHS not the fact that they were trying to originally accomplish the same objective as him (catching the terrorist). They were originally on the same side but hate blinded them to wage war against each other, which gave the true enemy an advantage. These cycles of hate are what lead to oppression. The people hate the government and lash out causing the government to crack down. Which causes more hate and more oppression. Question the government and challenge it but do not come to hate it. For hate only leads to more hate and eventually to the society of 1984.
ReplyDelete