Government Power In 1984

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Pages: 2

Power is not a new concept to governments, starting way back in early civilizations, and it is continuously in the flexible cycle of gaining, maintaining, and losing. However, this cycle is disrupted in a dystopian novel written by George Orwell. 1984 portrays a government with complete power over its citizens and no end in sight. It’s government is seemingly impossible to overtake as people are brainwashed into adoring a made up man made to scare people into loving the Party. There’s no democracy present but rather an oligarchy whose interests do not lie with the good of the country. Both in 1984 and in the U.S. governmental corruption is rampant because both seek power for its own ends.
Democracy has become corrupt due to concentrated money influencing the political offices. Mancur Olson, a prestige political scientist, has written prolifically about the topic of corruption in governments and published his journal in 1993. He argues that since only a majority is needed for the candidate to win, they could, in theory, transfer income from the population at large to a prospective majority (570). Olson’s point was made well before the
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Ali Watkins, the author of an article titled “How the N.R.A. Uses Its Influence to Hobble Federal Gun Regulators,” has explored this topic meticulously and has come to the conclusion that, specifically, the “gun lobby” has the most political force in Washington, and is “dolling out tens of millions of dollars each election cycle to lawmakers and campaigns to steer the political discourse on gun regulation” (8). “Steer” denotes a piece of advice or information concerning the development of a situation. However, the connotation of “steer,” while very similar to the dictionary definition, substitutes the words “a piece of advice or information” with a generous donation of money, and instead of just “concerning” the situation, it is actually fully controlling