The Erosion of Social Capital and the Strength of Despotism essays

The Erosion of Social Capital and the Strength of Despotism essays In this current era where issues of war and terrorism rule the political arena, the power of politicians is often reliant upon one basic factor: fear. President Bushs ingenious political strategy of engaging in a seemingly infinite war on terrorism establishes fear of attack if he is not re-elected. No matter what weaknesses he may posses, whether they deal with economic recession or social inequality, he will likely win re-election because the American people have been manipulated into fearing that terrorists will strike if he is booted out of office. It comes as no surprise, then, why so many anti-war activists have related the Bush Administration to the totalitarian regime in George Orwells 1984. It tells the story of Oceania, a nation ruled by a political party driven to maintain its power and control. The Party, like the Bush Administration, uses fear in the hope of remaining in power. By using fear as a political tool, the Party eliminates all trust and social capital in Oceania, crushing all challenges to its absolute power. One of the Partys primary tools in establishing dominance over the people is through the use of a new language called Newspeak, a replacement of Oldspeak (Standard English). The whole purpose of developing this new language is part of the Partys theory that it would completely erase the possibility of ever questioning the doctrine of Ingsoc (English Socialism). By abolishing the use of undesirable words like free, and by restricting the choice of words a person could use, the result is the narrowing of a persons range of thought, thereby eliciting total cooperation to the Party (Orwell 247). In fact, the ability to think is not just narrowed, but completely eliminated, since an emphasis is placed on speaking words so rapidly that a person would not have time to induce thought (abbreviating Ministry of Love to Miniluv, for example)...