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Freedom of the media essay
Why media freedom is important
Why media freedom is important
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Throughout our generation there will be rulers, leaders, and followers. Some will fall and crumble, while others, will persuade exceptionally well and lure in thousands if not millions of followers. They may have the capability of taking over towns, cities, and even countries. One type of leader is a dictator; dictatorship is the form or way a government may run. A dictator is one who has total power over a country so thus the government is runned through dictatorship. A government and it’s society are affected as a whole through this one dictator that has risen through power sometimes employing force, through exemplary persuasion. Oblivious are the people, until they fall.
Proceeding WWI, Germany had signed a treaty known as the “Treaty of Versailles”. The collapse of the government had begun, where weeks will follow of chaos and poverty. “When the kaiser and chancellor left, members of different political parties vied for power, and the country limped along for several months without a firm government in power”(Brown University). At this point with people in troubled situations, Hitler a non german citizen took advantage to begin a campaign of which imposed all of his beliefs. Some were such as the hatred towards Jews, of which he classified very similarly to a race as heard through his speeches of them. Life in Germany changed dramatically during this time due to hyperinflation and reparations. Hyperinflation is the extremity of rising prices of all goods and products, almost bringing the value of money down to simply ashes. “By September 1923, this figure had reached 1,500,000 marks and at the peak of hyperinflation, November 1923, a loaf of bread cost 200,000,000,000 marks” is a good example of the mind boggling prices that...
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...e, most evidently we will see dictators arise as we move into the era of “increased knowledge”. Some will gain power and others will abuse it. The people are the true government and the way governments should run by and not against. Won’t be long before we see a vast outbreak of another war due to dictatorship.
Works Cited
Melina, Remy. "What Are the Different Types of Governments?" What Are the Different Types of Governments? Live Science, 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
"Hyperinflation and Weimar Germany." Hyperinflation and Weimar Germany. N.p., 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
"Kim Jong-un." 2014. The Biography Channel website. Feb 20 2014, 01:29http://www.biography.com/people/kim-jong-un-21125351.
Matthews, Jane. "'Strikingly Similar to the Nazis': Full Horror of Life in North Korea Revealed." Daily Express World RSS. Express, 17 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Blaine Harden, former national correspondent and writer for the New York Times, delivers an agonizing and heartbreaking story of one man’s extremely conflicted life in a labor camp and an endeavor of escaping this place he grew up in. This man’s name is Shin Dong-hyuk. Together, Blaine Harden and Shin Dong-hyuk tell us the story of this man’s imprisonment and escape into South Korea and eventually, the United States, from North Korea. This biography that takes place from 1982-2011, reports to its readers on what is really going on in “one of the world’s darkest nations” (back cover of the book), that is run under a communist state and totalitarian dictatorship that was lead by Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and currently lead by Kim-Jong un. In Escape from Camp 14, Shin shows us the adaptation of his life and how one man can truly evolve from an animal, into a real human being.
As the wise Plato once said, “Tyranny naturally arises out of Democracy.” It appears Plato was in fact wise beyond his years. He must have known that something in may prove him right in the future. This proof comes from Fascism during the years between World Wars. Fascism thrived during the interwar years because its eloquent leaders made the people to whom they spoke feel important to the common cause. In Italy and Germany especially, Hitler and Mussolini gave the people tasks in order to make them believe that they were significant. All of the events that transpired because of these two men played out when the leaders targeted the emotions of the people. Two men changed the face of history forever with powerful oratories, intricate parades, and clever propaganda meant to make the people of their respective countries feel in control, significant, and powerful.
With the dawn of civilization soon thereafter followed the creation of authoritarian and totalitarian establishments. The history of man is inundated with instances of leaders rising to power over certain groups of people and through various means gaining formidable control to be used for good, evil, or an ambiguous mixture of both. However, it is an undeniable fact that once unchecked power is acquired, tyranny often ensues, and thus a dictatorial regime is born. Over the centuries, governmental establishments have risen and fallen, but as history and civilization progress, so does the potential for a larger and more powerful domination. The development of differing and contrasting theologies and structural philosophies leads not only to conflict, but perhaps more prominently to unification under one rule with a common belief, especially when that unifying belief provides a promising sense of belonging and structure to a weak society. This is what led to the rise of two of the most domineering totalitarian governments in history: Stalin’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Hitler’s Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich.
people decide that they want a dictatorship. If I was a ruler during the period of the
1984 demonstrates a dystopian society in Oceania by presenting a relentless dictator, Big Brother, who uses his power to control the minds of his people and to ensure that his power never exhausts. Aspects of 1984 are evidently established in components of society in North Korea. With both of these society’s under a dictator’s rule, there are many similarities that are distinguished between the two. Orwell’s 1984 becomes parallel to the world of dystopia in North Korea by illustrating a nation that remains isolated under an almighty ruler.
Hitler’s rise to power before World War II was due to his anger at Germany’s defeat in World War I and the punishment Germany received from Britain and France. He also directed his anger at Jews and communists he believed contributed to that defeat. He blamed them for the loss of World War I, which he thought was a Jewish conspiracy (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 1). He also believed that the Treaty of Versailles was a Jewish conspiracy designed to take down the country of Germany (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 1) as well as the hyperinflation of 1923, which he believed to be an international conspiracy by the Jewish people (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany (The History Place: Holocaust Timeline pg. 1). This was the rise to power that he needed to carry out his campaign of evil against the Jewish people. After his rise to power, Hitler branded the Jews as
As an Austrian born soldier-turned-politician, Hitler was fascinated with the concept of the racial supremacy of the German people. He was also a very bitter, very evil little man. In addition, having lost the war, the humiliated Germans were forced by the Allies to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 that officially ended World War I. According to the harsh terms of the treaty, Germany had to hand over many of its richest industrial territories to the victors, and was made to pay reparations to the Allied countries it devastated during the war. Germany lost its pride, prestige, wealth, power, and the status of being one of Europe's greatest nations.
... dictators have been exiled or even executed as a result of the widespread use of these technologies. Dobson also writes that the biggest problem that dictators and authoritarians face is their own people (9). These factors drive dictators to learn their mistakes and their fellow dictators’ mistakes, causing the nature of dictatorship to change over the years. Particularly, Russia and China are still going strong as dictatorial regimes even though they do not appear to be so. Additionally, the involvements of non-state actors such as the CANVAS, have also affected the dictatorial regime power. With these non-state organizations have grown stronger and more powerful over time, the power of dictatorial regime has become more vulnerable to attack. In fact, these non-state actors can easily overthrow some less powerful dictator and might forget their democratic identity.
"Genocide in North Korea | World Policy Institute." Genocide in North Korea | World Policy Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.
In the book 1984, George Orwell demonstrates that a society can turn into a totalitarian regime if a Dictator such as Kim Jong Un takes over the nation by manipulating the military, media and government. In 1984 Big brother leads the government to control the past and the future through the manipulation of the present. “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell, 37) this is exemplified through the manipulation of social values and beliefs through the revision of history. Big brother controls society, the party eliminates the teaching of the past; the party re-writes history to help them control the future. Some may argue that there is still hope and there are people out there who have the thoughts of freedom to change the nation to a better place.
“An evil group of men has always wanted to rule the entire world. In the past conquest has failed to achieve this, due to the resulting outrage and awareness of the enemy. In our present time an evil group are trying a subtle but effective way to rule. This is to gradually infiltrate and delude the masses into accepting their ideas. Such subtle gradualism, along with distraction (such as unnecessary work, study, entertainment and sport) is being used effectively. Few people will therefore be aware of what is going on.” – Richard Hole
Given the research conducted for this essay, and the articles provided, it is indeed clear that we are headed in the direction of an autocracy, both in terms of technology, politics, and law. As terrorist groups continue to conspire and carry out attacks across the world, we are only growing ever more desperate, believing that our government will save us, or that we must be more aggressive towards our enemies to keep ourselves safe. Yet, we naturally fail to realize that more aggression only leads to more hatred towards us, thus, more members of terrorist groups, thus, a greater need for government control. If we wish to stop the “birth of Big Brother”, as seen in”1984” we must aid countries in need of supplies, instead of helping them, and,
After Germany lost World War I, it was in a national state of humiliation. Their economy was in the drain, and they had their hands full paying for the reparations from the war. Then a man named Adolf Hitler rose to the position of Chancellor and realized his potential to inspire people to follow. Hitler promised the people of Germany a new age; an age of prosperity with the country back as a superpower in Europe. Hitler had a vision, and this vision was that not only the country be dominant in a political sense, but that his ‘perfect race’, the ‘Aryans,’ would be dominant in a cultural sense. His steps to achieving his goal came in the form of the Holocaust. The most well known victims of the Holocaust were of course, the Jews. However, approximately 11 million people were killed in the holocaust, and of those, there were only 6 million Jews killed. The other 5 million people were the Gypsies, Pols, Political Dissidents, Handicapped, Jehovah’s witnesses, Homosexuals and even those of African-German descent. Those who were believed to be enemies of the state were sent to camps where they were worked or starved to death.
In addition to the tyranny of the majority, democracies are subject to a second type of tyranny that is deeply rooted within the framework and lives of individuals—social tyranny. Society itself at times can be a relentless tyrant. This “social tyranny” is not restricted to what society can do through the acts of political government,
Throughout childhood to adulthood, one may oftentimes hear the quote “knowledge is power”. It is a quote usually drilled into the heads of elementary to college-aged kids in order to encourage his or her pursuit of an education. As much as privileged students roll his or her eyes at the utterance of this quote, it is hard to deny the weight of truth in this quote when examining the history of many countries. This is especially true during times of oppressive rule. Freedom of press, information, and lines of communication are usually the main thing to be restricted when there is a hunger for complete control over a group of people. The shadow of ignorance is used to blind the oppressed and keep/hide them in the dark from any potential aid.