Why Great Societies Fall Essay

They take away everyone’s freedom and basically run their lives on a Dailey basis. Through all 3 books their quote on quote just society it rebelled and contradicted against by the protagonist or simply the characters that are tired of it in the books, for example in book one the kids or teens are talking to one another and one exclaims “think about it our memories are wiped, we live inside a place that seems to have no way out. Surrounded by blood thirsty monster guards doesn’t that sound like a prison to you? “James Dashner (64) Well does it? Theses teens basically had their whole life taken from them, then the wicked just throws them in a maze filled with monsters like a lab rats. The people/protagonist in the book had what everyone is obligated to in their life their freedom and rights stripped away as if this corrupt society couldn’t get worse, overall the maze runner displays the perfect dystopian society. In an online source an author by the name of Thomas Robinson spoke on the society in the maze runner and he exclaimed “a dystopia society can be described as one where conditions are incredibly bad and unpleasant for the inhabitants whether due to an oppressive government degrading environmental conditions etc.” Knight, Melissa. “The Maze Runner. Thomas goes on to speak on how life is already unpleasant while where they live is most likely destroyed ruins very dirty and just filled with junk. Having to live under the lies of their leaders. To wrap up, Dystopian societies lead to many hardships that is faced which leads to the next topic on a dystopian society. One of the most intriguing characteristics of James Dashner’s dystopian society is how he brings all of his many different characters to life in their very own unique way. From Thomas to newt to alby to gally they all act and develop differently throughout the book series. In book one Gally makes himself known to Thomas as the big boss, and basically disrespects him.

How is it that prison reformers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries put such a big amount of effort into changing the way people were being punished. Without touching on the importance of racial disparities occurring during that specific time-period. Davis states “If the individual was not perceived as possessing inalienable rights and liberties, then the alienation of those rights and liberties by removal from society to a space tyrannically governed by the state would not have made sense.” (Davis 2003: 44). African Americans can be viewed as one of the greatest racially discriminated groups of people since the beginning of slavery. Many viewed slaves as unintelligent individuals that were nothing more than a piece of meat whose main purpose was to endure hard labor for no pay. This “airtight system of social control” (Burris & Burris 2011) is the foundation of oppression that has allowed our society to devalue the rights

Many believe that civil rights movements have completely eradicated racial injustices and inequality in the United States. Michelle alexander disprove this myth in her book “The New Jim Crow.” Alexander claims racial caste did not die with slavery. She implies that the racial caste system in America has been reformed multiple times to meet “the needs and demands of current political climates” (alexander 52). She believes that mass incarceration which she refers to as “The New Jim Crow” is the current caste system in the United States. By elaborating on the history of racial caste in America and by including quotes from politicians such as Nixon and Lyndon Johnson, Alexander effectively persuades her reader that the United States has not achieved

Michelle Alexander writes and speaks about the 3 caste systems slavery, Jim Crow Laws, and mass incarceration. She asserts that racial separation has not gone away but rather morphed into present mass incarceration. Racial segregation has taken a new form and exists in prison systems and in socio-economic ways Caste system locks people up literally virtually. Alexander writes, “Jim Crow and mass incarceration have similar political origins. As described in chapter 1, both caste systems were born, in part, due to a desire among white elites to exploit the resentments, vulnerabilities, and racial biases of poor and working-class whites for political or economic gain. Segregation laws were proposed as part of a deliberate and strategic effort to deflect anger and hostility that had been brewing against the white elite away from them and toward African Americans.” ( Page 191) The largest incarceration rate in the world. 6 to 10 times greater than that of other industrialized nations, and the US has the largest incarceration rates . The war on drugs began at a time when drug use was actually on the decline, but government begins targeting black men through war on drugs as a system of social control.

In making the case that mass incarceration is the new version of Jim Crow, Alexander moves through a history of racial caste systems from slavery to Jim Crow. Alexander demonstrates this history by explaining that it was during these racially periods of American history that the platform was set for maintaining a black underclass through the use of race-neutral language. Slavery was an obvious racial caste system in which the laws, including the U.S. Constitution, were used to ensure that blacks would live and be treated as a distinct group. When

The poor suffered from disease, inhabited substandard housing, had a high rate of alcoholism, crime and fighting, and high unemployment, and experienced lack of government social services. The poor and urban workers were the people that worked more harshly and were exposed to more diseases.

Racism effects the the high incarceration rates according to Michelle Alexander, the author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. This scholar writes about how the civil rights movement has been taken back by the mass incarceration of black Americans in the war on drugs. Alexander also explains how the severe consequences that these black men carry on after being incarcerated, for example not being able to get school grants or housing. The author continues to argues that all it takes is a major social movement to end americas new caste system and that it is inhumane to treat any race less then the other. Agreeing with Alexander, I believe that every race deserves equal opportunity and that high mass incarceration rates are the way they are because of racism by the criminal justice system.

In Sigmund Freud’s book Civilization and Its Discontents, he defines that civilization is a whole sum of individuals and regulation and development of society force individuals to against their inner desire and sacrifice some personal happiness. In drama breaking bad, Walter White is a chemistry teacher in high school who lives in New Mexico with his wife and son who has cerebral palsy. Walter is diagnosed with a terminal lung cancer. For leaving money to his wife and children, he has to enter the drug trade with his student, Jesse Pinkman. This drama shows the changes of the characters and conflicts between individuals and society. In the process of improvement of civilization, people should sacrifice personal happiness to meet the demands

In, The Glass Castle, when The Walls family moves to Welch and gets one if not the cheapest house that they could buy, the house was filled with problems and was even more problematic when the roof collapsed “The ceiling in the bedroom had collapsed, and Brian had moved his bed onto the porch. He made walls by nailing boards along the railings, but it leaked pretty badly out there, too, so he still slept under the inflatable raft,”(249). This shows the danger of living in poverty in a first world because Wall’s brother is faced with leaks that could endanger his safety by keeping him up at night and during the winter they could have more of a chance to get hypothermia. In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Kamkwamba’s roof collapsed in his room because of termites and storms, “ My ceiling now sagged in the middle and my floor was covered in dirt and grass. The broken beam had also dumped hundreds of squirming termites onto the floor and across my bed,” (215).This shows that the danger of poverty in third world countries, Kamkwamba, and first world, Wall’s, both have problems with safety because of their houses being dangerous and them being too poor to fix or prevent the damage. This makes the housing while living poor in third world countries similar to the housing when living poor in a first world country because they are both dangerous and easily

In “The end s of the world as we know them” article Jared Diamond looks at the collapse of several historical societies and the factors that caused their collapse. The factors are:

The word “collapse” has a number of connotations associated with it. Some view it exclusively the degradation of societies of the highest order. Others see it as the complete disintegration of economic prospects and commerce. Some even think of it political ruin with the demise of states and ruling factions that maintain order. The most general definition for collapse can includes elements from these three viewpoints. American anthropologist and historian Joseph A. Tainter is best known for his writings on societal collapses. In 1988 he published his most widely recognized work, The Collapse of Complex Societies.

Society is everything that the people join together to do which is positive. Government, however, is meant only to protect us from ourselves. Government is described as a “necessary evil,” and should only be judged on how well it accomplishes that goal.

Living standards as described by Blainey (2000) were bleak. Most people lived in one roomed, small stone houses, often with four or more sharing one bed. Homes often remained unheated due to scarcity of wood (Blainey 2000, p. 423). People were largely uneducated and knew little about healthcare. Sewerage was disposed of in the same rivers that were used to drink and wash from. These contaminated rivers were used to supply water to the growing crops. This had a huge impact on health, causing infection in around two out of every three people in rural areas (Blainey 2000, p. 415). Lack of hygiene and knowledge of healthcare led to shorter lifespans.

There is seen to be a link between power and crime, the more powerful you are, the least likely to be committing a crime, so the lower classes are discriminated here as they don’t have the same power a middle-class or upper-class businessman might have therefore they are labelled to be trouble-makers, they are treated harsher by the criminal justice system than their peers, but the lower class is seen more favourably than ethnic minorities, especially ethnic groups that have less power than them. In the 1960’s, researchers found that blacks were more severely sentenced than whites. Hagan in 1974 reviewed many of the findings supporting racial discrimination and found that studies were not allowing for the possibility that black defendants may be charged with more serious crimes than whites, and may have more serious criminal records (cited in ‘Theoretical Criminology’). Lizotte in 1978 found that blacks have been shown to receive harsher sentences because they are less likely to make bail, since they are less affluent, and this reduces their ability to provide an effective defence.

For more than 50 years, the cold war grabbed the attention of many of the world’s nations. This happened due to the evident rising powers of the United States and the Soviet Union. Both of them wanted an upper hand on the power influence and hence half the century was spent under conflict and unsettled disputes. Later the Soviet Union broke down and divided into separate republics, giving freedom to the West. But this liberation led to uncertainties for the West’s future leadership. Many issues arose questioning whether the change will decrease the danger or will the West be able to maintain the position in world’s affairs during the millennium? Will the twenty-first century be more peaceful and have productive outcomes than the twentieth