Anthem Essays - Sin, Social Philosophy, Crime, Dichotomies

Anthem The word I makes one an individual. In Ayn Rands Anthem the word I is lost and there is no individual. Just the collective people working for a common goal. The individual cannot survive in this world because it is a sin to set yourself apart as an individual. If it is a sin to be an individual wouldnt it be impossible to live without sinning. Equality 7-2521 lives in this world and he is beginning to think there is something more. So therefore a conflict springs forth from what he is and what he is taught to be. Equality 7-2521 lives in a world that controls all. In this world you have no decisions to make because you arent given any. Everything is decided for you. Our hero, Equality 7-2521, wants to make his own decision. This is a sin. You arent allowed preference in his world. What our hero doesnt realize is that he is longing for freedom and individuality. In his world Equality 7-2521 is not an individual. No one is. Everyone is working for everyone else, in a group. This is our heros dilemma. He had such an urge to follow his free will that he strayed away from his job, that was chosen for him, and left to do his own work. He thought that if he worked for the common good that he would be given the job he wanted. This was not so because he did the work by himself. And anything done by one person must be evil. Our hero struggled to become what he was taught to be, but his own preference and free will took over. He was shunned for this and told he was evil just for believing he was different from everyone else. Once Equality 7-2521 leaves this world to be by himself, he begins to question the world he lives in. This is the first time he has dared question the world he was given. We all accept the world we live in. Equality 7-2521 is happy being by himself. He asks himself that if this is evil then what is good. He begins to realize the true nature of life. He realizes that being with other people all the time is only good if you choose to. He meets up with the woman he loves and cherishes every moment he spends alive. For the first time in his life he is happy to be alive. Before he always didnt care either way whether he was alive or dead. When he is at last introduced to the word I, he weeps. He lived his whole life with never knowing why he was alive and never believing he had a purpose. Our hero is an individual now and he knows it is not evil.

How does the Novel Nineteen Eighty Four anticipate social changes Essay

How does the Novel Nineteen Eighty Four anticipate social changes after WW2 - Essay Example 3). Characterized as dystopian fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four gives expression to the aftermath of the Second World War and the onset of the Cold War by depicting a largely â€Å"impoverished world† (Booker and Thomas 2009, p. 193). In Orwell’s world, a harsh dictatorship has risen to power following a global nuclear war that occurred during the 1950s. Put in its proper context, this abrasive regime in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is particularly thought provoking because the novel is written when â€Å"memories of European Fascism were still fresh and anti-Stalinist rhetoric was on the rise† (Booker and Thomas 2009, p. 193). A major theme in Orwell’s novel is anti-totalitarianism. Reed and Spring (1984) maintain that Orwell wanted to demonstrate what can occur when governments are prescribed too much authority (p. 24). Ultimately, those self-empowered governments will take control to such an extent that is meant to ensure that their power is sustai ned (Reed and Spring 1984, p. 24). Orwell wastes little time introducing the extent of that power and its system of control. Through his protagonist Winston Smith who is a civil servant for the ruling dictatorship, the reader learns of the extent of the ruling dictatorship’s control. ... representative of the government’s warning that it was constantly watching and that any sign of revolt or opposition against the government would not go unchecked. Indeed it can be argued that Orwell predicted or forewarned with a reasonable degree of precision what would unfold in the future. Tinpots, as described by Wintrobe (2000) are governments that permit conventional ways of living, but uses repression and oppression in order to remain in power and â€Å"collect the fruits of monopolizing political power (p. 11). Latin American dictators typically epitomize this image of the tinpot regime (Wintrobe 2000, p. 11). In the aftermath of the Second World War, Latin American regimes have been characterized by economic growth and lulls and political instability facilitated by tumultuous outcries for democracies (Leonard 2006, p. 123). This political instability may be a direct reflection of Orwell’s forecast of totalitarian rule in Nineteen Eighty-Four. The drive to do all that is necessary to retain power by these kinds of regimes remains intricately connected to political unrest and instability. When power is centralized, maintaining power becomes a virtual struggle with the result that economic policies are not a priority. As Sloan (1984) puts it, in Latin America, policymakers are so determined to obtain legitimacy â€Å"or at least survival† that development suffers (p. 19). Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four however, forecasts Asia, rather than Latin America, as â€Å"a region dedicated to death worship and the obliteration of itself† (MacKinnon and Powell 2007, p. 86). This death knell however is not relegated to Asia alone in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell’s novel acknowledges that the world’s three super-states, Oceania (Britain, the Americas, South

Closing Guantanamo Prison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Closing Guantanamo Prison - Essay Example Indeed, the United Kingdom has even called for the United States to shut down Guantanamo Bay (‘UK told US won’t shut Guantanamo’). This essay considers a number of contentions regarding the importance of keeping Guantanamo Prison a functioning detention center, and then ultimately argues that after considering the arguments and evidence that the detention facility should be closed. When considering the potential closing of Guantanamo Bay prison there are a number of objections individuals have levied to this proposal. One of the central objections in these regards concerns the intelligence that could have been potentially gained in the interrogation procedures that were conducted there during and immediately after the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. During this period extensive water-boarding interrogation procedures were conducted with individuals that had been identified as major terrorists and believed to have information that was essential to United States war efforts in the Middle East. Governmental investigations into Guantanamo have even at times supported the detaining of prisoners in the facility. A recent Washington Post report stated, â€Å"A Justice Department-led task force has concluded that nearly 50 of the 196 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be held indefinitely without trial under the laws of war, according to Obama administration officials† (Finn 2010). Still, many reports have indicated the growing levels of torture implemented at the facility. Hyland (2004) indicated that, â€Å"Three Britons freed from Guantanamo Bay in March have released a 115-page dossier accusing the US of carrying out torture and sexual degradation at the military concentration camp in Cuba.† Even as in large part these activities were deemed near torture by human rights groups, they were still allowed to occur as they were carried out within the confines of Guantanamo. When considering the evid ence, it’s shown these interrogation methods are entirely ineffective. Research indicates that overly intensive interrogation methods have been demonstrated to be ineffective in gaining information, and oftentimes lead to false information (Butler 2007). This is particularly clear in the instance of Guantanamo Bay interrogations. Butler (2007, pg. 63) writes, Often all that is gained by aggressive interrogative techniques are false confessions. For example, Asif Iqbal gave interrogators a false confession. After extensive interrogation, he finally admitted that he was, indeed, in the videotape with Osama Bin Laden†¦Later, the British intelligence found proof that Asif Iqbal†¦had been in England at the time the video was made Indeed, the argument is that rather than actually being an effective method of gathering intelligence information, these interrogation methods resulted in false information being gathered. When one considers the issues more intently further evid ence points to this rebuttal being correct. Debeaux (2005) even indicated that a number of detainees were even gathered through a bounty system that was in place between Afghanis and United States’ forces; when one considers this, the increased potential for misinformation is greatly increased. Ultimately this makes it so that the main benefit of keeping this prison open is negated