In contrast to totalitarianism, a democracy can face and live with the truth of itself.” -Philosopher Sydney Hook. A totalitarian government is a very dangerous thing because at times its power over its people is very trifling and it must go to great lengths to keep that power. The theme of totalitarianism and things like misinformation, force, and ethical judgment are illustrated in Cecelia Ahern's Flawed and countries like China and North Korea. Both in the Flawed society and in real-world countries, a totalitarian government uses military and false information to control their people. When Celestine is trying to find the truth to prove her sixth brand, she finds out that, "The reports have lied" (Ahern 176) and, "the guards are all gone, …show more content…
In the beginning of Flawed, the readers learn what it means to be flawed,” Faulty, defective, incomplete, invalid, a person having weakness in character.” (Ahern 1). They are just, “regular citizens who have made moral or ethical mistakes in society.” (Ahern 4) In this society, the people who are cast out haven't done anything illegal by our laws, but in this twisted government, they have done the worst. One small mistake and they are taken out of the life they knew. The government does this because it's a way to keep control. Fear is power, and systems like these create a lot of fear. Something like questioning the government could make the world see you as worthless scum. Further, this is a real problem in some places, though. In China, they have adopted a social credit score. In it," Good deeds gain points, bad deeds lose them with perks and hardships attached.” (Charlie Campbell) Also, the encompassing punishments and rewards are to improve governance and stamp out disorder and fraud... [and] they are undeniably intrusive.” (Charlie Campbell) By placing a system like this in place, China is quickly becoming something like the Flawed society. In a place that upholds rules like these, people can be overly privileged or not able to get home because they made one wrong choice. These governments should not be able to