Reflection Precis #2, State Responses to Terrorism (3/17/2016)
Part I: In reading Manfred F R Kets de Vries’ article on The Spirt of Despotism: Understanding the Tyrant Within, gives an insight that, “the disposition to violence exist in all of us,” meaning that all humans have a natural tendency to act with violence against others with the act of power. To take a look at a slight example on having power, Hector did his presentation on torture, he shared a YouTube link on some interviews by Brian Ross. The interviews were given to John Kiriakou about his insights on waterboarding, which is a form a torture where individuals are submerged in water for long moments, while strapped down, and being interrogated. One of the comments made by the interviewee was his statement of “because we are Americans and we are better than that.” That comment can be taken in two ways: one is by emphasizing the ‘because we are Americans,’ we should lead by example and not use torture because it …show more content…
Acts to possess unlimited power has driven us to become a society of hate, agony, repression, coercion, paranoia, evil, in which have led to mass amounts of bloodshed. The scary thing about humanity, which Kets de Vrie pointed out is me realizing, that the spirit a despot lives in every one of us and given the chance of power we are capable of enacting violence. I do believe in having power, power used in a positive way can help an individual become the person they want to be or help mobilize society in the right path for a greater good. However, power is not used in a positive way, I don’t believe that those who have power have the authority in terrorizing other individuals in order to get what they want. Sadly, I feel that the state are the ones that use their power to terrorize individuals with the support of most of the
Part I: In reading Manfred F R Kets de Vries’ article on The Spirt of Despotism: Understanding the Tyrant Within, gives an insight that, “the disposition to violence exist in all of us,” meaning that all humans have a natural tendency to act with violence against others with the act of power. To take a look at a slight example on having power, Hector did his presentation on torture, he shared a YouTube link on some interviews by Brian Ross. The interviews were given to John Kiriakou about his insights on waterboarding, which is a form a torture where individuals are submerged in water for long moments, while strapped down, and being interrogated. One of the comments made by the interviewee was his statement of “because we are Americans and we are better than that.” That comment can be taken in two ways: one is by emphasizing the ‘because we are Americans,’ we should lead by example and not use torture because it …show more content…
Acts to possess unlimited power has driven us to become a society of hate, agony, repression, coercion, paranoia, evil, in which have led to mass amounts of bloodshed. The scary thing about humanity, which Kets de Vrie pointed out is me realizing, that the spirit a despot lives in every one of us and given the chance of power we are capable of enacting violence. I do believe in having power, power used in a positive way can help an individual become the person they want to be or help mobilize society in the right path for a greater good. However, power is not used in a positive way, I don’t believe that those who have power have the authority in terrorizing other individuals in order to get what they want. Sadly, I feel that the state are the ones that use their power to terrorize individuals with the support of most of the