The Day I Met Dictator

Though the books assigned to read in junior high are meant to get students informed about both literature and social issues, unfortunately reading these books is often pushed aside to focus on more interesting hobbies, and students are left to pray that sparknotes has a summary. In ninth grade, however, a new year’s resolution committed me to reading The Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang. The book is a memoir about the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the book quickly became one of my favorites. After finishing the book for the first time, I decided to research the politics behind the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and that led into researching the political history of more countries. I have been deeply interested in politics since then, and along with politics, I have been deeply interested in the law. The ability that people have to use the law to make a difference is both inspiring and terrifying, exciting in a way that you can protect people, and terrifying in a way that, like Chairman Mao discovered, it can be used to control an entire population. My interest in the law and in serving others began with this

Life to a dictator is dispensable. Dictators such as Adolf Hitler believed that “terrorism is an effective political tool”. People could be executed or tortured just for having a different opinion from their dictators, or for being of a different race [doc 5]. Hitler also said “already the boy in school must learn to be silent, not only when he is blamed justly but he has also to learn, if necessary, to bear injustice in silence,”… [Doc 8] This basically means that even if someone is wrongly accused of doing something they should just take the punishment and be executed or tortured rather than fight the police. Society was supposed to be submissive no matter what the circumstances were or be

Finally, three weeks after submission, the letter had come. I was so excited to open the letter and read that I would be a new inductee of the National Honor Society (NHS) at Orchard View high school. As I walked in the door after a long day at work, I headed straight for my mother 's room. As I turned the corner and saw my mother 's face, I knew the letter read the opposite of what I hoped. This conflict was the first time I had truly felt unfairly treated.

At times, entire populations are sheltered from the rest of the world and its ‘pleasures’, to comply with an principle such as egalitarianism or socialism, i.e. communism in North Korea, and formerly the Soviet Union. These very same people are led to believe in blind faith that their society is always right, and therefore perfect. Unfortunately, the government in Anthem abuses

One of the most frightening things is to realize the government is not on the same side as you. Unfortunately, that is what happened with the African-Americans during the reconstruction of the south and the Jews in Hitler’s Germany. Those who are supposed to help all of the nation and be fair and just were not and turned against them. It was hard. The people suffered in many ways. There were unjust politics, terror groups, rights were taken, and fallacies spread against them. What is worse is that this kind of treatment happens throughout history and even today too so many groups. It is important to understand how to recognize this and bring it to an end.

A newspaper editorial “American Flag Stands for Tolerance” written by Ronald J. Allen, discusses how in the U.S. “a person has the right to express disagreement with government policies”, but in China “citizens who peacefully express disagreement with government policies may be slaughtered” (Allen 18). Utilizing violence, a group of people or a person is susceptible to subjugation by those in power due to the fact that they are different. Observing the statement, one can conclude that this has occurred multiple times throughout history as we view the Holocaust, slavery, or Rwandan Genocide. Irrational violence suspends itself towards those who are vulnerable as an attempt to subjugate them, so they cannot and will not retaliate out of defeat and a feeling of

Imagine living in a society where the government controls every single aspect of one’s life; furthermore, the future fate of a human. A society where everyone is alike and no one can make any further decisions for themselves, but the great leader(s). This isn’t only being experienced in dystopian stories, nevertheless, a real life country as well...North Korea. In the novel “Anthem,” by Ayn Rand, she portrays the remarkable, dystopian society where an individual can make a difference. Such happenings can take place if the government is capable of achieving full control, although it hasn’t occurred in most areas, the possibility is amongst the slightest. However, this is untrue for North Korea, which is a country with one belief, one structure,

To continue, living in a dictator ship can be very difficult. You do not have freedom of speech, and everything that you do must be perfect, and approved by upper-class individuals.

I started education at the age of five and continued till I graduated with a BA degree in Eritrea. Unfortunately, due to well-founded fear of persecution I escaped Eritrea to Sudan illegally. More precisely, I refused to become a victim of the evil treatment by the regime in Eritrea. Saying even a word against the government in Eritrea, however, is considered as a grave crime in the eyes of the tyrant regime. Consequently, I was arrested, detained, interrogated and badly treated in prison. Luckily, I escaped the country illegally to save my life using a narrow chance to run away.

In a world where individuals feel suppressed by the government under which they were born into, it is important to understand that this suppression can be avoided. On numerous occasions throughout world history, suppressed citizens have sojourned to new countries to fight against this suppression. Citizens of Great Britain did so in order to seek religious freedom, as well as Syrian refugees in today's society. What I am trying to say is that some governments have rules implemented that are not well-liked by its citizens. These rules, however, must be followed by all citizens living in the State. In this paper, I will argue that citizens do, in fact, agree to a contract of the society in which they dwell. I will also argue the point that these citizens always have the option to shy away from the rules of these suppressing governments at any time. I will incorporate real-life examples to better explain and defend the arguments presented.

A society or a people cannot let a government lead them blindly. With misrepresentation comes a whole new form of unjustness. The strong are the ones who do not give into demands placed upon them if they do not agree; those who refuse to conform to society; those who stick to their beliefs, no matter the cost. In many cases, those people are the ones who practice civil disobedience. Martin Luther King, Henry Thoreau, Socrates… All advocated that they should not be denied their freedom, and all were considered disobedient.

Finian knew the local customs and culture, and adapted to the new environment quickly. He also hated communism, understood that communist ideas directly threaten the church, the American people and local way of life. Finian took it upon himself to combat the growing communist threat in Burma. He used a local helper, U Tien, to open dialog with a small group of the local anti-communist supporters. Finian came up with a plan to clandestinely educate Burmese on the evils of communism and help them overcome this epidemic. He knew that the problem statement and solutions had to come from the Burmese, and not an outsider. Finian met with U Tien’s small group to determine their thoughts on communism, its appeal to locals, and how they could stop or roll-back communist gains in Burma. The group met many times and Finian listened to their ideas and ensured the group made their own decisions; this ensured legitimacy of the group and ownership of their solutions. Once the small Burmese group was ready to act, Finian only requested that the group use non-violent ways to combat the communists. He knew that the anti-communist movement had to be very careful not to break the violence threshold, because the group was small, and because they all wanted to minimize communist retaliation on the local population. Finian and the group anticipated and controlled the psychological effects that the underground

The government continued to commit widespread and well-documented human rights abuses in violation of internationally accepted terms. These abuses stemmed from the government's extremely limited tolerance of public unrest. The Constitution and laws provide for fundamental human rights however, these rights are often ignored in practice. Abuses included instances of extra-judicial killings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, forced confessions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy incommunicado detention, and denial of due process(Amnesty International. "China, violations of human rights). Prison conditions at most facilities remained very harsh. In many cases, especially in sensitive political cases, the judicial system denied criminal defendants basic legal safeguards and due process of the law, merely because authorities attached higher priorities to maintaining public order and suppressing political opposition than to enforcing the legal norms of the country (Amnesty International. "China, violations of human rights). The government infringed on citizens' privacy rights. The government

Singapore 's former Prime Minster, Lee Kuan Yew once said: "Human beings, regrettable though it may be, are inherently vicious and have to be restrained" (Kwang, Fernandez, & Tan 1). One can infer from Kuan Yew’s statement that he 's subtly saying that individuals shouldn 't be in control of their choices, yet there ought to be somebody to settle on choices for them. An ideology such as this can stem from an authoritarian government. In this day and age, most nations have a tendency to have a democracy. However, it wasn 't generally that way. Throughout history, there were nations under authoritarian rule. In order to fully understand what an authoritarian regime is, one must know the meaning of it. An authoritarian government is "an oppressive regime that rules through strict, intrusive, and violent enforcement of laws. It can “take the form of a dictatorship, but may also manifest itself in totalitarian bureaucracies or oligarchies" (Ritter 576). An authoritarian regime exists when a leader or a small group of leaders owns all property and are the sole decision makers for the entire population. There are only two questions left to be asked. How are authoritarian regimes created and how do they even stay in power? Authoritarian governments ascend to power due to a postwar upheaval and the leader in the charge; they stay in power by employing a resource trap and having a one party system.

Burmese Days was one of George Orwell’s first books, and the intro states that “As a policeman in Burma, George Orwell saw the underbelly of the empire; not the triumphant bugles or bejewelled Maharajas, but the drunken sahibs pickled by heat and alcohol in mildewed clubs, the scarred and screaming Burmese in their prison cells” (Orwell Reader 2). The described Burma sounds repulsive and unappealing. George Orwell must have seen Burma in a very different light after working as a policeman. George Orwell always described himself as somewhat of a loner. Burmese Days speaks about George’s situation as “Unable to share his views with the enthusiastic empire builders around him, he retreated like John Flory, the main protagonist of Burmese Days ‘to live silent, alone consoling oneself in secret, sterile worlds.’”. (Orwell Reader 2). The social life of “John Flory” was very oppressive and there were many unspoken rules he had to follow. One such piece of evidence that supports this is in (Burmese Days 20) “Flory had been fifteen years in Burma, and in Burma one learned not to set oneself against public opinion”. He could be referring to his opinion against the empire. That seems to be the only thing he would want to hide from the public. The citizens of Burma stuck to themselves and in Burma, there was “A comforting theory that sticking to one’s job was the truest patriotism”. (Burmese Days 21) This sounds like the logic of an oppressed people, just laying low and doing what you