The Answer is that people behind Gilead make all of their moves calculated and their most powerful weapon is fear. They play with the idea of fear starting from the very beginning which is the takeover of the government. Gilead starts to form with religious extremist groups wanting to save America from what it had become. Therefore, Gilead is based on religion. Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher, says "Religion is based primarily and mainly upon fear...
Rifkind and Loretta F. Harper. "The Branch Davidians and the Politics of Power and Intimidation" which appeared in the Journal of American Culture discussed what power meant to David Koresh. It stated, “ The influence of the politics of power and intimidation as strategies for gaining dominance and eventual absolute control over cult members and the outside world was a key ingredient of the leadership style exhibited by the self-appointed messiah of the Branch Davidian Church, David Koresh.” According to the same article, Koresh thought, “He could further suggest that power represses sex and that the logic of power exerted on sex is the paradoxical logic of law that might be expressed as an injunction of nonexistence, non manifestation, and silence.
Love and hate are mostly always viewed as opposing forces, but in the novel 1984 written by George Orwell, he brings those forces together to a point where they are almost indistinguishable. Winston and Julia, the protagonist of the novel, represent love and hate. The Party, the totalitarian government in the novel, represents power which transforms love and hate into worship of Big Brother which is the image of the Party. By the command of the Party, love and hate are interchangeable, where there is love the foundation is hate, and where there is hate it is superficially love. The utmost foundation of love is trust, which the Party has utterly destroyed.
Jonah states that “‘Papa’ had adopted [Mona]…in order to mingle divinity with the harshness of his rule” (Vonnegut 140). “Divinity” retains a religious connotation; it describes an object that is holy and sacred. “Papa” believed that Mona possessed such a supernatural quality and thus found it necessary to adopt her; her “divinity” equates her to a deity in a sense. Her inclusion in “Papa” Monzano’s rule provides him with the Divine Right of Kings. The theory of the Divine Right of Kings grants political power by means of religion; it asserts that a higher deity permits kings the right to rule.
Conformity Essay Rough Draft While reading books through an obedience lenses, readers search for which characters are compliant to a more powerful character, their reasoning, and how it impacts their actions and mindset. The focus book of this lens was 1984 by George Orwell, as Winston recognizes that almost all Party members are utterly loyal to the Party, yet attempts to rebel against the Party with the help of Julia and O’Brien, resulting in severe personal consequences. Rebellion shows disobedience that the Party works to revise through different forms of imprisonment and torture, leaving victims-like Winston and Julia-practically apathetic and emotionless. It is incredibly important to view books through an obedience lenses, particularly because of the relevance to society’s current state of affairs. By obeying authority figures because of fear of punishment, people can lose their sense of individuality and humanity, as evidenced by the characters in 1984.
In Niccolό Machiavelli’s famous works, The Prince and The Discourses, he discusses the importance of religion in creating and maintaining political authority. In his writings he states that he believes that religion is the strongest determining factor of whether a political leader will be able to maintain power. Machiavelli warns us how corruption in religious institutions can spill over into politics and cause corruption and division among the state and the citizens. Machiavelli’s analysis of religion as a unifying or divisive factor in politics is still as relevant in today’s politics as it was when he wrote is famous works, The Prince and The Discourses. Machiavelli believes that in order for a governing power to maintain political authority
Due to the age of Enlightenment, religion was affected and there was a new movement created as backlash. The Enlightenment was a movement for the intellectual elite, the highly educated. Many intellectuals questioned the presence of God, and most wanted to use science to understand God. A scientific religion arose, Deism. It grew from the idea that everything in the world, the universe functioned according to natural law and systems.
some of us know, the Crusades is not something that we enjoy discussing, but they were a big part of religious history. The Crusades were what the pope called “holy wars or expeditions,” that knights or people of their religion went on to gain control over holy land. Each Crusade had a social, economic, and/or political goal and aimed for one land at a time. The pope even exclaimed that if you went on a Crusade that you were assured a place in heaven. These Crusades, or “holy wars”, were driven by religious faith within varieties of religion like Muslims and Christians.
Darrius Jackson Professor Origill Western Civilization 11/19/2014 Voltaire's wrote Candide to show his view on how society and class, religion, warfare, and the idea of progress. Voltaire was a deist and he believed in religious equality, he wrote Candide to attack all aspects of its social structure by satirizing religion, society and social order by showing his hypocrisy. Voltaire was a prominent figure during the enlightenment era. Although he was not a typical enlightenment writer at his time because he wrote about issues including social freedom, religious inequality and civil liberty that other philosophers did not at the time. Voltaire's outspoken opinions made him very unpopular and landed him in jail but that did not stop him from
Through “Utopia” he carefully crafts an argument for this reform by creating the Utopian’s belief system in a way that is is similar enough to Christianity to be relatable for his readers, but also different enough so that readers are forced to challenge their own ingrained beliefs and ideals. In this fictional society More upholds fundamental elements of Christianity, like the existence of a singular, almighty God as, like Christians, the majority of Utopians believe in a “single power, unknown, eternal, infinite…and diffused throughout the universe, not physically, but in influence”(More 634). Qualities that are associated with classical doctrine and depictions of God like sovereignty, etherealness, and omniscience are retained in the Utopian’s beliefs. However, while these ideas are associated with the divine, they are not limited to the Christian interpretation of God and are instead attributed to an entity called “Mithra”, a divine being that’s meaning is interpreted by each individual(More 635). Such an idea would directly correlate with humanist principles, as it suggests that each person has their own valuable interpretations to make about the divine, without straying from the fundamental principles of faith.
This quote means that it is okay for a president to use religion in his politics and bring a faithful aspect to the table. Separation of church and state is keeping Americans from facing their fears of having a national religion. Americans are religious, even though there are many religions that are practiced throughout the country, we need a president who believes in a God to lead us. Many ask if the government needs religion and honestly yes we do. God has created this beautiful country for us to live on, and the government needs religion to help us
Jefferson is also once again seen as a contributor of this idea in his writing of the Declaration of Independence stating “all men are created equal.” Differences between the colonies and Europe on this idea were completely different in that the Kings and Monarchy used Christian doctorines to sustain their rule over their kingdoms. The third idea was that central government threatened polity and that a central government possessed too much power over man and many patriots rejected that notion and believed in a divided government unlike old European ways where there political theory was that god entitled political sovereignty to the Monarch’s rule. The fourth point that both deist and evangelicals believed was a cause of the revolution was the lack of virtue the English Government had shown.
The chairman orchestrates every aspect of each person’s plan, so the chairman, like God, represents the masterplan behind everything that happens in a person’s life. One conflict between this movie and a Christian perspective is that the chairman changed his will based on the decisions that David made. Whereas, God is omniscient with our thoughts and decisions, and His will already includes the decisions one makes, making His plan concrete. The movie showed that although there is a sense of Christianity, the focus of the entire movie was the journey to change their outcome of their plan.
That exactly what almost this whole piece of work reminds me of, and it reminds
“Our minds have been poisoned and our accepted beliefs are unnatural and artificial” (McGill). Psychological control is one of the many methods totalitarian governments use to remain in power. However, this can only be achieved through widespread support and loyalty from the population. Therefore, it is important to learn how to prevent and stop totalitarian regimes in today’s society. Studying George Orwell’s novel 1984 can help identify how dictators take oppressive actions in order to achieve power and control.