9Bs
IP:
When a person joins a totalitarian society, you are trapped for life. The effect of individuals is they live a two face life in the perspective that they obey the leaders and give in to pressure, but on the inside they are being tortured and their souls are being crushed.
In 1984, the people seem to like living the lifestyle that has been dealt to them but for all we know, they could have been like Winton and be dying on the inside but be just one of the ants in a row, just marching and marching. We never saw the story from anyone elses point of view so for all we know there could have been other people that conspired and wrote down things about the society and the party in their journal but were too scared and intimidated to do anything about it. From the outside looking in, the party and big brother managed to get to the point where nobody resisted and even if they did, they were annihilated. However, they achieved it by fear unlike Feed, Hitler, and Stalin who used terms that were more discrete. In Feed the feed is portrayed as a smart phone, an ipad, and a computer all in one. Its basically a toy that is a tool for the government. Whenever a person gets close to finding out there is something fishy going on, the feed goes to work. It puts up an ad or asks you to buy something because then you forget what you were thinking and the identity and protection of the government stayed. The society is physically unharmed and for the most part mentally unharmed because they don’t know they are in a totalitarianistic system. Hitler told people all the good things he would do and he gave his community hope. He gave them hope that his policies would help them and bring them to the top. After the great depression, people were down on their luck and they needed something to root for. Hitler rallied them and he found them a common enemy- the jewish. He had them on lock; they would do anything that he asked because in their eyes he was their hero. They were totally controlled but without hurting them and without instilling fear in them. He just simply tricked them. He used propaganda and fooled them. He used posters such as the ideal german woman- blonde hair, blue eyes, ect. He also trained them without them knowing. HE sent kids to “fun camps” which were actually german bootcamps. He was a genius in the sense that he controlled people without hurting them. I think he could have been the greatest leader and mastermind in the history of the world if he didnt kill all those people. Stalin used propaganda to empower himself in the minds of the russian people. He used propaganda, he used statues, he showed that if an average joe works hard; he can become great. He brainwashed children with cartoons that made everyone except russia a bad guy. He changed history similar to the party in 1984. He made people love him in the way that he was great. He was a superman and he was the leader. He displayed that if you work hard, anyone can become great. This made people follow him and believe in him because he seemed so much higher. People looking back on stalin love him in the 21 century but I also personally know a guy from russia that hates stalin and is his own words, “stalin bad”. So he got mixed results but i think the people that loved him outwiegh those who disliked him.
Kris K:
Outline for final history essay:
Thesis (option 3) - All totalitarian regimes degrade the society they rule but also the people themselves. Totalitarian regimes come into existence because the leader wants total power over the country and its people. Because the leader doesn’t care about the people except for purposes of resourcing it is obvious why the living conditions of the societies are horrible or not as good as they should be, while mentally taking a toll on the citizens themselves.
Body paragraph 1 - topic: malnourishment
In all of the totalitarian regimes I have studied I have found one thing in common,
that is malnourishment. In 1984, Russia, and Germany the great majority of the resources produced were used to manufacture war entities and industrialize the country or move industrialization along. Because the resources were used for industrialization there was little left for the poor people (majority) to have. In Germany food might have been scarcer but most everyone ate, in 1984 it seemed to be there was a lot less food because winston and everyone was skinny and kind of bony. in 1984 there were more substances like gin and tobacco handed out to numb everyone. Russia had the biggest toll on its population which was caused 15 million people to die from famine while being worked to death on a farm or in a factory. In Feed the people were malnourished in a very different way, by the actual feed itself. The feed was responsible for the glowing lesions that appeared on people bodies at random.
Body paragraph 2 - topic : purges
All totalitarian leaders got into power by purging the opposition, and they continued to reign superior power by purging any sort of threats whatsoever to the parties power. Because totalitarian regimes operate by oppression of the people, regularly asserting their power in the form of purges kept citizens scared and cooperative which was crucial to the continued rule of the party. Purges were supposed to only be used on traitors and criminals and enemies of the party, but because the party had to stay paranoid to be completely safe, many, or most of the purges carried out where on innocent people. The regime had total power so they did not have to present a verified cause to purge you, they just did it if they thought you were a threat to them somehow. Purges in Germany, Russia, and 1984 were conducted by the parties secret police. At night the secret police would come and grab you from your home or wherever your residence was and they would take you to your imminent death of either a bullet to the head, years of slave labor for the regime, or imprisonment. In feed though, purges were conducted in a totally different manner. In Feed the corporations poisoned violet by poisoning the feed chip in her brain. Her body would start to malfunction with only minor malfunctions but after a few weeks it got extremely bad, they she became paralyzed, then she died.
Body paragraph 3- topic: propaganda
Propaganda was one of the main things all totalitarian regimes used to promote their power and motivate the citizens. Propaganda was generally in poster or movie form, containing a very simple but obvious message that the normal citizen could understand, even if they were just an illiterate farmer. Propaganda was also posted everywhere to constantly drive people toward the parties cause. Some types of propaganda is propaganda promotes the regime, propaganda that makes the average person look heroic, propaganda that encourages donations to the regime, propaganda that tells you work harder. In all situations propaganda was everywhere. In 1984, Germany, and Russia propaganda was displayed mostly in poster and cinemas or said by speakers, but it was also incorporated more slyly into things list 5th graders textbooks. It wasn’t obvious propaganda, but it was definitely there. In feed the advertisements was the propaganda and it was more effective I think because you could not turn it off so you are forced to listen to it.
Conclusion - all of the totalitarian regimes used the same techniques to keep control and those techniques made living day to day life miserable for the citizens in its power.
IB:
Hannah Arendit is right because what totalaterism regimes have in common is power. In both societies the power was tailored to one man. Everything that happened in those societies was done so that the power would go to one man which would be either Stalin or Hitler.
Both Stalin and Hitler used propaganda to keep power. Evidence from the poster of Stalin looking noble and the hero of the country. Both leaders put up these types of posters everywhere. These posters would represent the power that they had by showing both leaders looking dominant over everything. Many other types of propaganda they used were posters of common people. A poster that Hitler used that was very effective was of a women nursing a young baby. I think this was important for people to see because it targeted there personal side because it was so common and not something that rich could do but everyone did. In those posters were subliminal messages. For example, in the poster I just referred to the mom was a blonde headed farming lady. According to Hitler that was the purest race so that made sense. Not only did both leaders make them self look good to keep power but they also put down people. For example, Hitler would embellish Jewish people to make them look like monsters in order to influence people and how they thought of them. Much to the same, Stalin would use propaganda in order to put down rich or people that were against him. In cartoon done by Stalin, he makes rich people look greedy and selfish by showing them taking from people and then the army coming into kill them. Overall I would say both these leaders were the same in the propaganda methods they used.
Another type of method both leaders used to keep power through there foreign policies. There policies were in order to make sure threats would not attack there country so they would go out and take other countries. Through watching the vodcast on both Hitler and Stalins foreign policy much of it was based on control of land masses and keeping there own power safe by keeping there countries safe. Both leaders basically used a treaty to carve out Poland like it was there own. They did not care for people or who they were but only for themselves. Not only did they tear up Poland by invading and taking it but they killed many innocent lives. If you look at Russia before it became the USSR you notice that it was much smaller. After forming the USSR it nearly expanded the country by adding more countries. Hitler did much of the same with Austria. Since Hitler was from there he assumed he could take it and make it under Nazi law. Also a lot of the countries that these men took were very weak and not able to defend themselves. It seemed like when a bully picks on someone younger and weaker. It’s not really winning but more me showing I’m stronger and you will do what I tell you to do or else.
Stalin and Hitler had power by influencing the young. In a excerpt from a Nazi biology book you can see that Hitler has many hidden messages in it. Much of it is not biology but Nazi party thoughts. This being information about how society works which is very important in a totalaterism society. Hitler also would have Nazi youth camps which was looked upon as sort of the Boy Scouts. Many people bought into it and started making kids go to them so they would be brainwashed at a young age. These camp were looked at as a good time which would educate kids on how to live life. Stalin used youth also in order to keep power but instead of using camps he would use propaganda. As I said earlier, Stalin would often make cartoons which would have messages in them that kids would pick without even knowing it. The brilliance in that idea was that kids did not even realize the messages that they were learning but only would be amazed by the cartoon. One example of this was a cartoon I saw which showed how American music was dull and how Russian music was cool and hip. Kids did not see this message but only saw little birds singing.
Both these man kept power by eliminating any threats to power. Many killing would be done by these two man. Stalin killed Trotsky who was his biggest rival in order to keep power. Hitler killed also many party members that were before Nazi times in order so no one would take his power. These men feared threats to them. The way they would take care of these threats was through killing. Stalin was notorious for erasing you from history. A photo was taken were Stalin was standing by one of his party members. The person was thought to have gone against Stalin and then was killed. He was taken out of the photo through editing. Stalin had the power to do that and was influenced to do it by his paranoia which was common for both of these leaders. Hitler would just kill anybody. I think the scary thing about Hitler was that he would test people on ways to kill them. For many people would became test dummies.
Hannah Aredit was right because both man had one thing and that was power. All you need in that type of society is power and that’s why Hannah is right because they both had power and used it for bad. I think a totalertian society would never work because of that fact. When people become in power they can’t help but abuse it. All theses leaders care about power and them having it. They didn’t do it to become rich because that doesn’t do anything. Power is the ultimate form of control. When you have it people will bow down and you can do some pretty messed up things. The greatest enemies to ever live were the same person.
Bobby:
In a totalitarian society the people suffer, while a false mood is put on by the totalitarian power to still get their support, while those that don’t go along with the mood are shot down.
In the book Feed most people have a chip in their head and are constantly monitored. The corporations can do almost anything they want since they are literally in the people’s heads. In the excerpt from feed they specifically state how people don’t really care that they give up privacy and a lot of security to be able to use the feeds. People aren’t the only thing suffering though. The environment is ruined, since the ocean is so polluted that it isn’t even water anymore and nothing can live in it, and also the forests are gone entirely. The world is rotting away around them, including whats urban, like how the fake sky where violet lives at is peeling off, or how air is leaking from the hospital on the moon from the broken down room. All of these things, yet no one seems to notice how wrong it is. Violet and Titus looked at the leaking air and thought it was cool. Titus’ dad went whaling and got whales with plastic coating on them so they don’t die from the pollution, thinking of the whole thing as fun, not at all disturbing at how unnatural it is, but rather showing it to his family. People are even cutting down trees to make air factories, and when the last forests fell people looked back at it as good memories seeing animals in their yard, lost because their natural habitats had been destroyed. Another thing that’s out of place is the global issues, which seem pretty devastating, yet the only people that notice then are violet and her father. No one seems to care that their skin is falling off or why, but they are concerned about the latest trend. Another thing that I’ve noticed is how there’s some sort of dispute going on but you only get little bits, like people whipped out, and covered in some black substance. There’s all of these problems going on, the world and humanity with it rotting away, yet the corporations are able to put a positive spin on it that people get caught up in, like sales, and what’s the latest thing out. The people that don’t believe the corporations lies are looked at as weird and cast out away from other people, like violet, just because she was more intelligent than the average person. It’s not that the people are forced to obey this totalitarian power, its that they want to.
In the book 1984 no one has any freedom. Everything is decided for you and enforced. Any form of resistance, even a word against big brother, and the thought police will make you disappear and every one lives on poverty. In the excerpt from 1984 Winston talks about a man who disappeared after he had done some writing that wasn’t very supportive of big brother. How ever party is very good with manipulation, so good that you can never tell what is real, false, or just not yet noticed. The book is from the perspective of a man who despises the totalitarian leader, and it looks like this is just a corrupt government running a country that’s completely destroyed from war. Later you find out that it is so much more, when you find out that the entire time they had been falling for the party’s trap. This proves how totalitarian powers can control everyone mentally, even the ones that think they’re rebelling. They have everyone under their power completely convinced that they are living in paradise and that big brother protects them all, except for a select few, such as Winston and Julia, who despise big brother. People like that are snatched up by the thought police, and tortured into submission until they fit the party’s description of a perfect slave of big brother.
In Hitlers Nazi Germany people worked, and they worked long and hard. There was no exception, because everyone had to work. Some how hitler was able to make work seem like a good thing by using it to drop unemployment, while rebuilding Germany and telling every one to look at what they’ve accomplished at the end of a work day. People were also kept in line with the constant flow of propaganda. It used hitler as an icon to look up to a lot of times. In the one Nazi propaganda document there is a map for kids with Germany’s small military surrounded by other countries and their large militaries telling kids to stand up for Germany. Hitler used the treaty of Versailles as a tool to gain power. The Germans hated how it left them crippled, so Hitler would blame it on the Jews, saying they signed it, and also criticizing it to get people agree with him and support him. Another document about Nazi propaganda would be the one with the woman and her baby, along with a peaceful country in the background telling people to fight for what’s in the picture, without actually telling people. The Gestapo were Hitlers secret police. They were the thought police of Nazi Germany, because just like in 1984, if anyone said anything against the totalitarian power they would disappear. Many went to concentration camps where they would be sent for their crimes, and often die there after living in poor conditions. Jews especially suffered since they were the most of the upper class, so hitler made them into a target to blame and take possessions from. To this day in Germany you are not allowed to deny the holocaust happened because of how gruesome it was, even though some people even today look up to Hitler. He might even be admired openly here in America if he hadn’t gone after the Jews and steeped on so many people. America even has its own Nazi party, but most sites on it are blocked on my iPad by the school, maybe because they don’t want any Nazi influence on us?
In Stalins Soviet Russia people must work and the five year plans set unreasonably high expectations are set. Kulaks were forced to work in poor conditions to their death, after loosing all they own. In the one document of ours we looked at a picture of Stalin with a boy, next to the same picture but without the boy. This document tells the viewer that Stalin gets rid of who ever he doesn’t like, such as the kulaks who because they refused to give up their farms were forced into working to death. Another, but very different, document that we went over was some Russian propaganda. It had Lenin standing heroically in front of a soviet Russian flag and the number 1917 behind him. This was meant to have people remember Lenin and how he helped bring in communism. Stalin used propaganda and enthusiasm towards work to keep people in line, while forcing work and punishment upon people who resisted or became threats, like the kulaks. Today Stalin is making a come back and is even becoming popular in Russia as a hero in history. Despite the massive deaths that he caused, people are looking at him as a role model for their leaders today.
Fansler:
Totalitarianism is a form of government dictated by a group or one person. What are the experiences of living in a totalitarian society? What are the effects on people? Well in this document I am going to talk about four different societies based off of totalitarianism. The first one is the book 1984. The book is about a society controlled by a man named Big Brother. In this novel it reflects around a man named Winston who is against the government and Big Brother. Second, there is the book the feed. In the feed there is a chip implanted in to every humans brain. Giving the people another brain or Internet. Which is controlled by the government of the society. Third, Stalin of the Soviet Union. He is the dictator of Russia through World War II. There to create a strong independent society. The last is Hitler of Germany. He as we all know was considered the most evil man to ever live the past generation. The affect on individuals is that they live a two face life, that outside they follow the rules and like the leader, but on the inside they are hating and crushed.
What are the feelings toward the societies? In 1984, Winston does not agree with Big Brother’s rules. With Winston his feeling toward Big Brother is fear as well which applies to everyone else in the society. He knows of secret police in the society that watch anyone that goes against Big Brother. If found opposing against him the person will be executed. Outside Winston acts normal but hidden he is very secretive. He chooses to look in to the history of the past deaths of lawbreakers. With Violet she hates the feed. She believed it was a way of mind control the government used to influence people to follow what they believed is the right thing to do. The feed had helped you with knowledge and choices. It was like a second brain. But there are some people who relay on the feed to help them. They enjoy it, seeing it as a helper. With Stalin and Hitler they were considered evil dictators through out their countries. The reason for that is what they had done. Their goal was to create the strongest most independent countries the world had ever seen, but with that came choices. They chose to create massacres. With Stalin he was responsible for over 15 million deaths from famine for peasants and workers of Germany. With Hitler he was responsible for the Holocaust. The death of over 11 million Jews. With feeling came lying. But there are some people that think Stalin is a saint. Some people think he is one the greatest leader because, Stalin made Russia a very strong industrial based economy.
In a totalitarian society there are fake moods of the people. 1984 had to be the biggest example of fake moods. In the book everyone outside of their home acts happy they obey the rules no hanging out, no sex, and above all obey Big Brother. But on the inside everyone hates him. This is the same with Hitler and Stalin everybody dislikes them on the inside but treats them like gods on the outside. They do this because of the consequences of showing their true feelings toward the dictators. The consequence is death. This had happened to allies of Stalin. He had killed the Russian leader Trotsky. Because, he opposed him. The way Stalin had killed the people were he had them shot in the back of the head. He had done this to all of his allies. This way he had gained full power. In the feed, the fake mood was done by Violet. Her plan was to show interest in a bunch of random products, to prevent the corporations from developing a new profile.
With people against the government or dictator there is always a rebellion. In 1984 Winston goes against Big Brother by looking up the past of executed so called “Traitors.” He finds out that the people were innocent but the government portrayed them as traitors. They were portrayed as traitors because, they did the number one thing not to do, go against Big Brother. With Julia (Winston’s girlfriend) she has sex. Which is one of the things Big Brother says not to. That is one way to go against the dictator not attack them but go against what they say. As I said earlier Violet goes against the feed by creating a fake feed. With Stalin and Hitler no one really had opposed them. The only people that opposed them were politicians and leaders of Germany and the soviet. People such as: Lenin, Stokovach, Trotsky. They did not think Stalin and Hitler were good leaders. So they had opposed which had gotten them killed.
The only group that had opposed were the Jews. But they had stood no chance against Hitler. Hitler had them executed them because, he had felt they had power over the German people. The Jews were wealthy and had land. So Hitler killed them to have his country and people the most powerful. Where no one throughout his country would have power over other besides him.
But, over the years these dictators had controlled the people of the society had learned to accept the totalitarian system. The biggest thing were the people of Germany and Russia. They had learned to accept the society. With Hitler he had given them jobs. Hitler’s goal was to create a independent synthetic economy. With Stalin he too wanted to create an independent economy but based off of the industrial system. Both of them used propaganda to get to the people. Showing examples of a correct Russian or German citizen. In Germany their’s were a gold mother with children. On farms with lots of land. Also they gave the people hope. With Stalin his propaganda was used with the example of statues. Having German heroes that have done great things. Reminding people that if they can do it you can do it. Also to show that the people on the statues are the people with power. Hope meaning rewards. They used jobs, family, and land. Even with Hitler he had used the Volkswagon as an example that if a citizen gets a job they can one day get the Volkswagon. With the feed, the people accepted it because they saw it as a gift. It was used as an encyclopedia. Also it gave them advice on their choices.
In conclusion the people of totalitarian societies live a two faced life. The people follow the rules and obey what the dictator says. If not there are consequences normally resulting in death. But there are people who are against the system. These people still live a double life. They go home and they hide from the government. I believe that there is no escape from the totalitarian system. Because, if you go against or escape the system you will end up dead.
Shayla:
When people live in totalitarian societies, they become unaware of what’s really happening to their society. They experience physical and mental harm and even death. In 1984, people were dying everyday and disappearing from Oceania unexpectedly, they were tortured and brainwashed. In Feed, they were brainwashed into thinking that the feed was something they couldn’t live without. They also experienced lesions and death from the Feed. Stalin and Hitler use propaganda to make everyone think they were the good guys to drive the people away from knowing what was really going on. They also killed people and probably tortured them as well. All 4 societies weren’t the best to live in.
The physical pain and struggle in these societies were absolutely horrible. In all societies they were tortured in at least one way. In 1984, if you didn’t listen to wheat they said or if you didn’t love Big Brother as much as they wanted you to, you’d die and they would torture you before they killed you. In Feed, the people experienced lesions which are basically an infected or diseased patch of skin. And in feed, everyone wanted one because it was “cool”. Aside form the lesions, Violet basically dies from the Feed because of reasons unknown. In Russia there was extreme poverty and death from starvation. In Germany, people were killed or tortured because they were “enemies” (communists, jews, anyone who could take power away).
Besides the physical pain, they experienced mental struggle, this includes being brainwashed. To me, mental pain is way worse than physical pain because the mental pain is engraved in your memory and you can’t get rid of it. In 1984, basically everyone except maybe a handful of people were brainwashed to think that the ultimate God was Big Brother. They had hate week, posters that supported big brother, they had the thought police, ministry of love, and telescreens. If you didn’t love them or obey, they would torture you mentally as well as physically, they would brainwash you and your last words before they killed you was probably, “I love Big Brother” In Feed, no one technically forced everyone to love something but they showed off the Feed as if it was something cool and Violet’s dad thought she needed the Feed because since he didn’t have one, he knew what it would feel like to try get a job without one, and it was really embarrassing. Almost everyone in America had a Feed and you couldn’t get rid of it once you grew into it. They gave you ads based on what you feel or what you liked or searched up to make you want to use it even more. I guess everyone wanted it because it was easy to use and you had, literally, all the answers at your fingertips. In Germany, Hitler used propaganda to make people love him and to make people dislike Jews and communists. In Russia, Stalin did the same thing but he also made cartoons for children so they would grow up to love him even more than the generation before. He also had a guy to give speeches in favour of Stalin.
What these societies have in common, besides the fact that were were horrible, was that the people in charge told everyone that they could help and make everything better when they just made it worse behind their backs. In all societies, people died and experienced horrible things, but they didn’t know it until it was too late. And people were tortured and they died because of it. What they also have in common is that the leaders were just showing themselves off to gain something for themselves. In 1984, they gained ultimate power for big brother. In Feed, they probably gained loads of money from people buying things from their ads. In Germany and Russia , they gained people’s trust, money and love. All they wanted to do was gain a load of power, and after they got it. They just wanted to keep it. And everyone’s health and well being wasn’t even a thought in the back of their minds.
Bryson:
Looking at history, a person’s experience in a totalitarian society has never been positive. Eventually all of them lead to famine, death, people turning against people, and war. The underlying message in every event is that the person in charge wants one thing and one thing only-power. This is proven easily by looking at our ancestor’s pasts. They have even written stories to warn us from the dangers a totalitarian can have on it’s people.
1984 gave us a prime example of what life would be like in a totalitarian society. With Big Brother as the face of a dictator, they showed an example that they would do whatever it takes so that he can stay in control. He wasn’t so much Big Brother, but it was the government maintaining the power they have. 1984 also provided us with the feeling that we are not safe, always being watched, and trust no one. There was not a moment in the story where Winston felt safe or not being watched. These and many other things were tools used in the Story to warn us, people of today, about the dangers a Totalitarian society can have on its people.
Feed was based off 1984, so the message to warn us about a Totalitarian society is the same. Feed however took a much different approach on control. Instead of the government being in all control, it was the corporations that maintained control without any problems. Making money was the only goal the corporations had, so making sure people spent their money could be compared to 1984’s brainwashing or newspeak. When they sent Violet to her death bed because her Feed looked weird it finally occurred to me that Feed was just as corrupt as 1984.
I will talk about hitler and stalin in the next draft.
Fenton:
One major experience that people have in a totalitarian society is their communication is controlled by the leader and it changes people’s natural disposition and behavior. They do not get to see normal newspapers, news, or television. This concept can be illustrated in 1984 when the characters are monitored so closely it causes them to betray one another. The computer feed also controls the thoughts and actions of the characters in Feed. More importantly, history showed us in Nazi Germany that a totalitarian society can cause people to passively accept a horrible situation and change their behavior and beliefs as a survival tactic.
The books Feed and 1984 illustrate how communication that is controlled by a leader can affect people’s behavior. In the book Feed, the feed constantly bombards the characters thoughts and brains with information. When the characters feed turns off, they don’t remember how to think on their own or plan their days. They feel lost. Also, in 1984 communication is manipulated by the Party. The truth is manipulated by Winston at the Ministry of Truth. People don’t even know what the truth is. Also, the characters are constantly monitored by the tele screen, secret microphones, and mandatory announcements. Even Syme and his Newspeak dictionary are changing the old language to control communication.
Communication has also been used in history to control people and influence how they think. People were poor in Germany and there was food rationing in 1943. Hitler used propaganda to fool the people in Germany into believing that he was a good leader. There were posters showing happy people behind Hitler and the message was clear that he was the leader that would change things for the better. People thought Hitler would take them to “World Domination” and the propaganda kept their morale high even when times were terrible.
The effects on people can be drastic when their thoughts and information are controlled by another person or party. The books 1984 and Feed showed how people that had their communication channels controlled by others became lonely, out for themselves, and not team players. For example, in 1984 Parson’s children turned him into the thought police and did not care what happened to their own father as a result. The children were loyal to their party not their family. They learned what they were taught.
Furthermore, in Feed, Titus knew the feed controlled him but said “There is no good getting pissy about it because they’re still going to control everything whether you like it or not.” Also, the characters were suspicious and not accepting of Violet because her thoughts were different than theirs and they were threatened by this.
History has also shown us that peoples’ behavior can by changed by living in a totalitarian society. In the times of Hitler’s rule, nice and normal people betrayed their neighbors to support Hitler. They believed his propaganda. Young men were attracted by Hitler’s power and the bold uniforms with emblems. They wanted to belong to this strong and powerful group. Sadly, even those that did not agree or believe in what Hitler stood for accepted his anti-Jewish policies. They were not able to stop Hitler’s Party from killing over six million Jewish people.
We are at an interesting point in our society. Technology and the way we communicate information are changing quickly. Our country needs to think about how we respond to these changes. For example, remote control robots let people be in two places at one time; drone gliders can float around for weeks at a time and collect information. Technology is exciting but we as a country need to pay attention to history and not let technology get out of control and invade our privacy. The horrible tragedies that happened under Hitler’s control can be avoided and it should be a top priority.
Josh N:
What are the experiences of living in a totalitarian society and what are the affects on them? I think that it is very harsh to live in a totalitarian society and that people die easier.
Some examples of that are that no individual has will or any sort of individuality. The reason I say this is because if you look at any example from any totalitarian society every one thinks alike and every one is he same, just like the person next to them. For one if you look at the excerpt from 1984 when Winston is writing that is against the law because he had a will and had some individuality so what they do with people like that is they torture and brain wash them and after that they do not have their own will, their will is Big Brother's will.
Another thing is that they remove and make people disappear if they can not do anything to them and they brain wash them. What this means is that they will be eliminated if they are a drag or not doing enough and they believe that it is true. If you look at ants and bees they all work for the whole, which is the queen bee. Then below here there are different types off bees and they all do different things. Although the point of this is that this is a true example of what I stated above because with either insect species they will both sacrifice themselves if they are not doing everything that they are supposed to.
What you always see in a totalitarian society is a lot of surveillance and they use a lot of propaganda. One really good example is feed. The reason that I picked feed is because in one piece of machinery it represents both. What the feed is, a super high tech computer chip that is implanted into head. What is does is sells people things, and it puts adds through their heads. People also use it to chat with others. So what that allows the corporations in charge is to watch everything that people are doing and it creates a profile for you depending on what you purchase and those are the types of adds that they play for people. There are also a lot of propaganda posters that go around, for example two that relate are the poster with Satlin and Russian flag in the back and the one that is trying to sell U.S government bonds. The way that they relate is because they both show people with a lot of power. In the one with Stalin what I think it means is that he is above everything the reason for that is because the flag is n behind him and his stance. In the poster for the U.S I think it is showing hat the U.S government is very powerful and they will protect women and children but the enemy will attack them and the soldiers need money for that.
What will also happen to people in a society is that they die very easily and also the government will kill them. One example is in feed, when violet was on her deaths bed the feed crippled her. Then she was trapped inside her body and couldn't move at all. Another example is the video about when Stalin purges. How I relate this to Violet is that what Stalin did to those people was torture by making hem work then killing them. In my. Mind I think that what happened to Violet might not have been torture like some other tortures but it pretty much killed her except that she is still alive and she can't move for the rest of her life.
One other thing is with Hitler, when he humiliated the Jewish communities in Germany, so much that it made people hate them and hate their ways of doing thing and living. Then he committed a mass genocide of them all and took all of their belongings and money. How this relates to totalitarian areas is like in 1984, how they took Winston and tortured him after he rebelled and after that he filmed a bit and it talked about how much he loved big brother.
So in conclusion after looking at all of this information I think that I still agree with my thesis statement in the first paragraph. I agree with it because if you look at 1984, feed, and documents that we read you will see that in some of the totalitarian societies people are basicity slaves. Like in 1984 everyone where pretty much slaves for big brother because they had their day planned out for them and they only have a certain ration of food and every thing else, that they are allowed. In Stalin's Russia everyone where slaves and did what they needed to do. In all of the places there where at least some people who where slaves. With that I think it just proves my point of that is really harsh and it is really tenable to live in a totalitarian society and that they are willing to kill people to get what they want or need.
Bradley:
Hanna Arendt was basing her ideas off real world experiences of attempted totalitarian ruled government. There is one problem with this, and that is there has never been any real totalitarian attempts, just bad leaders of communist states. This is why I disagree with Hanna Arendt because there is another ways of ruling a totalitarianism regime.
Feed was a book about teenagers that had a device transplanted into there head and were having there thoughts fed to them. Without looking deep down into this book you can not tell that it is about a totalitarianism regime and that is how it is different. If you look at stalin anything any body did wrong was killed. Also something about feed that setts it apart from hannah Arendt’s definition is that she says they wish to control every aspect of there lives, but in feed they still have a normal life but if you speak out you get “broke” like violet.
Broke was the term that Titus used to describe what happened to violet when she fainted. This was used to stop her from speaking out against the feed and this worked in more then just stoping her. When this happened this also stopped Titus and freaked out the rest of the people at the party this is a scare tactic and this was also used in 1984 and in Stalin’s Russia. Stalin used this tactic during the purges where he locked and worked people before they killed them and this was a scare tactic because they would kill people for almost nothing like, throwing bread at an officer. This would of course ensure full conformity to the party because no body wants this happening to them. This is a main part of totalitarianism because it is torture and that is how most totalitarianisms keep there power. In feed there is not so much torture because they are so good at keeping their people blind but if they still do not torture as heavily as 1984 where they kill people in public because they can do it more efficiently.
Torture in most totalitarianisms is terrible and is conducted by the leader of the totalitarianism. leaders of totalitarianisms are labeled as terrible,maniacal people that some how people relate to communism, like Kim Jong Un and Stalin. That is one thing about totalitarianism is that it can spawn from any type of government like in feed where it came from the US style capitalism or hitters government that absolutely hated communism. All these leaders had different ideology and that does change how you run your totalitarianism like with feed they were a capitalism so they just relied on the big business to come up with the feed and then they just take control but with russia they were a communism so they came up wit the five year plan which every body loved because they were very industrious. The leaders them selves were very similar they were all power hunger even in feed because big business is alway trying to get bigger and they will do it in any way possible. Hitler and Stalin also were like each other even if they did not agree with each others ideology like in the comic about how long the honey moon would last.
these leaders were not nice people so they used good propaganda methods to get in to power and control there people.
Hanna Arendt had the right idea for her time and for her experiences, but she drew too big of a conclusion.
Noah S:Through out this study on totalitarian regime I learned that if they are built right they are impossible to take down. Through out the study with Hitler and Stalin I learned that they are very similar and yet entirely different. All of their citizens are unhappy with their lives. They put on a mask during the day but once they come home and take their mask off. Once they do that their true colors are revealed. Hitler and Stalin claim to be very different, they both hated each other. They believed that every thing they were doing was right. The way these men ran their societies was buy their own vision. They did not take in consideration of everyone else around them. Most of these men believed that the entire world would see things through their own eyes. The ideas were the structure of their regime. Hitler was all about blond hare and being German, he believed that one day Germany will be separated from the rest of the world. He visualizes that Germany would eventually be self sustaining. In a way he is like the Islamic extremist today, if people did not see things the way he did he would erase them. Stalin was all about communism but he was doing it in a different way. What he was doing was not communism he was just making things in the way of his eyes. He killed all of those people not because of the their race it was because of their vision. They wanted to join Hitler. Obviously Stalin did not want his territory to be engulfed into Hitler’s empire so he took that buy killing all those people. The thing that separates Hitler and Stalin is that Hitler is viewed as a mass murder that is absolutely mad. There is no doubt in any place in the world that they hate this mad man. But now in Russia they are staring to like what Stalin did for them he is not being viewed as the same as Hitler, he is being viewed as a hero. Also people think that the all time bad guy is Hitler. He has made more of an impression on history than Stalin.
Totalitarian societies come out of the dust of a fight. They rise because every one is looking for a better life but more often than not, the society gets corrupt and life goes bad again. Once a person is engulfed by the society there is no escape. They have to play their part in the society weather they like it or not, they have to put a smile on and play their part. The mood of the society is happy and cheerful, I look like every one is there to help one and other there is peace and kindness. The leader is shown as their equal and made to be the savior. When you enter a citizens mind you see a completely different thing. The citizens have learned one rule 2+2= whatever the leader says.
Part of a lie, in a totalitarian society every thing is made to look happy and cheerful. They find strength in their leader and they use their strength to enforce the leaders vision. They are look for some thing or some one they can count on. Belief is so easy to control when times are hard. The times in Germany and the times in Russia made it so that people like Hitler and Stalin could arise with out a big fight. As a group it seems like every thing is fine nothing can go wrong. That is usually true in the early beginnings of the society. This is the period where they see their leader as a visionary. They are blinded by all the lies so they miss the things that the leader is doing behind their backs. Hitler would be viewed as a genius and a strong military leader. He brought his country out of a depression. He made the unemployment percentage 0%. He succeeded in making their government self-sustaining; every thing he did for his country made it stronger and improved the quality of living. Most leaders today would look up to him today if he did not go crazy. The mood of the societies in Hitler’s, Stalin’s and 1984’s feels so depressing and glum but every one seems to have a smile on their face. The only one that I believe has a happy mood is in Feed. Every one is out having a good time they are all happy and the society in my mind is not panted as a rainy and gloomy. I picture it with the sun out and every one with smiles on their face. All the others societies feel depressing. The reason that the society is like this is because there is not a strong presence of authority there is just people and the feed.
“Every thing big brother is doing is wrong he changes history by meaning all the wrong things he does sound right.” You don’t mater your thoughts your words every thing belongs to your leader. This is the type of things that are shown when a person steeps off the radar. The majority of the population has a strong dislike for their superiors but they are too scared to rebel. Their lives are in the hands o their leader. In 1984 and in Hitler’s Germany there is one prominent leader and they are viewed as a dictator. The person has control of everyone life and they can monitor everyone actions. A large armed force maintains both Hitler and 1984. While in Feed and in Stalin’s Russia there is not a large armed force, There is not a dictator. Stalin is viewed as an equal to everyone. The corporation is viewed as a business. In Feed everyone is happy. They are content with their lives. They are not trying to get ahead of everyone around them.
When a person joins a totalitarian society, you are trapped for life. The effect of individuals is they live a two face life in the perspective that they obey the leaders and give in to pressure, but on the inside they are being tortured and their souls are being crushed.
In 1984, the people seem to like living the lifestyle that has been dealt to them but for all we know, they could have been like Winton and be dying on the inside but be just one of the ants in a row, just marching and marching. We never saw the story from anyone elses point of view so for all we know there could have been other people that conspired and wrote down things about the society and the party in their journal but were too scared and intimidated to do anything about it. From the outside looking in, the party and big brother managed to get to the point where nobody resisted and even if they did, they were annihilated. However, they achieved it by fear unlike Feed, Hitler, and Stalin who used terms that were more discrete. In Feed the feed is portrayed as a smart phone, an ipad, and a computer all in one. Its basically a toy that is a tool for the government. Whenever a person gets close to finding out there is something fishy going on, the feed goes to work. It puts up an ad or asks you to buy something because then you forget what you were thinking and the identity and protection of the government stayed. The society is physically unharmed and for the most part mentally unharmed because they don’t know they are in a totalitarianistic system. Hitler told people all the good things he would do and he gave his community hope. He gave them hope that his policies would help them and bring them to the top. After the great depression, people were down on their luck and they needed something to root for. Hitler rallied them and he found them a common enemy- the jewish. He had them on lock; they would do anything that he asked because in their eyes he was their hero. They were totally controlled but without hurting them and without instilling fear in them. He just simply tricked them. He used propaganda and fooled them. He used posters such as the ideal german woman- blonde hair, blue eyes, ect. He also trained them without them knowing. HE sent kids to “fun camps” which were actually german bootcamps. He was a genius in the sense that he controlled people without hurting them. I think he could have been the greatest leader and mastermind in the history of the world if he didnt kill all those people. Stalin used propaganda to empower himself in the minds of the russian people. He used propaganda, he used statues, he showed that if an average joe works hard; he can become great. He brainwashed children with cartoons that made everyone except russia a bad guy. He changed history similar to the party in 1984. He made people love him in the way that he was great. He was a superman and he was the leader. He displayed that if you work hard, anyone can become great. This made people follow him and believe in him because he seemed so much higher. People looking back on stalin love him in the 21 century but I also personally know a guy from russia that hates stalin and is his own words, “stalin bad”. So he got mixed results but i think the people that loved him outwiegh those who disliked him.
Kris K:
Outline for final history essay:
Thesis (option 3) - All totalitarian regimes degrade the society they rule but also the people themselves. Totalitarian regimes come into existence because the leader wants total power over the country and its people. Because the leader doesn’t care about the people except for purposes of resourcing it is obvious why the living conditions of the societies are horrible or not as good as they should be, while mentally taking a toll on the citizens themselves.
Body paragraph 1 - topic: malnourishment
In all of the totalitarian regimes I have studied I have found one thing in common,
that is malnourishment. In 1984, Russia, and Germany the great majority of the resources produced were used to manufacture war entities and industrialize the country or move industrialization along. Because the resources were used for industrialization there was little left for the poor people (majority) to have. In Germany food might have been scarcer but most everyone ate, in 1984 it seemed to be there was a lot less food because winston and everyone was skinny and kind of bony. in 1984 there were more substances like gin and tobacco handed out to numb everyone. Russia had the biggest toll on its population which was caused 15 million people to die from famine while being worked to death on a farm or in a factory. In Feed the people were malnourished in a very different way, by the actual feed itself. The feed was responsible for the glowing lesions that appeared on people bodies at random.
Body paragraph 2 - topic : purges
All totalitarian leaders got into power by purging the opposition, and they continued to reign superior power by purging any sort of threats whatsoever to the parties power. Because totalitarian regimes operate by oppression of the people, regularly asserting their power in the form of purges kept citizens scared and cooperative which was crucial to the continued rule of the party. Purges were supposed to only be used on traitors and criminals and enemies of the party, but because the party had to stay paranoid to be completely safe, many, or most of the purges carried out where on innocent people. The regime had total power so they did not have to present a verified cause to purge you, they just did it if they thought you were a threat to them somehow. Purges in Germany, Russia, and 1984 were conducted by the parties secret police. At night the secret police would come and grab you from your home or wherever your residence was and they would take you to your imminent death of either a bullet to the head, years of slave labor for the regime, or imprisonment. In feed though, purges were conducted in a totally different manner. In Feed the corporations poisoned violet by poisoning the feed chip in her brain. Her body would start to malfunction with only minor malfunctions but after a few weeks it got extremely bad, they she became paralyzed, then she died.
Body paragraph 3- topic: propaganda
Propaganda was one of the main things all totalitarian regimes used to promote their power and motivate the citizens. Propaganda was generally in poster or movie form, containing a very simple but obvious message that the normal citizen could understand, even if they were just an illiterate farmer. Propaganda was also posted everywhere to constantly drive people toward the parties cause. Some types of propaganda is propaganda promotes the regime, propaganda that makes the average person look heroic, propaganda that encourages donations to the regime, propaganda that tells you work harder. In all situations propaganda was everywhere. In 1984, Germany, and Russia propaganda was displayed mostly in poster and cinemas or said by speakers, but it was also incorporated more slyly into things list 5th graders textbooks. It wasn’t obvious propaganda, but it was definitely there. In feed the advertisements was the propaganda and it was more effective I think because you could not turn it off so you are forced to listen to it.
Conclusion - all of the totalitarian regimes used the same techniques to keep control and those techniques made living day to day life miserable for the citizens in its power.
IB:
Hannah Arendit is right because what totalaterism regimes have in common is power. In both societies the power was tailored to one man. Everything that happened in those societies was done so that the power would go to one man which would be either Stalin or Hitler.
Both Stalin and Hitler used propaganda to keep power. Evidence from the poster of Stalin looking noble and the hero of the country. Both leaders put up these types of posters everywhere. These posters would represent the power that they had by showing both leaders looking dominant over everything. Many other types of propaganda they used were posters of common people. A poster that Hitler used that was very effective was of a women nursing a young baby. I think this was important for people to see because it targeted there personal side because it was so common and not something that rich could do but everyone did. In those posters were subliminal messages. For example, in the poster I just referred to the mom was a blonde headed farming lady. According to Hitler that was the purest race so that made sense. Not only did both leaders make them self look good to keep power but they also put down people. For example, Hitler would embellish Jewish people to make them look like monsters in order to influence people and how they thought of them. Much to the same, Stalin would use propaganda in order to put down rich or people that were against him. In cartoon done by Stalin, he makes rich people look greedy and selfish by showing them taking from people and then the army coming into kill them. Overall I would say both these leaders were the same in the propaganda methods they used.
Another type of method both leaders used to keep power through there foreign policies. There policies were in order to make sure threats would not attack there country so they would go out and take other countries. Through watching the vodcast on both Hitler and Stalins foreign policy much of it was based on control of land masses and keeping there own power safe by keeping there countries safe. Both leaders basically used a treaty to carve out Poland like it was there own. They did not care for people or who they were but only for themselves. Not only did they tear up Poland by invading and taking it but they killed many innocent lives. If you look at Russia before it became the USSR you notice that it was much smaller. After forming the USSR it nearly expanded the country by adding more countries. Hitler did much of the same with Austria. Since Hitler was from there he assumed he could take it and make it under Nazi law. Also a lot of the countries that these men took were very weak and not able to defend themselves. It seemed like when a bully picks on someone younger and weaker. It’s not really winning but more me showing I’m stronger and you will do what I tell you to do or else.
Stalin and Hitler had power by influencing the young. In a excerpt from a Nazi biology book you can see that Hitler has many hidden messages in it. Much of it is not biology but Nazi party thoughts. This being information about how society works which is very important in a totalaterism society. Hitler also would have Nazi youth camps which was looked upon as sort of the Boy Scouts. Many people bought into it and started making kids go to them so they would be brainwashed at a young age. These camp were looked at as a good time which would educate kids on how to live life. Stalin used youth also in order to keep power but instead of using camps he would use propaganda. As I said earlier, Stalin would often make cartoons which would have messages in them that kids would pick without even knowing it. The brilliance in that idea was that kids did not even realize the messages that they were learning but only would be amazed by the cartoon. One example of this was a cartoon I saw which showed how American music was dull and how Russian music was cool and hip. Kids did not see this message but only saw little birds singing.
Both these man kept power by eliminating any threats to power. Many killing would be done by these two man. Stalin killed Trotsky who was his biggest rival in order to keep power. Hitler killed also many party members that were before Nazi times in order so no one would take his power. These men feared threats to them. The way they would take care of these threats was through killing. Stalin was notorious for erasing you from history. A photo was taken were Stalin was standing by one of his party members. The person was thought to have gone against Stalin and then was killed. He was taken out of the photo through editing. Stalin had the power to do that and was influenced to do it by his paranoia which was common for both of these leaders. Hitler would just kill anybody. I think the scary thing about Hitler was that he would test people on ways to kill them. For many people would became test dummies.
Hannah Aredit was right because both man had one thing and that was power. All you need in that type of society is power and that’s why Hannah is right because they both had power and used it for bad. I think a totalertian society would never work because of that fact. When people become in power they can’t help but abuse it. All theses leaders care about power and them having it. They didn’t do it to become rich because that doesn’t do anything. Power is the ultimate form of control. When you have it people will bow down and you can do some pretty messed up things. The greatest enemies to ever live were the same person.
Bobby:
In a totalitarian society the people suffer, while a false mood is put on by the totalitarian power to still get their support, while those that don’t go along with the mood are shot down.
In the book Feed most people have a chip in their head and are constantly monitored. The corporations can do almost anything they want since they are literally in the people’s heads. In the excerpt from feed they specifically state how people don’t really care that they give up privacy and a lot of security to be able to use the feeds. People aren’t the only thing suffering though. The environment is ruined, since the ocean is so polluted that it isn’t even water anymore and nothing can live in it, and also the forests are gone entirely. The world is rotting away around them, including whats urban, like how the fake sky where violet lives at is peeling off, or how air is leaking from the hospital on the moon from the broken down room. All of these things, yet no one seems to notice how wrong it is. Violet and Titus looked at the leaking air and thought it was cool. Titus’ dad went whaling and got whales with plastic coating on them so they don’t die from the pollution, thinking of the whole thing as fun, not at all disturbing at how unnatural it is, but rather showing it to his family. People are even cutting down trees to make air factories, and when the last forests fell people looked back at it as good memories seeing animals in their yard, lost because their natural habitats had been destroyed. Another thing that’s out of place is the global issues, which seem pretty devastating, yet the only people that notice then are violet and her father. No one seems to care that their skin is falling off or why, but they are concerned about the latest trend. Another thing that I’ve noticed is how there’s some sort of dispute going on but you only get little bits, like people whipped out, and covered in some black substance. There’s all of these problems going on, the world and humanity with it rotting away, yet the corporations are able to put a positive spin on it that people get caught up in, like sales, and what’s the latest thing out. The people that don’t believe the corporations lies are looked at as weird and cast out away from other people, like violet, just because she was more intelligent than the average person. It’s not that the people are forced to obey this totalitarian power, its that they want to.
In the book 1984 no one has any freedom. Everything is decided for you and enforced. Any form of resistance, even a word against big brother, and the thought police will make you disappear and every one lives on poverty. In the excerpt from 1984 Winston talks about a man who disappeared after he had done some writing that wasn’t very supportive of big brother. How ever party is very good with manipulation, so good that you can never tell what is real, false, or just not yet noticed. The book is from the perspective of a man who despises the totalitarian leader, and it looks like this is just a corrupt government running a country that’s completely destroyed from war. Later you find out that it is so much more, when you find out that the entire time they had been falling for the party’s trap. This proves how totalitarian powers can control everyone mentally, even the ones that think they’re rebelling. They have everyone under their power completely convinced that they are living in paradise and that big brother protects them all, except for a select few, such as Winston and Julia, who despise big brother. People like that are snatched up by the thought police, and tortured into submission until they fit the party’s description of a perfect slave of big brother.
In Hitlers Nazi Germany people worked, and they worked long and hard. There was no exception, because everyone had to work. Some how hitler was able to make work seem like a good thing by using it to drop unemployment, while rebuilding Germany and telling every one to look at what they’ve accomplished at the end of a work day. People were also kept in line with the constant flow of propaganda. It used hitler as an icon to look up to a lot of times. In the one Nazi propaganda document there is a map for kids with Germany’s small military surrounded by other countries and their large militaries telling kids to stand up for Germany. Hitler used the treaty of Versailles as a tool to gain power. The Germans hated how it left them crippled, so Hitler would blame it on the Jews, saying they signed it, and also criticizing it to get people agree with him and support him. Another document about Nazi propaganda would be the one with the woman and her baby, along with a peaceful country in the background telling people to fight for what’s in the picture, without actually telling people. The Gestapo were Hitlers secret police. They were the thought police of Nazi Germany, because just like in 1984, if anyone said anything against the totalitarian power they would disappear. Many went to concentration camps where they would be sent for their crimes, and often die there after living in poor conditions. Jews especially suffered since they were the most of the upper class, so hitler made them into a target to blame and take possessions from. To this day in Germany you are not allowed to deny the holocaust happened because of how gruesome it was, even though some people even today look up to Hitler. He might even be admired openly here in America if he hadn’t gone after the Jews and steeped on so many people. America even has its own Nazi party, but most sites on it are blocked on my iPad by the school, maybe because they don’t want any Nazi influence on us?
In Stalins Soviet Russia people must work and the five year plans set unreasonably high expectations are set. Kulaks were forced to work in poor conditions to their death, after loosing all they own. In the one document of ours we looked at a picture of Stalin with a boy, next to the same picture but without the boy. This document tells the viewer that Stalin gets rid of who ever he doesn’t like, such as the kulaks who because they refused to give up their farms were forced into working to death. Another, but very different, document that we went over was some Russian propaganda. It had Lenin standing heroically in front of a soviet Russian flag and the number 1917 behind him. This was meant to have people remember Lenin and how he helped bring in communism. Stalin used propaganda and enthusiasm towards work to keep people in line, while forcing work and punishment upon people who resisted or became threats, like the kulaks. Today Stalin is making a come back and is even becoming popular in Russia as a hero in history. Despite the massive deaths that he caused, people are looking at him as a role model for their leaders today.
Fansler:
Totalitarianism is a form of government dictated by a group or one person. What are the experiences of living in a totalitarian society? What are the effects on people? Well in this document I am going to talk about four different societies based off of totalitarianism. The first one is the book 1984. The book is about a society controlled by a man named Big Brother. In this novel it reflects around a man named Winston who is against the government and Big Brother. Second, there is the book the feed. In the feed there is a chip implanted in to every humans brain. Giving the people another brain or Internet. Which is controlled by the government of the society. Third, Stalin of the Soviet Union. He is the dictator of Russia through World War II. There to create a strong independent society. The last is Hitler of Germany. He as we all know was considered the most evil man to ever live the past generation. The affect on individuals is that they live a two face life, that outside they follow the rules and like the leader, but on the inside they are hating and crushed.
What are the feelings toward the societies? In 1984, Winston does not agree with Big Brother’s rules. With Winston his feeling toward Big Brother is fear as well which applies to everyone else in the society. He knows of secret police in the society that watch anyone that goes against Big Brother. If found opposing against him the person will be executed. Outside Winston acts normal but hidden he is very secretive. He chooses to look in to the history of the past deaths of lawbreakers. With Violet she hates the feed. She believed it was a way of mind control the government used to influence people to follow what they believed is the right thing to do. The feed had helped you with knowledge and choices. It was like a second brain. But there are some people who relay on the feed to help them. They enjoy it, seeing it as a helper. With Stalin and Hitler they were considered evil dictators through out their countries. The reason for that is what they had done. Their goal was to create the strongest most independent countries the world had ever seen, but with that came choices. They chose to create massacres. With Stalin he was responsible for over 15 million deaths from famine for peasants and workers of Germany. With Hitler he was responsible for the Holocaust. The death of over 11 million Jews. With feeling came lying. But there are some people that think Stalin is a saint. Some people think he is one the greatest leader because, Stalin made Russia a very strong industrial based economy.
In a totalitarian society there are fake moods of the people. 1984 had to be the biggest example of fake moods. In the book everyone outside of their home acts happy they obey the rules no hanging out, no sex, and above all obey Big Brother. But on the inside everyone hates him. This is the same with Hitler and Stalin everybody dislikes them on the inside but treats them like gods on the outside. They do this because of the consequences of showing their true feelings toward the dictators. The consequence is death. This had happened to allies of Stalin. He had killed the Russian leader Trotsky. Because, he opposed him. The way Stalin had killed the people were he had them shot in the back of the head. He had done this to all of his allies. This way he had gained full power. In the feed, the fake mood was done by Violet. Her plan was to show interest in a bunch of random products, to prevent the corporations from developing a new profile.
With people against the government or dictator there is always a rebellion. In 1984 Winston goes against Big Brother by looking up the past of executed so called “Traitors.” He finds out that the people were innocent but the government portrayed them as traitors. They were portrayed as traitors because, they did the number one thing not to do, go against Big Brother. With Julia (Winston’s girlfriend) she has sex. Which is one of the things Big Brother says not to. That is one way to go against the dictator not attack them but go against what they say. As I said earlier Violet goes against the feed by creating a fake feed. With Stalin and Hitler no one really had opposed them. The only people that opposed them were politicians and leaders of Germany and the soviet. People such as: Lenin, Stokovach, Trotsky. They did not think Stalin and Hitler were good leaders. So they had opposed which had gotten them killed.
The only group that had opposed were the Jews. But they had stood no chance against Hitler. Hitler had them executed them because, he had felt they had power over the German people. The Jews were wealthy and had land. So Hitler killed them to have his country and people the most powerful. Where no one throughout his country would have power over other besides him.
But, over the years these dictators had controlled the people of the society had learned to accept the totalitarian system. The biggest thing were the people of Germany and Russia. They had learned to accept the society. With Hitler he had given them jobs. Hitler’s goal was to create a independent synthetic economy. With Stalin he too wanted to create an independent economy but based off of the industrial system. Both of them used propaganda to get to the people. Showing examples of a correct Russian or German citizen. In Germany their’s were a gold mother with children. On farms with lots of land. Also they gave the people hope. With Stalin his propaganda was used with the example of statues. Having German heroes that have done great things. Reminding people that if they can do it you can do it. Also to show that the people on the statues are the people with power. Hope meaning rewards. They used jobs, family, and land. Even with Hitler he had used the Volkswagon as an example that if a citizen gets a job they can one day get the Volkswagon. With the feed, the people accepted it because they saw it as a gift. It was used as an encyclopedia. Also it gave them advice on their choices.
In conclusion the people of totalitarian societies live a two faced life. The people follow the rules and obey what the dictator says. If not there are consequences normally resulting in death. But there are people who are against the system. These people still live a double life. They go home and they hide from the government. I believe that there is no escape from the totalitarian system. Because, if you go against or escape the system you will end up dead.
Shayla:
When people live in totalitarian societies, they become unaware of what’s really happening to their society. They experience physical and mental harm and even death. In 1984, people were dying everyday and disappearing from Oceania unexpectedly, they were tortured and brainwashed. In Feed, they were brainwashed into thinking that the feed was something they couldn’t live without. They also experienced lesions and death from the Feed. Stalin and Hitler use propaganda to make everyone think they were the good guys to drive the people away from knowing what was really going on. They also killed people and probably tortured them as well. All 4 societies weren’t the best to live in.
The physical pain and struggle in these societies were absolutely horrible. In all societies they were tortured in at least one way. In 1984, if you didn’t listen to wheat they said or if you didn’t love Big Brother as much as they wanted you to, you’d die and they would torture you before they killed you. In Feed, the people experienced lesions which are basically an infected or diseased patch of skin. And in feed, everyone wanted one because it was “cool”. Aside form the lesions, Violet basically dies from the Feed because of reasons unknown. In Russia there was extreme poverty and death from starvation. In Germany, people were killed or tortured because they were “enemies” (communists, jews, anyone who could take power away).
Besides the physical pain, they experienced mental struggle, this includes being brainwashed. To me, mental pain is way worse than physical pain because the mental pain is engraved in your memory and you can’t get rid of it. In 1984, basically everyone except maybe a handful of people were brainwashed to think that the ultimate God was Big Brother. They had hate week, posters that supported big brother, they had the thought police, ministry of love, and telescreens. If you didn’t love them or obey, they would torture you mentally as well as physically, they would brainwash you and your last words before they killed you was probably, “I love Big Brother” In Feed, no one technically forced everyone to love something but they showed off the Feed as if it was something cool and Violet’s dad thought she needed the Feed because since he didn’t have one, he knew what it would feel like to try get a job without one, and it was really embarrassing. Almost everyone in America had a Feed and you couldn’t get rid of it once you grew into it. They gave you ads based on what you feel or what you liked or searched up to make you want to use it even more. I guess everyone wanted it because it was easy to use and you had, literally, all the answers at your fingertips. In Germany, Hitler used propaganda to make people love him and to make people dislike Jews and communists. In Russia, Stalin did the same thing but he also made cartoons for children so they would grow up to love him even more than the generation before. He also had a guy to give speeches in favour of Stalin.
What these societies have in common, besides the fact that were were horrible, was that the people in charge told everyone that they could help and make everything better when they just made it worse behind their backs. In all societies, people died and experienced horrible things, but they didn’t know it until it was too late. And people were tortured and they died because of it. What they also have in common is that the leaders were just showing themselves off to gain something for themselves. In 1984, they gained ultimate power for big brother. In Feed, they probably gained loads of money from people buying things from their ads. In Germany and Russia , they gained people’s trust, money and love. All they wanted to do was gain a load of power, and after they got it. They just wanted to keep it. And everyone’s health and well being wasn’t even a thought in the back of their minds.
Bryson:
Looking at history, a person’s experience in a totalitarian society has never been positive. Eventually all of them lead to famine, death, people turning against people, and war. The underlying message in every event is that the person in charge wants one thing and one thing only-power. This is proven easily by looking at our ancestor’s pasts. They have even written stories to warn us from the dangers a totalitarian can have on it’s people.
1984 gave us a prime example of what life would be like in a totalitarian society. With Big Brother as the face of a dictator, they showed an example that they would do whatever it takes so that he can stay in control. He wasn’t so much Big Brother, but it was the government maintaining the power they have. 1984 also provided us with the feeling that we are not safe, always being watched, and trust no one. There was not a moment in the story where Winston felt safe or not being watched. These and many other things were tools used in the Story to warn us, people of today, about the dangers a Totalitarian society can have on its people.
Feed was based off 1984, so the message to warn us about a Totalitarian society is the same. Feed however took a much different approach on control. Instead of the government being in all control, it was the corporations that maintained control without any problems. Making money was the only goal the corporations had, so making sure people spent their money could be compared to 1984’s brainwashing or newspeak. When they sent Violet to her death bed because her Feed looked weird it finally occurred to me that Feed was just as corrupt as 1984.
I will talk about hitler and stalin in the next draft.
Fenton:
One major experience that people have in a totalitarian society is their communication is controlled by the leader and it changes people’s natural disposition and behavior. They do not get to see normal newspapers, news, or television. This concept can be illustrated in 1984 when the characters are monitored so closely it causes them to betray one another. The computer feed also controls the thoughts and actions of the characters in Feed. More importantly, history showed us in Nazi Germany that a totalitarian society can cause people to passively accept a horrible situation and change their behavior and beliefs as a survival tactic.
The books Feed and 1984 illustrate how communication that is controlled by a leader can affect people’s behavior. In the book Feed, the feed constantly bombards the characters thoughts and brains with information. When the characters feed turns off, they don’t remember how to think on their own or plan their days. They feel lost. Also, in 1984 communication is manipulated by the Party. The truth is manipulated by Winston at the Ministry of Truth. People don’t even know what the truth is. Also, the characters are constantly monitored by the tele screen, secret microphones, and mandatory announcements. Even Syme and his Newspeak dictionary are changing the old language to control communication.
Communication has also been used in history to control people and influence how they think. People were poor in Germany and there was food rationing in 1943. Hitler used propaganda to fool the people in Germany into believing that he was a good leader. There were posters showing happy people behind Hitler and the message was clear that he was the leader that would change things for the better. People thought Hitler would take them to “World Domination” and the propaganda kept their morale high even when times were terrible.
The effects on people can be drastic when their thoughts and information are controlled by another person or party. The books 1984 and Feed showed how people that had their communication channels controlled by others became lonely, out for themselves, and not team players. For example, in 1984 Parson’s children turned him into the thought police and did not care what happened to their own father as a result. The children were loyal to their party not their family. They learned what they were taught.
Furthermore, in Feed, Titus knew the feed controlled him but said “There is no good getting pissy about it because they’re still going to control everything whether you like it or not.” Also, the characters were suspicious and not accepting of Violet because her thoughts were different than theirs and they were threatened by this.
History has also shown us that peoples’ behavior can by changed by living in a totalitarian society. In the times of Hitler’s rule, nice and normal people betrayed their neighbors to support Hitler. They believed his propaganda. Young men were attracted by Hitler’s power and the bold uniforms with emblems. They wanted to belong to this strong and powerful group. Sadly, even those that did not agree or believe in what Hitler stood for accepted his anti-Jewish policies. They were not able to stop Hitler’s Party from killing over six million Jewish people.
We are at an interesting point in our society. Technology and the way we communicate information are changing quickly. Our country needs to think about how we respond to these changes. For example, remote control robots let people be in two places at one time; drone gliders can float around for weeks at a time and collect information. Technology is exciting but we as a country need to pay attention to history and not let technology get out of control and invade our privacy. The horrible tragedies that happened under Hitler’s control can be avoided and it should be a top priority.
Josh N:
What are the experiences of living in a totalitarian society and what are the affects on them? I think that it is very harsh to live in a totalitarian society and that people die easier.
Some examples of that are that no individual has will or any sort of individuality. The reason I say this is because if you look at any example from any totalitarian society every one thinks alike and every one is he same, just like the person next to them. For one if you look at the excerpt from 1984 when Winston is writing that is against the law because he had a will and had some individuality so what they do with people like that is they torture and brain wash them and after that they do not have their own will, their will is Big Brother's will.
Another thing is that they remove and make people disappear if they can not do anything to them and they brain wash them. What this means is that they will be eliminated if they are a drag or not doing enough and they believe that it is true. If you look at ants and bees they all work for the whole, which is the queen bee. Then below here there are different types off bees and they all do different things. Although the point of this is that this is a true example of what I stated above because with either insect species they will both sacrifice themselves if they are not doing everything that they are supposed to.
What you always see in a totalitarian society is a lot of surveillance and they use a lot of propaganda. One really good example is feed. The reason that I picked feed is because in one piece of machinery it represents both. What the feed is, a super high tech computer chip that is implanted into head. What is does is sells people things, and it puts adds through their heads. People also use it to chat with others. So what that allows the corporations in charge is to watch everything that people are doing and it creates a profile for you depending on what you purchase and those are the types of adds that they play for people. There are also a lot of propaganda posters that go around, for example two that relate are the poster with Satlin and Russian flag in the back and the one that is trying to sell U.S government bonds. The way that they relate is because they both show people with a lot of power. In the one with Stalin what I think it means is that he is above everything the reason for that is because the flag is n behind him and his stance. In the poster for the U.S I think it is showing hat the U.S government is very powerful and they will protect women and children but the enemy will attack them and the soldiers need money for that.
What will also happen to people in a society is that they die very easily and also the government will kill them. One example is in feed, when violet was on her deaths bed the feed crippled her. Then she was trapped inside her body and couldn't move at all. Another example is the video about when Stalin purges. How I relate this to Violet is that what Stalin did to those people was torture by making hem work then killing them. In my. Mind I think that what happened to Violet might not have been torture like some other tortures but it pretty much killed her except that she is still alive and she can't move for the rest of her life.
One other thing is with Hitler, when he humiliated the Jewish communities in Germany, so much that it made people hate them and hate their ways of doing thing and living. Then he committed a mass genocide of them all and took all of their belongings and money. How this relates to totalitarian areas is like in 1984, how they took Winston and tortured him after he rebelled and after that he filmed a bit and it talked about how much he loved big brother.
So in conclusion after looking at all of this information I think that I still agree with my thesis statement in the first paragraph. I agree with it because if you look at 1984, feed, and documents that we read you will see that in some of the totalitarian societies people are basicity slaves. Like in 1984 everyone where pretty much slaves for big brother because they had their day planned out for them and they only have a certain ration of food and every thing else, that they are allowed. In Stalin's Russia everyone where slaves and did what they needed to do. In all of the places there where at least some people who where slaves. With that I think it just proves my point of that is really harsh and it is really tenable to live in a totalitarian society and that they are willing to kill people to get what they want or need.
Bradley:
Hanna Arendt was basing her ideas off real world experiences of attempted totalitarian ruled government. There is one problem with this, and that is there has never been any real totalitarian attempts, just bad leaders of communist states. This is why I disagree with Hanna Arendt because there is another ways of ruling a totalitarianism regime.
Feed was a book about teenagers that had a device transplanted into there head and were having there thoughts fed to them. Without looking deep down into this book you can not tell that it is about a totalitarianism regime and that is how it is different. If you look at stalin anything any body did wrong was killed. Also something about feed that setts it apart from hannah Arendt’s definition is that she says they wish to control every aspect of there lives, but in feed they still have a normal life but if you speak out you get “broke” like violet.
Broke was the term that Titus used to describe what happened to violet when she fainted. This was used to stop her from speaking out against the feed and this worked in more then just stoping her. When this happened this also stopped Titus and freaked out the rest of the people at the party this is a scare tactic and this was also used in 1984 and in Stalin’s Russia. Stalin used this tactic during the purges where he locked and worked people before they killed them and this was a scare tactic because they would kill people for almost nothing like, throwing bread at an officer. This would of course ensure full conformity to the party because no body wants this happening to them. This is a main part of totalitarianism because it is torture and that is how most totalitarianisms keep there power. In feed there is not so much torture because they are so good at keeping their people blind but if they still do not torture as heavily as 1984 where they kill people in public because they can do it more efficiently.
Torture in most totalitarianisms is terrible and is conducted by the leader of the totalitarianism. leaders of totalitarianisms are labeled as terrible,maniacal people that some how people relate to communism, like Kim Jong Un and Stalin. That is one thing about totalitarianism is that it can spawn from any type of government like in feed where it came from the US style capitalism or hitters government that absolutely hated communism. All these leaders had different ideology and that does change how you run your totalitarianism like with feed they were a capitalism so they just relied on the big business to come up with the feed and then they just take control but with russia they were a communism so they came up wit the five year plan which every body loved because they were very industrious. The leaders them selves were very similar they were all power hunger even in feed because big business is alway trying to get bigger and they will do it in any way possible. Hitler and Stalin also were like each other even if they did not agree with each others ideology like in the comic about how long the honey moon would last.
these leaders were not nice people so they used good propaganda methods to get in to power and control there people.
Hanna Arendt had the right idea for her time and for her experiences, but she drew too big of a conclusion.
Noah S:Through out this study on totalitarian regime I learned that if they are built right they are impossible to take down. Through out the study with Hitler and Stalin I learned that they are very similar and yet entirely different. All of their citizens are unhappy with their lives. They put on a mask during the day but once they come home and take their mask off. Once they do that their true colors are revealed. Hitler and Stalin claim to be very different, they both hated each other. They believed that every thing they were doing was right. The way these men ran their societies was buy their own vision. They did not take in consideration of everyone else around them. Most of these men believed that the entire world would see things through their own eyes. The ideas were the structure of their regime. Hitler was all about blond hare and being German, he believed that one day Germany will be separated from the rest of the world. He visualizes that Germany would eventually be self sustaining. In a way he is like the Islamic extremist today, if people did not see things the way he did he would erase them. Stalin was all about communism but he was doing it in a different way. What he was doing was not communism he was just making things in the way of his eyes. He killed all of those people not because of the their race it was because of their vision. They wanted to join Hitler. Obviously Stalin did not want his territory to be engulfed into Hitler’s empire so he took that buy killing all those people. The thing that separates Hitler and Stalin is that Hitler is viewed as a mass murder that is absolutely mad. There is no doubt in any place in the world that they hate this mad man. But now in Russia they are staring to like what Stalin did for them he is not being viewed as the same as Hitler, he is being viewed as a hero. Also people think that the all time bad guy is Hitler. He has made more of an impression on history than Stalin.
Totalitarian societies come out of the dust of a fight. They rise because every one is looking for a better life but more often than not, the society gets corrupt and life goes bad again. Once a person is engulfed by the society there is no escape. They have to play their part in the society weather they like it or not, they have to put a smile on and play their part. The mood of the society is happy and cheerful, I look like every one is there to help one and other there is peace and kindness. The leader is shown as their equal and made to be the savior. When you enter a citizens mind you see a completely different thing. The citizens have learned one rule 2+2= whatever the leader says.
Part of a lie, in a totalitarian society every thing is made to look happy and cheerful. They find strength in their leader and they use their strength to enforce the leaders vision. They are look for some thing or some one they can count on. Belief is so easy to control when times are hard. The times in Germany and the times in Russia made it so that people like Hitler and Stalin could arise with out a big fight. As a group it seems like every thing is fine nothing can go wrong. That is usually true in the early beginnings of the society. This is the period where they see their leader as a visionary. They are blinded by all the lies so they miss the things that the leader is doing behind their backs. Hitler would be viewed as a genius and a strong military leader. He brought his country out of a depression. He made the unemployment percentage 0%. He succeeded in making their government self-sustaining; every thing he did for his country made it stronger and improved the quality of living. Most leaders today would look up to him today if he did not go crazy. The mood of the societies in Hitler’s, Stalin’s and 1984’s feels so depressing and glum but every one seems to have a smile on their face. The only one that I believe has a happy mood is in Feed. Every one is out having a good time they are all happy and the society in my mind is not panted as a rainy and gloomy. I picture it with the sun out and every one with smiles on their face. All the others societies feel depressing. The reason that the society is like this is because there is not a strong presence of authority there is just people and the feed.
“Every thing big brother is doing is wrong he changes history by meaning all the wrong things he does sound right.” You don’t mater your thoughts your words every thing belongs to your leader. This is the type of things that are shown when a person steeps off the radar. The majority of the population has a strong dislike for their superiors but they are too scared to rebel. Their lives are in the hands o their leader. In 1984 and in Hitler’s Germany there is one prominent leader and they are viewed as a dictator. The person has control of everyone life and they can monitor everyone actions. A large armed force maintains both Hitler and 1984. While in Feed and in Stalin’s Russia there is not a large armed force, There is not a dictator. Stalin is viewed as an equal to everyone. The corporation is viewed as a business. In Feed everyone is happy. They are content with their lives. They are not trying to get ahead of everyone around them.
9As
Tyler:
Totalitarianism is government type. It basically means total control. The definition of totalitarianism is when a government takes total control over a society controlling even public and private life whenever necessary. Like the document, Origins of Totalitarianism says, “What emerges is a portrait of an entity that seeks to establish total control within the state, absolute control not only of the government but also of every aspect of the lives of those who reside within it.” This type of government was used in Russia and Germany, by Hitler and Stalin who you probably know because of the bad cruel things they have done. It is also used in two books called 1984 and Feed. This type of society really affects the society in a negative way.
One thing that is very effective in totalitarian governments is propaganda. Propaganda is used in many different ways. One way it is used is it promotes the leader of the country. Another way is putting down another person, race, or government. Hitler did this to make Jews outcasts. This technique is very successful in stating an opinion and getting it out to the public. This affects people greatly because it is directed toward them. Propaganda causes a lot of stir in the society. It creates little wars between people.
In a totalitarian society, there is a set of rules that you need to follow or there will be consequences. One major rule is to love whatever the government tells you to love and they are very forceful upon doing this. In this type of society, you lose your free will. For example, if the government’s leader is Stalin, and you talk bad about Stalin and get caught, you will die. Like in 1984, Winston who hates the government that he lives in, was tortured until he started to love it and it’s leader. If you made a different rebellious act, you were either sent to an army camp where you were worked to death, shot in the head, or sent to jail. To make sure people obeyed, the government would have secret police that would walk around as normal people but actually be working for the government. You are always being watched in a totalitarian society and can’t get away with anything.
One of the reasons these totalitarian societies are so successful is because they brainwash the people of the society. They brainwash them to think that what the government is doing is good. They even teach the kids to love Hitler and all that he is doing. They did that because they figured that the kids were the future and if they brainwash them, they brainwash the future. A great example of brainwash is the document “Hymn To Stalin” which basically means, thank you Stalin. Here is a poem that is part of the document, it pretty much explains how Stalin has brainwashed his people, “O great Stalin, O leader of the peoples,
Thou who broughtest man to birth.
Thou who fructifies the earth,
Thou who restorest to centuries,
Thou who makest bloom the spring,
Thou who makest vibrate the musical chords…
Thou, splendour of my spring, O thou,
Sun reflected by millions of hearts.” This just goes to show what totalitarianism does do a person. In a totalitarian society, they control everything including your thoughts and decisions just like in Feed and 1984. In 1984, they have something called thought police that control your thoughts. In Feed, they have this technology in their heads called Feeds that control the decisions they make. A perfect example of this is in Feed, the feeds make the people think that lesions are attractive. But actually, they are really trying to cover up the fact that the Feed factories are making a ton of pollution which the lesions are coming from. Brainwash is used commonly in totalitarian governments, but be careful because we are also being brainwashed….
Everything that the totalitarianism government causes leads to many different feelings that are all bad. With a society where everyone is being captured, killed, sent away, etc.. depression kicks in. With the secret police and government watching your every move makes you scared and fearful. Without being able to make decisions or have a say, you become freedom less and sad. Because of the totalitarianism ways, people who live in this sort of government can’t live their lives to their fullest. These negative feelings are all effects of the totalitarian government.
Emma:
Totalitarian governments have a huge impact on people’s lives and the experiences they have throughout that time. Life in a totalitarian government is not easy for mostly anyone. This is because a totalitarian government is when one single person rules the state and they have complete control. Which is clearly described in the analysis of totalitarian governments written by Hannah Arendt. That document clearly states “What emerges is a portrait of an entity that seeks to establish total control within the state, absolute control not only of the government but also of every aspect of the lives of those who reside within it.” Truly explaining that a totalitarian truly affects the society that is being ruled by this type of government because the people must follow everything that is being done, changed, etc. by the ruler.
A key fact that effects the peoples lives in a totalitarian government would be the fact the government feeds them lies and is brainwashing the society. In the case of the Nazis the army would hang around the children and they would be taught about the war etc. They had it where at a point there had been a 5th grade textbook for children that would talk about animals and how they survive in their habitats etc, etc. But then It would somehow relate it to one of Hitler’s famous quotes from his book Mein Kampf. The children being taught that what Hitler is doing is for the best and is going to better their community. There is also an area in the novel 1984, where the children are in love with Big Brother, who is the leader in this society, and will do anything to help serve him. For example, if they believe their parents have committed a crime against him, they will gladly turn them into the police and feel proud of themselves. There is also a completely different take on how brainwashing in a way would look in a totalitarian government, which is shown in the book Feed. In the story the greater amount of the population has a feed, which is like having a computer in your brain. But if you are a part of percentage that doesn’t have the feed then gets it later in life there are great chances that you will die because of the malfunctions it will go through. So this point is that in this situation if you didn’t follow the changes the government makes, you will face consequences later because you chose not to. As well as when you have had your feed for a long period of time and then suddenly lose it you feel lost in life. Shown in the excerpt of feed called “missing the feed”, the characters did not know what to do. The main character himself, Titus, was having flashbacks and memories of when the feed had came out and everyones reactions. Then simply stated how much he missed the feed. This shows how what the government has changed for the society in their everyday life’s had truly affected them.
A major action that occurs in a totalitarian government would be consequences for rebelling against the government, since there are so many rules and guidelines for the societies to follow in a totalitarian government. Many examples of this are shown throughout the Nazis and Soviets, as well as the two novels, Feed and 1984. This is shown from the Soviets because of their poor camps and working camps that they had throughout their time. People would be sent there and have to work 24/7 until eventually they would die. This caused many deaths as a consequence to being sent to the camps. As well as the fact of what happened to the people that came as a threat to Stalin or Stalin did not like. These people were shot in the back of the head and all history of them were to be erased. The document the black and white photo of Stalin and a few men shown on the top, then one person disappearing on the bottom portion of the same photo is an example of this. The example being that the man who disappears was someone who Stalin had not liked and was erased from all history. Another example of how consequences were given to people who attempted to rebel would be from George Orwell’s book 1984. The two main characters rebelled against the government by loving each other and having a passionate relationship. They had success hiding it from the government, until one day they were caught and imprisoned. They were then tortured very crucially until they gave in and did what the government had wanted them to do.
One last important effect that a totalitarian government has on the society it is ruling is that it kills the happiness from that community. In all of the situations (except for the book feed) everyone’s lives are miserable. The Nazis, Soviets, and people of 1984 are all sad and don’t enjoy life as much as they possible truly could. But instead they lived in a life of fear, not wanting to screw up because of the consequences that they could possibly face if they did. The societies all had different types of propaganda which made their totalitarian governments look like they were doing great things. One poster of a women holding her child, showing how women are in charge of creating new life. Trying to put the message across that the even though the government doesn’t treat men and women equally, it is for the best and is creating the best possible results. In thought of these three societies they all 3 had a type of secret organization that would creep around the corners and always be watching over you. These organizations were just waiting for you to make a mistake and screw up so that they could turn you in eventually. This example of fear and lack of happiness from 1984 would be how everyone was always only doing their job and the streets were dirty and run down. There was a time when the main character, Winston, was walking in the street and a building had just exploded and he found a mans hand just lying in the middle of the street.
In conclusion, totalitarian governments have a huge impact on people’s lives and the experiences they have throughout that time. It is shown throughout history as well as novels that were based off of it. All showing many different situations and experiences that are possible to happen.
Nikki:
The experiences of living in a totalitarian society are detrimental to the mind, body, and personality which forms all people to become victims of the regimes. Physical harm and death is one dreadful experience that citizens in the society face. In the futuristic society of Feed, Humanity is dying. People are constantly becoming sick and ill but no one seems to notice. Are they blind to see that the Feed and technology are killing them? Not only is he Feed ruining the world, it also can kill. The Feed killed Violet because she was not adapted to it at a young age. She died because the Feed took over her control. In this society, people also have lesions or cuts in their body because they think that it is cool. The Feed tricks them into thinking it is a trend so they don’t mind the pain that comes with fitting in. In 1984, everyday you watch people being hung, enemies of the state, or prisoners. You see people everyday until one day they have disappeared and are most likely dead or tortured to death. Most people in 1984 commit suicide before they are tortured because you never know when it happens. It could be in the middle of the night when they grab you and take you away. In Russia, there is extreme poverty, people dying from starvation. Children with inflamed and swollen stomachs caused by starving. Teachers, politics, anyone with a connection to Stalins ruling, all dying. Working at camps and freezing to death or starving to death after working for hours in the cold then getting a small piece of bread. In Germany people were also tortured and killed. They were brought into concentration camps in which many did not survive. Any enemy to Hitler was killed. Anyone who was suspicious or spoke something hateful to the Nazis would disappear and be gone the next day. Hitler hated communist which meant that those who were communist must die. Most were Jewish which caused a hate for the Jewish in Germany. He started to kill one jewish after another. Physical harm and death is sadly only one component to living in a totalitarian society.
What gets people the most is the mental struggle and harm that these societies have. In Feed, nobody knows that the Feed is harming them but yet they see people in riots for reasons that no one knows. As the excerpt from Feed showed, people need the Feed, it becomes apart of them. If you wish to escape the Feed, you can’t. In 1984, you are mentally always under pressured. You know that you are constantly being watched and studied. You can’t make any emotion or noise without being worried that you will be caught. Imagine living in a world pretending to be someone who you are not for the rest of your life. You also see that history is changing but yet you can’t do anything about. Everything that you had once believed in is gone. The excerpt from 1984, shows that everyone must love Big Brother. To the people in Oceania it is better to love Big Brother than to see reality. The more you know, the more dangerous you are to those in control. People in Russia either trust Stalin or don’t. In the Hymn to Stalin, the author loves Stalin, most likely because he does not see what he is doing behind the scenes. Some people don’t know that Stalin is killing people because he covers up his traces. Such as the picture of Stalin and a man who was shot. Stalin would edit pictures of people to change the past and to coverup deaths. People would ask for help from Stalin did not know that Stalin was the one who was ruining their lives. In Germany, you must not be an enemy, you must do everything because you love Hitler and the Nazis. Living in this society you are constantly scared and careful about every little thing that you say. The citizens are also brainwashed by propaganda in who they must think is the enemy. The posters tell a story and what the story tells, is who the enemy is which directs someones mind with hatred towards the enemy.
Most of the people in these regimes lose their individuality. In Feed, trends are always changing and people always want to fit in. People are afraid to talk and show emotions, instead they use the Feed to communicate. For example, Violet would try to talk to Titus many times but Titus was scared to show his emotion. He would send messages to her instead. They all have a general vocabulary that they use such as meg or unit. They don’t have much emotion or feeling. Titus would delete all of Violets memories because he didn’t really care. In 1984, Newspeak allows only certain words to show less emotion much like in Feed. Instead of using words such as bad you would use words like ungood. Everyday is a rerun and you must not do anything but to hate the enemy and love Big Brother. Sadly, you must not have any love either. To love is to rebel in Oceania and that it one thing that is hard to control. In Russia, there is Capitalism. Everyone must work to help with Stalin’s five-year plans. Stalin did not take complaints, he did not care about what he did. You must love Stalin. Those who try to help or stand out will die because they are “not trustworthy”.This is very similar to Hitler as Hannah Arendts theory pointed out. Everyone in the state loses their identities and become one. The Nazis also killed many people like Stalin. Women were used to reproduce for new generations of Nazi soldiers. Mutter and Kind showed a picture of a women breastfeeding a baby. This poster was used in propaganda for the women. Everyone was a German Nazi and did their part to help Hitler. In the end, you must also love Hitler and no one else. All these societies have similarities. They all show that those who understand what is happening will die. Those who are blinded will survive. Totalitarian societies create suffering for all who see reality.
Josh M:
In this essay I will be talking about people being brainwashed, how people got physical punishment, and how even normal people who live none rebellious lives still lose freedom, choice and opinion. All these will be compared from Stalin Russia, Nazi Germany, 1984 and Feed all of those topics have totalitarian regimes in them. The questions I will have to answer are what are the experiences of living in a totalitarian society? What are the effects on people? Include material from our fiction as well as history studies. People who live in totalitarian societies have their freedom, choice and opinion taken through brainwashing, physical control and torture.
In totalitarian regime you have to have control of people and you do this by brains washing people. In Nazi Germany they brainwash kids from a young age by putting Nazi officer's into the school system so that they can control what they think from a young age. They put it in there text book to control what they read and learn as well from Biology for the Middle School For 5th Grade Girls, Germany, 1942 (excerpt). In Stalin Russia and Nazi Germany they have camps for kids its so that young kids learn good health habits at a young age, and it is to control their thoughts and make sure they warship Hitler and Stalin. In Feed they had the Feed to control what people did and the different trends. They were unknowingly being controlled by the Feed. In 1984 you had to love Big Brother if you didn't you were turned in. In 1984, Nazi Germany and Stalin Russia there were secret police watching you every move, and in these societies since the kids were raised and brainwashed they would turn in family and people that they knew. In all of these societies they used propaganda to plant ideas into the citizens head. In Nazi Germany Stalin Russia they used kids on the poster to make it look like they were better people and that there first need were making sure the families were flourishing. Hitler used this in the mutter and kind poster. In these societies they were being controlled to love the surrounding and the people in charge. People couldn't say anything about what they actually thought about the because if you said something someone might turn you in. This is where people lose there opinion.
In these societies to make sure that you were task and obeyed the rules at all times they had camps and room 101 these were a constant lingering thought that would make you second guess your acts, because you know if you got caught you would be so miserable and the conditions were so terrible. In the camps you had to work with such rigorous conditions. In russia the weather was extremely bad and in germany and russia they would hardly feed you and the work load was so much. In 1984 they had room 101 this was a room that terrified the citizens no one knew what went on in it but when you came out of the room you were never the same again. In room 101 they tortured you to get information out of you, after they got what they wanted you were so emotionally broken down that you were just a walking body so out of it just walking around soulless and worshiping big brother. In Feed they didn't have a torture place were you went to. I feel like the everyday torture of the lesions were so bad and unbearable even though the people in Feed didn't know what was really up behind closed doors. The feed was actually deteriorating there body. The companies were smart and they told people on the feed that they were cool and they look sexy on people and to look at the lesion as a positive day to day thing. In these societies they used physical torture as a controlling aspect so people do what they are told and they listen and are scared to rebel.
In totalitarian regimes there are people who live a quiet rebellious life who do what they are told and stay down low. In a totalitarian society you can't stay away from losing your opinion, choice and freedom. In 1984 you had your same routine that you had everyday no variety. In all societies they were so used to getting hammered by one idea, and having that same idea implanted into there head. The idea is you must follow orders you must love the one leader and if you didn't something bad would happen. In all of these societies you couldn't speak up for yourself and you couldn't have an opinion of something because the government wanted you so under control. In 1984 they had newspeak it limited your vocabulary so you couldn't express yourself the way you wanted to. This also happened in Feed where they couldn't really express themselves with the words they had like meg and unit. The vocabulary that you had was made by the government and they used it so people had no ways of expressing their real thoughts. No one knew about this because it was planted in the brains of the people that this language was correct, and by using this language they were able to express themselves even less and less. What the government did was to control everyone so they could have total control they didn't just aim for the rebellious people.
In this essay we can come away with that they were three main vocal points of a totalitarian regime. They were brainwashed you so that you so they could have total control and they could plant ideas into your head when ever and they would stick. They used propaganda to help brainwash people it was an easy way to plant idea into your head about people with out you even knowing. Another vocal point was they used physical harm to make you scared and to have that lingering idea in your head that if you do something against a powerful person you will be tortured or sent to a camp which in my view is just as worse. The last vocal point is that the ideas and controlling aspects of this society go to everyone even the people that follow the rule and don't do anything bad. Through these aspect people are having a miserable life a life controlled by the government. People in these societies lose their opinion, freedom and choice from the constant control of the government.
Marshall:
Krislyn:
Living in a totalitarian society brings down the hope and life of a citizen. Totalitarian means that the government has complete power over its country. Totalitarianism is founded by a man named Karl Marx. A totalitarian society controls not only the rules you follow, but also how you think. A large continent living by this is Europe. Europe has been ruled by many people that follow out this type of control. Stalin and Hitler were two of the main men to cause many deaths and was good at changing someones personal view of everything. Two similar examples of ruling come from recent books that I have read; 1984 and Feed. The book 1984 by George Orwell, is powered as well by a government. In Feed people are being controlled through their mind.
Hitler was a man that made use of his resources. He used posters, children, speeches, metaphors, etc to get him up to power. For example, when Hitler used a little girl as his advertisement, he ended up killing bother of her parents. In 1934 it was called the "Night of the Long Knives," when Hitler had used two men named Himmler and Heydrich to help get rid of any threats towards him. Hitler brainwashed children and taught them ways in order for them to worship him. In articles written it said how families or parents favored him and how they wanted their children to do the same. When Hitler had goals, you would be part of the scheme. One of Hitlers big goals was to make Germany independent. His solution was to start invading other countries using his army. As others started to find out what he was doing they let him have some slack and get away with it again and again. Sometimes Hitler pushed things too far. For example, if Hitler were to go beyond his boundaries, countries in Europe would start another war. (Doc C) When Hitler invaded other countries that spoke German in some areas, he wanted to protect the German race. To protect his people he came up with a law called the "Nuremberg Law." This law prevented Jews from having any opportunities. Jews were not allowed to marry Germans or own a business, and if they disobeyed this law they would be shot in the head.
Before Stalin was the leader of the USSR, Lenin was in charge. Lenin was the one known to be the man with the power, (Vladimir Illyich Lenin, Doc B) while Stalin was just your average human being. After Lenin's death, Stalin stepped up the plate and decided that he would be in control. He as well used poster with him and children to advertise himself as a likable ruler. This quotes shows how Stalin had hypnotized people into loving him, "And when the woman I love presents me with a child the first word it shall utter will be : Stalin." (Hymn to Stalin) Stalin wanted everyone contribute one way or another to the whole. (Biology for the Middle School) When Germany was invading parts of Europe, Stalin needed allies in order for him to maintain his country. Until 1939, the signing of Molotov. It had said that Germany and the USSR will not go to war for ten years. There was a twist to this though, a secret that not many knew of; if the USSR invades Poland no one shall stand in their way. On September 1 Poland was invaded. Stalin got rid of many Jews, including teachers, doctors and the wealthy. He had anyone killed, if he thought that they were a threat to him. For example, Stalin had a friend that had helped him all throughout his journey. This comrade's life was taken because Stalin had feared that he was interfering with his ideas and Stalin disagreed to whatever he had said. This situation is represented through a picture, with his comrade smiling and standing right next to Stalin. Then, in the next picture Stalin is still there, but the man next to him is no more. (Doc E)
A totalitarian society has not only occurred in the past, but as well as in books. In 1984 life in Oceania is the same type of society in Germany. People of Oceania are not only band from having thought, but at the same time their ruler, Big Brother is watching everything that they do. Telescreens are placed everywhere trying to catch every mistake you make, to have a reason to turn you in. Children are trained to spy on their own parents and turn them in as well if they see anything suspicious. There is only a few ways to rebel and that is to love one another or have thoughts. Winston and Julia have been seeing each other constantly and soon had to pay for their actions. Winston and Julia were sent to the ministry of love, where they were beaten until the government received the answer they wanted. (George Orwell) In the book Feed it is a different way of controlling your life. In this case people are able to feel love, party, etc. They are being watched over by a device implanted into their heads. The feed manages what you purchase, your interests, and gives you the answer to all your questions right at you finger tips. People in this society learn to love the feed, they depend on the feed, they cannot live without it. (Excerpt from Feed)
In my opinion I find Hitler and Stalin to be very similar. Both of these rulers have invaded other countries to increase in numbers. They both, got rid of anyone who was a threat to them. Hitler and Stalin hated people who disobeyed their laws and made them suffer the consequences. Many Jews had suffered because they were not allowed to marry a German, their property was destroyed and many had lost loved one. All that Hitler and Stalin wanted was to protect their people and stay in power. One thing that everyone knew was even though they both signed the Molotov and agreed there will be no war for 10 years, the relationship between them will not last forever. Feed and 1984 keep both of their societies under control, just in different ways. In 1984 they are being watched by Big Brother through the telescreen and suffering due to not having freedom. Feed has people watching everything you purchase, everything you chat and everything that you are using it for. In a totalitarian society, there are many ways citizens can be controlled. No matter what happens, there is no way out to have freedom.
Blaine:
A totalarlism government is not a good government for the people under the government. It affects the people physically and mentally. Most of the people don’t no what there doing themselves and they don’t no what’s going on outside of the government. People under the totalarlism government are really hurt and really have no idea what is going on. They are hurt physically and mentally.
In a totalitarian government, people have no idea what is going on. People read papers full of lies. They have no idea what is going on in the outside world. In Germany hitler would made up his own education. He changed facts in the books to what he wants and what he wants the kids in Germany to learn. He changed it because they are the future and he needs them. Hitler didn’t care so much for the older people because he knew that the younger people were gonna be the people who would lead him to take over the whole world. At the time, hitler was on the top so he basically could do anything. If you went against hitler, your a dead man so every just had to listen. Some people didn’t even no what was going on. In feed, they have a feed. It controls how they think. People no about the feed but they don’t no what it is doing to them. The excerpt from feed showed that you need the feed. You need it to survive because everyone else has it. In 1984, they have 1 leader named big brother. He controls the people. He wants everyone in the society to love big brother. He has rules and he has police to make sure people follow the rules. Stalin used propaganda to make himself use good. He also made friends with the government. Once Lenin went down, he stepped in. Once he was in power, everyone listened to him. People didn’t really no Stalin was hurting people because he used to cover up his tracks. People loved stalin and trusted him. For example, in the picture, it had Stalin walking with a guy on his right. I didn’t no the guys name but he was later killed and Stalin covered his tracks and erased him from the picture.
They also hurt people physically. Although in feed they didn’t really hurt anyone accept the feed killed violet. In 1984, they would torture people who rebelled against the government. The government didn’t want anyone to rebel and find out the truth of everything. In germany, they would send people to camps and wouldn’t feed them. Hitler also killed all the Jews. Both Stalin and hitler physically hurt people and made the people think they never want to live.
In conclusion, a totalitarian government is bad for the people. It hurts people in every way. Especially physically and mentally. The 2 books we read and hitler and Stalin are both pretty similar on how they treat people.
Kainoa:
In a totalitarianism regime there will always be ways to control the people and negative effects of those methods of control. There are different types of control mental and physical. Both of which are very effective. We see both of theses types of control popping up in totalitarianism regimes around the world and in the books 1984 and Feed. Mental control can be propaganda or having people do the same routine everyday. There is also physical control which can be punishment for not following the rules or even having all your moves and decisions being watched at all times. If there is total control then there have to be effects and there are two effects mental effects and physical effects. Mental can be lack of intelligence or no will to do something. Physical effects can be the health of a person or the effect on the environment.
Mental control was a big way to get people under the total control of the government. There are many different ways of mental control, there is propaganda, brainwashing the people to love the leader and believe everything he does is for the best, lack of freedom, and the government makes the citizens hate whoever the government wants them to hate. Propaganda is the main way of mental control of people. We see propaganda everyday and it was used immensely in hitler and Stalins regimes. They used propaganda to make the public think whatever the government is doing is the best thing but they never mention the downsides of what they are doing. It was also used to make America and other countries to look bad and make Germany or Russia look like heroes. Propaganda was also used to get people to be over achieves and would promote people that did more than they were asked to and because stars for doing that. People also did the same routine everyday for their lives. It’s was also a good way to get people to do what the government because if you get people to do the same thing everyday it will just become a habit and the government wants you to have a habit of doing things for them. This happened a lot in 1984, Winston wen through his life with the same routine everyday and that didn’t change until he met Julia. Getting people to hate the people the government hated also worked very well. If Germany hates Russia they got everyone to think Russia is the worst and brainwash them to only hate Russia so it looks like the whole country is with the government.
Physical control was the major method of controlling people. Physical control is being watched 24/7, physical punishment if you did not follow the rules, if you try to rebel you are killed or tortured. In hitlers Germany people we constantly watched. If you said anything bad about hitler or Germany you we imprisoned or sent to a work camp. If people said anything bad they would have to take major precautions to make sure they are safe. This also made people very paranoid and always looking behind their back. Strict punishment was also a big part of physical control. This got enough people scared that there would not be a lot of people breaking the rules. If you did get in trouble you would be sent to a work camp or publicly humiliated. This punishment got so strict that if you said a little remark about hitler and he was doing bad you could be imprisoned or sent to a work camp. Jews were also publicly humiliated just for their religion and were later killed. If you tried to rebel in a society like this you would be either killed or tortured. In 1984 when Winston and Julia get captured Winston broke and he gave up on life. He went through his life with no emotion only doing what the government wanted him to do because he felt like he wanted to do it. If you tried to rebel in hitlers Germany you would be killed or sent to a work camp.
When you live in a totalitarianism regime that controls you mentally and physically you will have some negative effects. The first in mental effects, this implies no motivation to do things, no motivation to rebel for the greater good, people become more ignorant, the language is corrupted. When you are totally controlled you have no motivation for living and going thought your day. This benefits the government because they get you to only do what they want you to do and not what you want to do. This happened a lot in 1984, people just went through their life with no excitement nothing new and doing what they had to do because they have no passion. When you have no motivation to do anything you would not have any need to rebel. When Winston and Julia rebel against big brother no one tried to help the, because they were so far gone that they could not come back. This is especially good for the government because they will only have to deal with one or two people that are special and everyone is doing just what the government wants them to do. People also get more ignorant and dumb. They only focus on what the government and what the government brain washed them to do they because that’s all they know to do. In hitlers Germany they changed the text book so kids can grow up thinking how the government wants to think and they never learn what they were supposed to learn. The language also gets corrupted, in both 1984 and feed the language they use is weird and doesn’t really make sense. In 1984 they use newspeak which a version of English. People also stopped leaning how to read and write in feed because the feed does everything for them only violet knows how to read and write everyone else was never taught because they always had the feed.
Finally there is physical control which is environment dying, health issues, and a change in the population. When the governments only focus is on control and making sure they are always at the top they don’t pay attention to the environment. All the money is towards control and the environment is all dying and the government is doing nothing about because people don’t notice it. There is also health issues going around in both 1984 and feed. Skin lesions are in both books because no one cares about them. The feed does a great job of making people think that the lesions are cool and that is the new trend and if you don’t have it you are a loser so everyone wants them. Finally there is the effects on the population, due to the bad health of the community people are dying and nobody cares because they make people think that it is just a pawn being moved for the whole community. In 1984 the government just makes people disappear and no one weber alms about them again. They also do this with the history they just erase history and rewrite it how they want it to be.
In feed, 1984, hitlers Germany, and Stalins Russia they all have a lot of the same similarities. Even though feed and 1984 are books they have the same things that happen in real life. In a totalitarianism society there will always be consequences of trying to control everyone but there is also great rewards if you are able to do it successfully. I believe some people can see what is going on but they are scared about the consequences of if they try to rebel so they would rather hang out on the side and go along with everyone else. I do not think people are made to be run in a society that is fully controlled because there will always be rebels and sooner or later there will not be enough people to survive.
Reyn:
What best explains the origin and nature of totalitarian regimes? How do they arise and sustain themselves?
While being a unusual concept in current times, it was quite the rave a while back, I think it became big when Lenin started his. He was a brutal man, he was what many people think would be a horrible man, a monster, he was this in most peoples’ eyes. However, he may have seen himself doing the right thing, trying to make equality possible in our nature, strange isn’t? Animals have a natural order, and everything runs perfectly however, humans disturb this balance and they also can’t have peace themselves, and when one comes to try to achieve this, and push humanity in his regime to its limit he is considered a monster.
These regimes are usually someone who did something impressive, or well known, for example, Hitler served in the war getting him friend s that became very powerful in the government later on. In the end, he got power because the people persuaded the ruler too; his friends fought for him and helped him achieve his prestige. This man also has to be somewhat insane; I mean going against the system completely, something that is a giant part of the book “1984” a person who lives in a futuristic society designed like one that is a replica of a totalitarian society. He has to act like he is part of the society; he is someone who is under control. Winston, the man under control, has to pretend to think of something he is not, it is almost, or possibly could be brainwashing. The many people in the area feel the same way possibly however the ruler seems like he may possibly know what he is doing and want to trust him. This is what Hitler and Stalin did, the people wanted to believe that things were going to get better, the people in these societies thought that sending letter would help the people, plead to the official to get what they wanted, the result a letter back from the ruler apologizing. I think that the rulers may have been striving for what they thought the society needed, compared to what it wanted. This ideology inspire most people to work hard, the rulers tried to show that they wanted to work also, by sometimes going out into the public work places and working. This is just another tool in their control. They could easily inspire people with simple easy work, the people want a leader and to see that he works too would be a big relief to anyone working really hard. The people are also persuaded by neighbors and the mass of people joining these leaders of the future. Another example is from the book “Feed” The people in those books always wanted to fit in with the population. They would get a new fashion on their feeds and almost instantly try to get that fashion; they also see it fit to get everything that they wanted. If someone in the society of Feed were to do something interesting, it may be all over the place and everyone trying it in the next couple seconds. Totalitarian societies usually consist of the police and the secret police, the secret police send people to camps, while the regular police send people to jail, usually you don’t even know who the secret police are, they could be your best friend your neighbor.
Now that they have the ability to manipulate people, they need to make sure to control this powerful power; they want to keep them thinking the way that they are thinking. To keep themselves they usually give themselves most of the power so they can make any laws they want or deny any the people might think they want. People who want to start a revolution are usually hated on, found and killed or even, humiliated then killed. They are always being instructed on what to do. The rulers are not heartless though, they still want the people to be happy (or at least look happy) they really want them to at least have some joys while still doing what the ruler wants they to do. The rulers most want to appease the rich who have the most power; they want them to support their movements. The people who thought of resisting at first are then prone to join the movement. The many people joining allowing none to resist and no one would betray their own party; at least not start a major movement involving a riot. This means that it is like a UH player rooting for the other team during a match. The people in these societies sincerely believe in whatever their dictator feeds them. The people in these societies think that it is okay to do what everyone else is doing even if that involves them doing something they did not believe in. This is proven through a video we watched about how Hitler made Germans hate Jews, something they may have previously not done, however, they did now that everyone else hated them, this goes on to how people used to think about life, how everyone wanted to mess with the Jews and even go on extremes to kill them, they could’ve been someone’s really good friend however, now they were enemies and the jews stood no chance against the number of Nazis against them, even jews that we in the Nazis were killed. The jews were portrayed as ugly and the germans saw them that way, they were so brainwashed that if you showed them a picture of something completely irrelevant to the jews and you could make them believe in that and put it against the people. The posters that they used to brainwash people were easy to read if you would and the picture would explain it if you couldn’t. The reason for this is that it was almost like a ripple effect, which as it happens to one it starts to happen to everyone else and everyone is persuaded that, that is the way that they need to do it, that is exactly the way they need to go, with everyone.
Kai:
"What is of prime importance is the state itself. The state is above the individual, and both the individual and the party exist for the state. The state itself is the cause, the cause to which all belong and in which all submerge their individual identities and become one."-Hannah Arendt. Hannah Arendt's assessment and belief that ideology is, in fact, secondary to a supreme goal of solid power is correct as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia's past and tyrant leaders support this. In the two books 1984, and feed, although they differ in many ways, have a supreme power expressed in the book just like the Nazis and the Soviets. Even though both books have been written many years apart, from different people, in different eras, they are more similar than you would think. This power mentioned in both history and fiction has erased people from record books, tortured people into compliance, created camps and forced work upon enemies, and ultimately made an ignorant empire for their rulers to control with ease. Although many of these things may sound outrages and far from true, they are so close to the truth that these stories of control and misery where based and directed toward one thing. The past of two nations; Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.
Before becoming global pests, these two "soon to be rulers" didn't make such a smooth rise into power either. While growing up they were delinquents and thugs. They fought with their teachers, parents and they never respected authority. Later in Russia's life Stalin became a huge loyal supporter of Lenin's (The ruler of Russia at the time) and was appointed commissar of nationalities. Stalin then used this position to appoint his loyal comrades into higher positions. He was then named General Party Sec'y in 1922, pretty much because of his comrades doing. Lenin slowly became ill after this date and was slowly dying. While he is dying two people are jockeying for power, Trotsky and Stalin. When people where voting he had his men force people to vote for Stalin. Then, when Lenin dies on the 4th of January 1924, despite opposition, Stalin was announced the ruler. Like I said before Hitler was brought up in a cruel world just as Stalin was. Hitler fought in WW1 for Germany. When the war was finished he had joined the "German Workers Party". The German workers party eventually evolved into the nazi party. And in 1921 he became the leader of said party. In 1923 he attempted to take over the government of Germany through violence in the "Munich Beer Hall Putsch." This failed and Hitler was arrested. While in jail Hitler wrote the famous Mein Kampf (My Struggle). He was released in 1924 and immediately gained popularity through his public speaking skills, promoting German nationalism, anti communism and anti semitism. In 1933 he was appointed chancellor, because of the governments fear of him. He completely transformed the political landscape from the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, which was basically a single party dictatorship. After loosing the next election, he found a way to get Hindenburg to give him full power for four years. While in this time he took complete control and ultimately totalitarianism was formed. Now after both people got high enough in power they started taking out competition. Killing opposing leaders, sending possible traitors of to work and more. They would order their men to go, find, and kill a man because he is agains his belief. They also used the current times to gain more power. Because Stalin was in a communist russia he promised and worked on stuff that is focused on industrialism, tried to make everyone equal, expanding communism to other countries, and he used Lenin's name to say he was doing what Lenin would have or what he couldn't do or wanted to. Hitler used his current times in Germany to gain power too. Like in assessment document 3, after WW1 Germany had lost a lot and was quiet weak. So Hitler made promises that he would rise Germany up, bring back its military power, give strength back to the people of this country and etc.
Both rulers had four goals when staying in power, militarizing society, targeting enemies media control and remaining in power.
Hitler took any opportunity he could to blame communist, jews or any enemies he had, for uncommitted and/or committed crimes. On the 27th of february 1933 the Reich Stag was set fire to. Hitler and Goring blamed the communist and urged Hindenburg to issue the Reich Stag Fire Decree, which basically suspended basic rights and allowed imprisonment without trial. The communist party was crushed and Hitler and the Nazi party continued to promote anti communist propaganda.
It truly doesn't matter whatever the political philosophy—and political philosophies differed greatly between Nazism and Communism—no deviance in thought or action was permitted. What was the real fact is that method is the big deal. Both Hitler and Stalin and hitler had goals of controlling every aspect of life, and to gain and remain in control. Which is the main point of totalitarianism. Hannah Arendt and document 1 explains that even though they both hated each other on political views or philosophies, the main goals or method of totalitarian regimes caused them to come together. Which also relates to the countries in 1984! Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania would all have had to have the same method and goal of a totalitarian regime to make the world work in this manner. They would all be connected in someway to control the world. Which supports the point that the main goal, drive, and platform for a totalitarian world or regime is to gain and stay in power. In fact, to a totalitarian regime, ideology is secondary."What is of prime importance is the state itself. The state is above the individual, and both the individual and the party exist for the state. The state itself is the cause, the cause to which all belong and in which all submerge their individual identities and become one."
Austin:
Totalitarian regimes are usually formed by a powerful government that will take control through a democratic government. All of these different regimes are so similar, yet they hold completely different ideals. How these governments come into power, and the way they rule their people are just some ways that they can be similar. All of these regimes came into power the same way, by having the people vote them into power, and then exploit the people and other things in order to keep themselves in power.
all of the regimes put themselves into power by influencing the minds of the people. The most obvious way that they had done this was through the power of propaganda. Propaganda is a powerful tool in a dictators bag of tricks. Propaganda allows them to exploit a person so that the people viewing the propaganda either see that person as a saint, or a demon. All of the totalitarian regimes that we looked at used propaganda as a tool. Stalin and Hitler both would use posters in their regimes. They'd plaster themselves up as these heroes fighting the enemy, which in often case was each other. A fine example of this would be document b and document f. Document b is a poster of Lenin, looking like a superhero. He's well shaded and looks tall and regal. Document f, is a nazi poster saying "mother and child". The German idea was to have the people focus on how important the mother and her child were. They wanted the people to thinks that they thought the most important thing was the mother and child, that those two things founded their country. Both of these were use masterfully, painting the picture that they were these kind or epic people that you could put your trust in. 1984 and Feed also had societies which mastered this. However, what sets Feed apart is that propaganda was pretty much their one solid method of control. Their big propaganda delivering device feed advertisements and other things directly into you minds so you wouldn't me able to clearly focus on anything else. 1984 has rather direct propaganda. Their entire idea is focused around Big Brother. You're supposed to love Big Brother to the point of radicalism. All of these regimes have this tactic of applying these posters into your mind. The message is clear and easy to understand, and it's convincing. They are a powerful tool in allowing them to rise into power.
Another thing that most regimes have in common is physical punishments. Most often, this punishment would either be death or torture. The reason that they would do this is so that they can eliminate the people within the population that are opposing them. This would be their internal methods of control and oppression that they used. This is most commonly seen in Hitler, Stalin and 1984. Within Feed, it is not very evident, although there is the mention that the hacker was killed afterwards by the police. All of these regimes are trying to express their control over everyone through whatever means necessary. In all of these societies, killing the people against you is a prominent factor, and seemed to be the only way that they know how to deal with all of these major threats.
Another linking similarity would be how the people sustain them. These societies only seem to come around through a democracy, meaning in order for them to be successful, they needed the people's approval. How they did this is generally by making the people love the government, and then hate an outside source. That outside source could be anything, as long as they would be able to direct their hate towards it. This was a powerful thing that the regimes could do. By directing all of the hatred that might be out towards the government, they instead redirect all of those negative emotions towards an enemy of the government. By doing this, they would be able to control what people thought about them, and by expelling all of the negative emotions, only the positive things are left for the governments. All of these governments are trying to use use the people to continually sustain themselves. Ironically, the governments were technically made by the people, for the government.
One of the biggest exploits that these regimes used was information control, and language manipulation. A good example of this is would be in the excerpt from 1984. Winston is talking about how he edits the newspapers and things to change history. They'd edit the history to scratch out the people that they didn't want people to know existed back then. They would destroy any evidence of people ever having existed within their own societies. This power to be able to do this, means that anyone, wether they were part of the government, or simply someone that could've been considered a "nobody". The people have suddenly put into power, people who know how to exploit every possible tool that they have at their disposal. The language was another scary thing that was used. The language would be manipulated into a form that is easy to control and manipulate. People would no longer be able to communicate the words that they wanted to be able to say. No one would be able to protest due to the fact that words would be so limited that people would just become stupid and ignorant to the point that they would believe every lie said to them. The government would control every aspect of life, until they had complete domination over the people.
the governments of totalitarianistic nature would dominate the people by convincing the general populace that they are good for the people. They would manipulate and exploit their way into power, and then do whatever is necessary to keep themselves there. However, the only reason that they are ale to stay in power so long is because the people are either too afraid or too foolish to try and do anything against the government. On top of that, the few that try and do something are crushed. No one gets out of that society unless there is a collective rebellion, or some outside source crushed them.
Living in a totalitarian society brings down the hope and life of a citizen. Totalitarian means that the government has complete power over its country. Totalitarianism is founded by a man named Karl Marx. A totalitarian society controls not only the rules you follow, but also how you think. A large continent living by this is Europe. Europe has been ruled by many people that follow out this type of control. Stalin and Hitler were two of the main men to cause many deaths and was good at changing someones personal view of everything. Two similar examples of ruling come from recent books that I have read; 1984 and Feed. The book 1984 by George Orwell, is powered as well by a government. In Feed people are being controlled through their mind.
Hitler was a man that made use of his resources. He used posters, children, speeches, metaphors, etc to get him up to power. For example, when Hitler used a little girl as his advertisement, he ended up killing bother of her parents. In 1934 it was called the "Night of the Long Knives," when Hitler had used two men named Himmler and Heydrich to help get rid of any threats towards him. Hitler brainwashed children and taught them ways in order for them to worship him. In articles written it said how families or parents favored him and how they wanted their children to do the same. When Hitler had goals, you would be part of the scheme. One of Hitlers big goals was to make Germany independent. His solution was to start invading other countries using his army. As others started to find out what he was doing they let him have some slack and get away with it again and again. Sometimes Hitler pushed things too far. For example, if Hitler were to go beyond his boundaries, countries in Europe would start another war. (Doc C) When Hitler invaded other countries that spoke German in some areas, he wanted to protect the German race. To protect his people he came up with a law called the "Nuremberg Law." This law prevented Jews from having any opportunities. Jews were not allowed to marry Germans or own a business, and if they disobeyed this law they would be shot in the head.
Before Stalin was the leader of the USSR, Lenin was in charge. Lenin was the one known to be the man with the power, (Vladimir Illyich Lenin, Doc B) while Stalin was just your average human being. After Lenin's death, Stalin stepped up the plate and decided that he would be in control. He as well used poster with him and children to advertise himself as a likable ruler. This quotes shows how Stalin had hypnotized people into loving him, "And when the woman I love presents me with a child the first word it shall utter will be : Stalin." (Hymn to Stalin) Stalin wanted everyone contribute one way or another to the whole. (Biology for the Middle School) When Germany was invading parts of Europe, Stalin needed allies in order for him to maintain his country. Until 1939, the signing of Molotov. It had said that Germany and the USSR will not go to war for ten years. There was a twist to this though, a secret that not many knew of; if the USSR invades Poland no one shall stand in their way. On September 1 Poland was invaded. Stalin got rid of many Jews, including teachers, doctors and the wealthy. He had anyone killed, if he thought that they were a threat to him. For example, Stalin had a friend that had helped him all throughout his journey. This comrade's life was taken because Stalin had feared that he was interfering with his ideas and Stalin disagreed to whatever he had said. This situation is represented through a picture, with his comrade smiling and standing right next to Stalin. Then, in the next picture Stalin is still there, but the man next to him is no more. (Doc E)
A totalitarian society has not only occurred in the past, but as well as in books. In 1984 life in Oceania is the same type of society in Germany. People of Oceania are not only band from having thought, but at the same time their ruler, Big Brother is watching everything that they do. Telescreens are placed everywhere trying to catch every mistake you make, to have a reason to turn you in. Children are trained to spy on their own parents and turn them in as well if they see anything suspicious. There is only a few ways to rebel and that is to love one another or have thoughts. Winston and Julia have been seeing each other constantly and soon had to pay for their actions. Winston and Julia were sent to the ministry of love, where they were beaten until the government received the answer they wanted. (George Orwell) In the book Feed it is a different way of controlling your life. In this case people are able to feel love, party, etc. They are being watched over by a device implanted into their heads. The feed manages what you purchase, your interests, and gives you the answer to all your questions right at you finger tips. People in this society learn to love the feed, they depend on the feed, they cannot live without it. (Excerpt from Feed)
In my opinion I find Hitler and Stalin to be very similar. Both of these rulers have invaded other countries to increase in numbers. They both, got rid of anyone who was a threat to them. Hitler and Stalin hated people who disobeyed their laws and made them suffer the consequences. Many Jews had suffered because they were not allowed to marry a German, their property was destroyed and many had lost loved one. All that Hitler and Stalin wanted was to protect their people and stay in power. One thing that everyone knew was even though they both signed the Molotov and agreed there will be no war for 10 years, the relationship between them will not last forever. Feed and 1984 keep both of their societies under control, just in different ways. In 1984 they are being watched by Big Brother through the telescreen and suffering due to not having freedom. Feed has people watching everything you purchase, everything you chat and everything that you are using it for. In a totalitarian society, there are many ways citizens can be controlled. No matter what happens, there is no way out to have freedom.
Blaine:
A totalarlism government is not a good government for the people under the government. It affects the people physically and mentally. Most of the people don’t no what there doing themselves and they don’t no what’s going on outside of the government. People under the totalarlism government are really hurt and really have no idea what is going on. They are hurt physically and mentally.
In a totalitarian government, people have no idea what is going on. People read papers full of lies. They have no idea what is going on in the outside world. In Germany hitler would made up his own education. He changed facts in the books to what he wants and what he wants the kids in Germany to learn. He changed it because they are the future and he needs them. Hitler didn’t care so much for the older people because he knew that the younger people were gonna be the people who would lead him to take over the whole world. At the time, hitler was on the top so he basically could do anything. If you went against hitler, your a dead man so every just had to listen. Some people didn’t even no what was going on. In feed, they have a feed. It controls how they think. People no about the feed but they don’t no what it is doing to them. The excerpt from feed showed that you need the feed. You need it to survive because everyone else has it. In 1984, they have 1 leader named big brother. He controls the people. He wants everyone in the society to love big brother. He has rules and he has police to make sure people follow the rules. Stalin used propaganda to make himself use good. He also made friends with the government. Once Lenin went down, he stepped in. Once he was in power, everyone listened to him. People didn’t really no Stalin was hurting people because he used to cover up his tracks. People loved stalin and trusted him. For example, in the picture, it had Stalin walking with a guy on his right. I didn’t no the guys name but he was later killed and Stalin covered his tracks and erased him from the picture.
They also hurt people physically. Although in feed they didn’t really hurt anyone accept the feed killed violet. In 1984, they would torture people who rebelled against the government. The government didn’t want anyone to rebel and find out the truth of everything. In germany, they would send people to camps and wouldn’t feed them. Hitler also killed all the Jews. Both Stalin and hitler physically hurt people and made the people think they never want to live.
In conclusion, a totalitarian government is bad for the people. It hurts people in every way. Especially physically and mentally. The 2 books we read and hitler and Stalin are both pretty similar on how they treat people.
Kainoa:
In a totalitarianism regime there will always be ways to control the people and negative effects of those methods of control. There are different types of control mental and physical. Both of which are very effective. We see both of theses types of control popping up in totalitarianism regimes around the world and in the books 1984 and Feed. Mental control can be propaganda or having people do the same routine everyday. There is also physical control which can be punishment for not following the rules or even having all your moves and decisions being watched at all times. If there is total control then there have to be effects and there are two effects mental effects and physical effects. Mental can be lack of intelligence or no will to do something. Physical effects can be the health of a person or the effect on the environment.
Mental control was a big way to get people under the total control of the government. There are many different ways of mental control, there is propaganda, brainwashing the people to love the leader and believe everything he does is for the best, lack of freedom, and the government makes the citizens hate whoever the government wants them to hate. Propaganda is the main way of mental control of people. We see propaganda everyday and it was used immensely in hitler and Stalins regimes. They used propaganda to make the public think whatever the government is doing is the best thing but they never mention the downsides of what they are doing. It was also used to make America and other countries to look bad and make Germany or Russia look like heroes. Propaganda was also used to get people to be over achieves and would promote people that did more than they were asked to and because stars for doing that. People also did the same routine everyday for their lives. It’s was also a good way to get people to do what the government because if you get people to do the same thing everyday it will just become a habit and the government wants you to have a habit of doing things for them. This happened a lot in 1984, Winston wen through his life with the same routine everyday and that didn’t change until he met Julia. Getting people to hate the people the government hated also worked very well. If Germany hates Russia they got everyone to think Russia is the worst and brainwash them to only hate Russia so it looks like the whole country is with the government.
Physical control was the major method of controlling people. Physical control is being watched 24/7, physical punishment if you did not follow the rules, if you try to rebel you are killed or tortured. In hitlers Germany people we constantly watched. If you said anything bad about hitler or Germany you we imprisoned or sent to a work camp. If people said anything bad they would have to take major precautions to make sure they are safe. This also made people very paranoid and always looking behind their back. Strict punishment was also a big part of physical control. This got enough people scared that there would not be a lot of people breaking the rules. If you did get in trouble you would be sent to a work camp or publicly humiliated. This punishment got so strict that if you said a little remark about hitler and he was doing bad you could be imprisoned or sent to a work camp. Jews were also publicly humiliated just for their religion and were later killed. If you tried to rebel in a society like this you would be either killed or tortured. In 1984 when Winston and Julia get captured Winston broke and he gave up on life. He went through his life with no emotion only doing what the government wanted him to do because he felt like he wanted to do it. If you tried to rebel in hitlers Germany you would be killed or sent to a work camp.
When you live in a totalitarianism regime that controls you mentally and physically you will have some negative effects. The first in mental effects, this implies no motivation to do things, no motivation to rebel for the greater good, people become more ignorant, the language is corrupted. When you are totally controlled you have no motivation for living and going thought your day. This benefits the government because they get you to only do what they want you to do and not what you want to do. This happened a lot in 1984, people just went through their life with no excitement nothing new and doing what they had to do because they have no passion. When you have no motivation to do anything you would not have any need to rebel. When Winston and Julia rebel against big brother no one tried to help the, because they were so far gone that they could not come back. This is especially good for the government because they will only have to deal with one or two people that are special and everyone is doing just what the government wants them to do. People also get more ignorant and dumb. They only focus on what the government and what the government brain washed them to do they because that’s all they know to do. In hitlers Germany they changed the text book so kids can grow up thinking how the government wants to think and they never learn what they were supposed to learn. The language also gets corrupted, in both 1984 and feed the language they use is weird and doesn’t really make sense. In 1984 they use newspeak which a version of English. People also stopped leaning how to read and write in feed because the feed does everything for them only violet knows how to read and write everyone else was never taught because they always had the feed.
Finally there is physical control which is environment dying, health issues, and a change in the population. When the governments only focus is on control and making sure they are always at the top they don’t pay attention to the environment. All the money is towards control and the environment is all dying and the government is doing nothing about because people don’t notice it. There is also health issues going around in both 1984 and feed. Skin lesions are in both books because no one cares about them. The feed does a great job of making people think that the lesions are cool and that is the new trend and if you don’t have it you are a loser so everyone wants them. Finally there is the effects on the population, due to the bad health of the community people are dying and nobody cares because they make people think that it is just a pawn being moved for the whole community. In 1984 the government just makes people disappear and no one weber alms about them again. They also do this with the history they just erase history and rewrite it how they want it to be.
In feed, 1984, hitlers Germany, and Stalins Russia they all have a lot of the same similarities. Even though feed and 1984 are books they have the same things that happen in real life. In a totalitarianism society there will always be consequences of trying to control everyone but there is also great rewards if you are able to do it successfully. I believe some people can see what is going on but they are scared about the consequences of if they try to rebel so they would rather hang out on the side and go along with everyone else. I do not think people are made to be run in a society that is fully controlled because there will always be rebels and sooner or later there will not be enough people to survive.
Reyn:
What best explains the origin and nature of totalitarian regimes? How do they arise and sustain themselves?
While being a unusual concept in current times, it was quite the rave a while back, I think it became big when Lenin started his. He was a brutal man, he was what many people think would be a horrible man, a monster, he was this in most peoples’ eyes. However, he may have seen himself doing the right thing, trying to make equality possible in our nature, strange isn’t? Animals have a natural order, and everything runs perfectly however, humans disturb this balance and they also can’t have peace themselves, and when one comes to try to achieve this, and push humanity in his regime to its limit he is considered a monster.
These regimes are usually someone who did something impressive, or well known, for example, Hitler served in the war getting him friend s that became very powerful in the government later on. In the end, he got power because the people persuaded the ruler too; his friends fought for him and helped him achieve his prestige. This man also has to be somewhat insane; I mean going against the system completely, something that is a giant part of the book “1984” a person who lives in a futuristic society designed like one that is a replica of a totalitarian society. He has to act like he is part of the society; he is someone who is under control. Winston, the man under control, has to pretend to think of something he is not, it is almost, or possibly could be brainwashing. The many people in the area feel the same way possibly however the ruler seems like he may possibly know what he is doing and want to trust him. This is what Hitler and Stalin did, the people wanted to believe that things were going to get better, the people in these societies thought that sending letter would help the people, plead to the official to get what they wanted, the result a letter back from the ruler apologizing. I think that the rulers may have been striving for what they thought the society needed, compared to what it wanted. This ideology inspire most people to work hard, the rulers tried to show that they wanted to work also, by sometimes going out into the public work places and working. This is just another tool in their control. They could easily inspire people with simple easy work, the people want a leader and to see that he works too would be a big relief to anyone working really hard. The people are also persuaded by neighbors and the mass of people joining these leaders of the future. Another example is from the book “Feed” The people in those books always wanted to fit in with the population. They would get a new fashion on their feeds and almost instantly try to get that fashion; they also see it fit to get everything that they wanted. If someone in the society of Feed were to do something interesting, it may be all over the place and everyone trying it in the next couple seconds. Totalitarian societies usually consist of the police and the secret police, the secret police send people to camps, while the regular police send people to jail, usually you don’t even know who the secret police are, they could be your best friend your neighbor.
Now that they have the ability to manipulate people, they need to make sure to control this powerful power; they want to keep them thinking the way that they are thinking. To keep themselves they usually give themselves most of the power so they can make any laws they want or deny any the people might think they want. People who want to start a revolution are usually hated on, found and killed or even, humiliated then killed. They are always being instructed on what to do. The rulers are not heartless though, they still want the people to be happy (or at least look happy) they really want them to at least have some joys while still doing what the ruler wants they to do. The rulers most want to appease the rich who have the most power; they want them to support their movements. The people who thought of resisting at first are then prone to join the movement. The many people joining allowing none to resist and no one would betray their own party; at least not start a major movement involving a riot. This means that it is like a UH player rooting for the other team during a match. The people in these societies sincerely believe in whatever their dictator feeds them. The people in these societies think that it is okay to do what everyone else is doing even if that involves them doing something they did not believe in. This is proven through a video we watched about how Hitler made Germans hate Jews, something they may have previously not done, however, they did now that everyone else hated them, this goes on to how people used to think about life, how everyone wanted to mess with the Jews and even go on extremes to kill them, they could’ve been someone’s really good friend however, now they were enemies and the jews stood no chance against the number of Nazis against them, even jews that we in the Nazis were killed. The jews were portrayed as ugly and the germans saw them that way, they were so brainwashed that if you showed them a picture of something completely irrelevant to the jews and you could make them believe in that and put it against the people. The posters that they used to brainwash people were easy to read if you would and the picture would explain it if you couldn’t. The reason for this is that it was almost like a ripple effect, which as it happens to one it starts to happen to everyone else and everyone is persuaded that, that is the way that they need to do it, that is exactly the way they need to go, with everyone.
Kai:
"What is of prime importance is the state itself. The state is above the individual, and both the individual and the party exist for the state. The state itself is the cause, the cause to which all belong and in which all submerge their individual identities and become one."-Hannah Arendt. Hannah Arendt's assessment and belief that ideology is, in fact, secondary to a supreme goal of solid power is correct as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia's past and tyrant leaders support this. In the two books 1984, and feed, although they differ in many ways, have a supreme power expressed in the book just like the Nazis and the Soviets. Even though both books have been written many years apart, from different people, in different eras, they are more similar than you would think. This power mentioned in both history and fiction has erased people from record books, tortured people into compliance, created camps and forced work upon enemies, and ultimately made an ignorant empire for their rulers to control with ease. Although many of these things may sound outrages and far from true, they are so close to the truth that these stories of control and misery where based and directed toward one thing. The past of two nations; Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.
Before becoming global pests, these two "soon to be rulers" didn't make such a smooth rise into power either. While growing up they were delinquents and thugs. They fought with their teachers, parents and they never respected authority. Later in Russia's life Stalin became a huge loyal supporter of Lenin's (The ruler of Russia at the time) and was appointed commissar of nationalities. Stalin then used this position to appoint his loyal comrades into higher positions. He was then named General Party Sec'y in 1922, pretty much because of his comrades doing. Lenin slowly became ill after this date and was slowly dying. While he is dying two people are jockeying for power, Trotsky and Stalin. When people where voting he had his men force people to vote for Stalin. Then, when Lenin dies on the 4th of January 1924, despite opposition, Stalin was announced the ruler. Like I said before Hitler was brought up in a cruel world just as Stalin was. Hitler fought in WW1 for Germany. When the war was finished he had joined the "German Workers Party". The German workers party eventually evolved into the nazi party. And in 1921 he became the leader of said party. In 1923 he attempted to take over the government of Germany through violence in the "Munich Beer Hall Putsch." This failed and Hitler was arrested. While in jail Hitler wrote the famous Mein Kampf (My Struggle). He was released in 1924 and immediately gained popularity through his public speaking skills, promoting German nationalism, anti communism and anti semitism. In 1933 he was appointed chancellor, because of the governments fear of him. He completely transformed the political landscape from the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, which was basically a single party dictatorship. After loosing the next election, he found a way to get Hindenburg to give him full power for four years. While in this time he took complete control and ultimately totalitarianism was formed. Now after both people got high enough in power they started taking out competition. Killing opposing leaders, sending possible traitors of to work and more. They would order their men to go, find, and kill a man because he is agains his belief. They also used the current times to gain more power. Because Stalin was in a communist russia he promised and worked on stuff that is focused on industrialism, tried to make everyone equal, expanding communism to other countries, and he used Lenin's name to say he was doing what Lenin would have or what he couldn't do or wanted to. Hitler used his current times in Germany to gain power too. Like in assessment document 3, after WW1 Germany had lost a lot and was quiet weak. So Hitler made promises that he would rise Germany up, bring back its military power, give strength back to the people of this country and etc.
Both rulers had four goals when staying in power, militarizing society, targeting enemies media control and remaining in power.
Hitler took any opportunity he could to blame communist, jews or any enemies he had, for uncommitted and/or committed crimes. On the 27th of february 1933 the Reich Stag was set fire to. Hitler and Goring blamed the communist and urged Hindenburg to issue the Reich Stag Fire Decree, which basically suspended basic rights and allowed imprisonment without trial. The communist party was crushed and Hitler and the Nazi party continued to promote anti communist propaganda.
It truly doesn't matter whatever the political philosophy—and political philosophies differed greatly between Nazism and Communism—no deviance in thought or action was permitted. What was the real fact is that method is the big deal. Both Hitler and Stalin and hitler had goals of controlling every aspect of life, and to gain and remain in control. Which is the main point of totalitarianism. Hannah Arendt and document 1 explains that even though they both hated each other on political views or philosophies, the main goals or method of totalitarian regimes caused them to come together. Which also relates to the countries in 1984! Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania would all have had to have the same method and goal of a totalitarian regime to make the world work in this manner. They would all be connected in someway to control the world. Which supports the point that the main goal, drive, and platform for a totalitarian world or regime is to gain and stay in power. In fact, to a totalitarian regime, ideology is secondary."What is of prime importance is the state itself. The state is above the individual, and both the individual and the party exist for the state. The state itself is the cause, the cause to which all belong and in which all submerge their individual identities and become one."
Austin:
Totalitarian regimes are usually formed by a powerful government that will take control through a democratic government. All of these different regimes are so similar, yet they hold completely different ideals. How these governments come into power, and the way they rule their people are just some ways that they can be similar. All of these regimes came into power the same way, by having the people vote them into power, and then exploit the people and other things in order to keep themselves in power.
all of the regimes put themselves into power by influencing the minds of the people. The most obvious way that they had done this was through the power of propaganda. Propaganda is a powerful tool in a dictators bag of tricks. Propaganda allows them to exploit a person so that the people viewing the propaganda either see that person as a saint, or a demon. All of the totalitarian regimes that we looked at used propaganda as a tool. Stalin and Hitler both would use posters in their regimes. They'd plaster themselves up as these heroes fighting the enemy, which in often case was each other. A fine example of this would be document b and document f. Document b is a poster of Lenin, looking like a superhero. He's well shaded and looks tall and regal. Document f, is a nazi poster saying "mother and child". The German idea was to have the people focus on how important the mother and her child were. They wanted the people to thinks that they thought the most important thing was the mother and child, that those two things founded their country. Both of these were use masterfully, painting the picture that they were these kind or epic people that you could put your trust in. 1984 and Feed also had societies which mastered this. However, what sets Feed apart is that propaganda was pretty much their one solid method of control. Their big propaganda delivering device feed advertisements and other things directly into you minds so you wouldn't me able to clearly focus on anything else. 1984 has rather direct propaganda. Their entire idea is focused around Big Brother. You're supposed to love Big Brother to the point of radicalism. All of these regimes have this tactic of applying these posters into your mind. The message is clear and easy to understand, and it's convincing. They are a powerful tool in allowing them to rise into power.
Another thing that most regimes have in common is physical punishments. Most often, this punishment would either be death or torture. The reason that they would do this is so that they can eliminate the people within the population that are opposing them. This would be their internal methods of control and oppression that they used. This is most commonly seen in Hitler, Stalin and 1984. Within Feed, it is not very evident, although there is the mention that the hacker was killed afterwards by the police. All of these regimes are trying to express their control over everyone through whatever means necessary. In all of these societies, killing the people against you is a prominent factor, and seemed to be the only way that they know how to deal with all of these major threats.
Another linking similarity would be how the people sustain them. These societies only seem to come around through a democracy, meaning in order for them to be successful, they needed the people's approval. How they did this is generally by making the people love the government, and then hate an outside source. That outside source could be anything, as long as they would be able to direct their hate towards it. This was a powerful thing that the regimes could do. By directing all of the hatred that might be out towards the government, they instead redirect all of those negative emotions towards an enemy of the government. By doing this, they would be able to control what people thought about them, and by expelling all of the negative emotions, only the positive things are left for the governments. All of these governments are trying to use use the people to continually sustain themselves. Ironically, the governments were technically made by the people, for the government.
One of the biggest exploits that these regimes used was information control, and language manipulation. A good example of this is would be in the excerpt from 1984. Winston is talking about how he edits the newspapers and things to change history. They'd edit the history to scratch out the people that they didn't want people to know existed back then. They would destroy any evidence of people ever having existed within their own societies. This power to be able to do this, means that anyone, wether they were part of the government, or simply someone that could've been considered a "nobody". The people have suddenly put into power, people who know how to exploit every possible tool that they have at their disposal. The language was another scary thing that was used. The language would be manipulated into a form that is easy to control and manipulate. People would no longer be able to communicate the words that they wanted to be able to say. No one would be able to protest due to the fact that words would be so limited that people would just become stupid and ignorant to the point that they would believe every lie said to them. The government would control every aspect of life, until they had complete domination over the people.
the governments of totalitarianistic nature would dominate the people by convincing the general populace that they are good for the people. They would manipulate and exploit their way into power, and then do whatever is necessary to keep themselves there. However, the only reason that they are ale to stay in power so long is because the people are either too afraid or too foolish to try and do anything against the government. On top of that, the few that try and do something are crushed. No one gets out of that society unless there is a collective rebellion, or some outside source crushed them.