The purpose of a government is to protect the individual rights of its citizens. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the author of “Harrison Begeron”, and James McTeigue, the director of V for Vendetta, portray the abrasive relationship between governments and their citizens. The story and film both share the same conflicts with governments using hostility in order to keep its citizens under strict control.
When the government takes away its citizens’ natural born rights, citizens lose their power of having individuality. Citizens should have the right to express their grief with the government, as well has having their own individual views without conflict. In “Harrison Bergeron,” the government has completely stripped the citizens of their right to express …show more content…
The antagonists desire to have absolute control over all the government and its citizens lead to cruel and unusual punishment, which takes away the natural rights of the citizens <http://www.dystopianmovies.org/adam-sutler-v-for-vendetta-john-hurt>. When citizens fear their own government, there is less desire to try and change it, therefore the same corrupt leaders stay in control and all the power is awarded to them, this is not the way a government is supposed to operate, “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people” (McTeigue). Government officials are elected by the people, for the people, therefore, governments should seek to serve their people, not rule them. Today the government has taken similar routes with limiting the rights of its citizens in the time of a crisis or state of emergency. In America, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, President George Bush, and congress passed the Patriot Act which funded and gave the government massive amounts of power in dealing with suspected terrorists. With this act passed, if suspected, all rights as a human being is taken …show more content…
In “Harrison Bergeron” the government uses propaganda to keep its citizens from wanting to compete with each other and be their own individual, “‘If I tried to get away with it,’ said George, ‘then other people’d get away with it-and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against anybody else. You wouldn’t like that would you?’” (Vonnegut 217). The dark ages symbolize a time when people had individual talents, and how terrorizing that time was, but now it is all better because they are all the same. In V for Vendetta the government uses propaganda to hide its corruption and keep the citizens from forming their own opinions. Other countries such as America is used as a scape goat for their flawed government in order to glorify and push the government’s fascist ideas on the citizens of England, “Here was a country that had everything, absolutely everything. And now, 20 years later, is what? The world 's biggest leper colony. Why? Godlessness. Let me say that again... Godlessness” (McTeigue). In modern day America propaganda is used domestically to turn its citizens against each other. In Ferguson, Missouri after the death of an unarmed young man, and the failure to prosecute the cop who killed
When the government takes away its citizens’ natural born rights, citizens lose their power of having individuality. Citizens should have the right to express their grief with the government, as well has having their own individual views without conflict. In “Harrison Bergeron,” the government has completely stripped the citizens of their right to express …show more content…
The antagonists desire to have absolute control over all the government and its citizens lead to cruel and unusual punishment, which takes away the natural rights of the citizens <http://www.dystopianmovies.org/adam-sutler-v-for-vendetta-john-hurt>. When citizens fear their own government, there is less desire to try and change it, therefore the same corrupt leaders stay in control and all the power is awarded to them, this is not the way a government is supposed to operate, “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people” (McTeigue). Government officials are elected by the people, for the people, therefore, governments should seek to serve their people, not rule them. Today the government has taken similar routes with limiting the rights of its citizens in the time of a crisis or state of emergency. In America, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, President George Bush, and congress passed the Patriot Act which funded and gave the government massive amounts of power in dealing with suspected terrorists. With this act passed, if suspected, all rights as a human being is taken …show more content…
In “Harrison Bergeron” the government uses propaganda to keep its citizens from wanting to compete with each other and be their own individual, “‘If I tried to get away with it,’ said George, ‘then other people’d get away with it-and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against anybody else. You wouldn’t like that would you?’” (Vonnegut 217). The dark ages symbolize a time when people had individual talents, and how terrorizing that time was, but now it is all better because they are all the same. In V for Vendetta the government uses propaganda to hide its corruption and keep the citizens from forming their own opinions. Other countries such as America is used as a scape goat for their flawed government in order to glorify and push the government’s fascist ideas on the citizens of England, “Here was a country that had everything, absolutely everything. And now, 20 years later, is what? The world 's biggest leper colony. Why? Godlessness. Let me say that again... Godlessness” (McTeigue). In modern day America propaganda is used domestically to turn its citizens against each other. In Ferguson, Missouri after the death of an unarmed young man, and the failure to prosecute the cop who killed