The world - a rat trap. A rat trap, is what one would define as a simple instrument designed to trap mice with the use of bait. The world, as one may see it, can be defined as an elaborate rat trap: all the luxuries, privileges, resources - baits - offered by the world lure those foolish enough to possess materialistic life goals. In “Jon”, one of the short stories in George Saunders’ In Persuasion Nation, “the facility” (Saunders, 23) represents the world which provides “the Assessors” (Saunders, 48) with resources including food, clothing, shelter, fame; everything an individual would need to live a comfortable life. The Assessors, including Jon, hold their materialistic goals of comfort, basic amenities, and personal and social recognition …show more content…
This confusion along with their level of interchangeability, often influences people into making the wrong choices, until they realize that in fact, their wants are and have always been what they truly need. There exists a thin line which differentiates what a person wants and what he needs: a want is a desire - a wish - for something, whereas a need is something one has to have in order to survive. What a person fails to realize - like Jon - is that one cannot live his life with only his needs, in fact, there is a need for fulfillment of wants for a person to be content with life. Jon, like most of the other Assessors, focuses on the fulfillment of his needs (though petty and materialistic), and often places them before his wants. He chooses his life in the facility - which fulfilled his needs - over the life which he may have had with Carolyn in the real world “Outside” - which he truly wanted. The facility needed Jon (and the Assessors), and not the other way around. Yes, the life in the facility is full of privileges, resources, fame and status, social life, and respect, but it has a devastating impact on self-confidence, on taking initiative, on individualism: on identity. It is as if, in our heads it always makes sense, but later when we look back, we sometimes realize how big a mistake we have made. This moment of realization where Jon realizes that his …show more content…
It is this notion which gives the capitalists the opportunity and the means to exploit people in the society, through their wants and needs for an easy, nonchalant lifestyle. The problem arises when we start seeing these capitalists as saviors - as rescuers, and sometimes even incarnations of God - who save the people under them, from the hardened, miserable, and volatile life which they may have lead otherwise. It is at this moment where we commit our biggest mistake: put in our trust, faith and our life in the hands of these capitalists. They hardwire such people - make them feel like a prince, where in reality all they are, are peasants being manipulated and controlled to fulfill the personal objectives of these capitalists. It is in moments like these, where a person must realize, that all these comforts - these resources, these status privileges, the capitalists trust in them - are all but ‘baits’, intricately thought of and designed to ‘lure’ an individual into the trap from which - despite tremendous efforts - if caught, it is extremely difficult to escape from. It is, in moments like these, where one must develop and possess the mental
“"Propaganda is as powerful as heroin, it surreptitiously dissolves all capacity to think” by Gil Courtemanche connects to the sad fact of using propaganda as a deadly weapon to feed people with false information and stop them from thinking. George Orwell’s novel, 1984, describes a totalitarian dystopian society where the Party is constantly brainwashing its citizens with information that is beneficial to its own rights. On the opposite side, people are working for the party just like dominated slaves for their masters without knowing what’s going on. But, in order for the party to achieve this goal, they have to use different techniques of propaganda in Oceania to create fear for people so that they can obey the rules. The use of propaganda in the society of 1984 takes away freedom from individuals because of the absence of privacy, thinking and making decisions.
In 1948, George Orwell wrote one of the most memorable dystopian novels, 1984. This novel depicts a totalitarian world where there are no ways to use freedom, express free though, or express individuality, but there are various sources of brainwashing propaganda. The Party’s slogan ‘war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength’ is where the brainwashing process in Oceania begins. Brainwashing and government control are also crucial elements in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. In the world of Panem, 1 boy and 1 girl are chosen from each of the 12 districts to fight to the death. The game’s slogan ‘may the odds be ever in your favor’ shows the Capitol’s usage of doublethink. These slogans are used by the ruling groups as propaganda and show one of the similarities in how the governments brainwash, torture, and control the past of their people.
“The need of a constantly expanding market for its products (.) chases the bourgeois over the whole surface of the globe” (Marx, 212) and creates a world that cannot exist without the separation of workers and owners and competition for the lowest price. The struggle between the bourgeois and the proletariat begins when the labor of the worker becomes worth less than the product itself. Marx proposes that our social environment changes our human nature. For example, capitalism separates us from the bourgeois and proletariat because it alienates us from our true human nature, our species being, and other men.
Thesis: The allure of the New Age can be attributed in part to an overall lack of understanding its nature; when its history is taken into consideration and its persuasive element is exposed, we see that, contrary to the assumption that the New Age is a freer alternative to mainstream religion, persuasion is a very present part of the New Age.
Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, showcases a world alternate from ours, in a dystopian setting. Where human morals are drastically altered, families, love, history, and art are removed by the government. They used multiple methods to control the people, but no method in the world is more highly used and more effective than propaganda. The world state heavily implemented the use of propaganda to control, to set morals, and to condition the minds of every citizen in their world. However, such uses of propaganda have already been used in our world and even at this very moment.
Commodity fetishism has blinded people into believing that value is a relationship between objects, when in reality, it is a relationship between people. This in turn, prevents people from thinking about the social labor condition workers have to endure; they only care and value about how much objects costs. They think that the source of the value comes from the cost, but it truly comes from labor (FC). Through this objectification stems alienation and estrangement. Marx starts with the assumption that humans have an intrinsic quality. As human beings, individuals like to be create and manipulate his or her environment. Creating is a part of people; therefore, people their being into their creations. However, Marx postulates that capitalism and specialized division of labor separates that working class from their creations in four ways- through alienation from the product, the labor process, one’s species-being, and humanity itself. The working class suffers through this hostility to make create more wealth for owners of factories. They get trapped in a cycle to make products for profit, but as automation advances, machines begins to take over people’s jobs; therefore, there less employment opportunities available, which in turn allows factory owners to decrease wages and exploit and devalue the working class (EL). In the The Poverty
This is the story of the rat and his greed. People take the short road, and miss out on opportunities. They try and cut through life like it is a board game. People that have the patience, and put in the time, get what they expected, and more.
Many people want change to happen in a variety of ways. For instance, many want a new start once every while to keep their lives interesting. As shown in the short story, Ann wants a change in her life. She wants an actual life worth living filled with happiness and love as she says “It was something of a life she wanted, not just a house and furniture; something of John, not pretty clothes when she would be too old to wear them”(51). She wanted a life with John where he would always love and cherish her but that is nothing near what she got. Most importantly, Ann wants John to change. Just like every other couple, after a certain amount of time they return to their old life habits. Once a lively loving couple now turned into an average dull life of two people living together. One can presume that most people dislike this phase and want change to happen when this occurs. This is very present in the story as John falls into his routine of continuously working. He only knows how to show his love by working harder and sacrificing more. This is shown when Ann describes John: “ To him it was not what he actually accomplished by means of the sacrifice that mattered, but the sacrifice itself, the gesture - something done for her sake”(51). She wants John to be able to understand her and to give her the love that she wants rather than
The capitalist is motivated by being rewarded wealth. Capital can only multiply by giving itself in return of labor power. This exchange is based on specified percentages. For example, after a long 12 hours of weaving the worker is only compensated two shillings. They attain residual wealth by taking advantage of workers. These workers are being compensated less than the value of their work. The workers endure great deals of exploitation. Workers put their labor power into effect to acquire means of survival which makes existence possible. The amount of commodities is based on the cost of life and the workers’ work ethic. Marx foreseen that class conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat would result in the collapsing of capitalism. The motivations of the capitalist and the workers create conflict because the capitalist attempt to uphold capitalism by advocating their principles, beliefs, and fabricated perceptions that prevent proletariats from rebelling. Once the two classes conflict with one another the cla...
In 2008, Rudra Sabaratnam, the CEO of the City of Angels Medical Center, committed health care fraud when he attempted to extort money from Medicare and Medi-Cal. He was wealthy, yet, his greed for more money led him to cheat the taxpayer-funded healthcare programs of millions of dollars, depriving the people who actually need the help and money. The greed that Sabaratnam had was partly caused by the profit seeking capitalist system. The desire for wealth in capitalist society leads to corruption and causes a divide between the rich and the poor, so perhaps a system that supports equality and fairness is a better choice. The Eastern-European expression,“Capitalism is man exploiting man; communism is just the opposite,” summarizes one of the main ideas in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck’s aversion to a capitalist society is a motif that appears in several of his literary works, but in The Grapes of Wrath he attacks capitalism constantly and he exposes the poverty, cruelty, and greed found in our capitalist system. By emphasizing the wealthy’s insatiable appetite for profit, which forces the migrants to face hardships, Steinbeck accentuates the inequitable aspects of capitalism, and promotes communism as an alternative.
In the brave new world, the society is based off of the motto, “Community, identity, [and] stability” (Huxley 3). In this supposed Utopian society, people being content with their jobs and being a contributor to the process of consumption drive their happiness. People are satisfied with dying because they know their bodies will be cremated and used for fertilizer. Citizens are happy because they believe it is “fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we’re dead. Making plants grow” (Huxley 73). All of the people are under a false impression of happiness because they do not realize how much the Director and higher authorities manipulate them. They do not realize how much they really cannot do. They do not realize how much they do not about their lives and life around them. All the people think about is consumption and how it serves as happiness. The citizens are too ignorant and blind to the fact that they are only living to be a part of the assembly line, and that is their only purpose. John is the only character that is sickened by the assembly line and sees how disturbing life in the new world is. He is the only one who realizes how much control the Director has over the society and how people do not even have the ability think for themselves. He sees this fabricated happiness in play, and it makes him start to violently retch in disgust at this so-called
In simple terms capitalism is defined as “an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state” (). Capitalism is so embedded in American ideology that few people can see beyond this simple definition; and because teachings of capitalism are often one sided –capitalism promotes free market and private ownership therefore there is less governmental control as opposed to any other means of production– few people question the truth of these claims. Authors Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Slavoj Zizek all go beyond the simple definition of capitalism to point out some flaws that are often unseen but could prove to be detrimental for a democratic society. In his lecture "Society Must Be Defended" Foucault says that the emergence of “population” as a political problem is directly tied to the growth of capitalism. Deleuze’s paper “Society of Control” argues that modern capitalism has mutated greatly from the 19th century “ideal” form of capitalism. And Slavoj Zizek, in his article “Welcome to the Desert of the Real” points out that global capitalism has gone virtually unchallenged until the World Trade Center bombings in 2001. The film “The Matrix” (1999) takes a similar position and argues that modern capitalism is, in fact, the ultimate source of control and will be the downfall of our society. Most people will agree that “The Matrix” is a very trippy and action filled movie but few people will catch the anti-capitalist tone of the film. After all, what could futuristic men in dark clothes and sunglasses possibly say about the state of society today? Using the readings, I will give a deeper analysis of the chara...
Lynn Harsh (Nov. 2002). ‘Capitalism – A Deal with the Devil?’. Retrieved on Mar. 23 from:
Capitalism dominates the world today. Known as a system to create wealth, capitalism’s main purpose is to increase profits through land, labor and free market. It is a replacement of feudalism and slavery. It promises to provide equality and increases living standards through equal exchanges, technological innovations and mass productions. However, taking a look at the global economy today, one can clearly see the disparity between developed and developing countries, and the persistence of poverty throughout the world despite the existence of abundant wealth. This modern issue was predicted and explained a hundred and fifty years ago in Karl Marx’s Capital.
Based on Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto, one can conclude that a government can provide and proect its citizens by supporting the needs of the working class. Throughout the text, it is demonstrated that the ruling class or bourgeois often exploit the working class or proletariats for profit. Marx also warned about the dangers of capitalism as it offers a false sense of social mobility. He wrote that as the industrial revolution developed, workers were, “Slaves of the bourgeois class… they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself”(Pg 31 Par. 2). Marx’s use of the words “enslaved” and “machine” imply that the the members of the working class are being treated as property rather than human beings. This symbolism of slavery reveals that unrestricted capitalism causes people to be exploited like slaves. In these situations, many workers are paid just enough to survive but never have a chance to attain any sort of freedom or peace. This labor crisis still continues today. In California, the minimum wage is not enough to support a living wage for a single adult. People who work full-time minimum wage jobs are forced to live in poverty to insure greater profits for corporations. It is the role of the government to assure something like this never happens. The government needs to provide for and support the