-Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author. He claims that if a disaster was to befall upon the world, freedom will be eroded and create dictatorship. A Dystopian society will be created if freedom does not appear, freedom is key to create a new world, or a utopia. Examples of Dystopian societies has appeared throughout history and most lacked freedom. Freedom is an characteristic that cannot be missing from a Utopian world.
No freedom means no Utopian society, if I were given the chance to create a "New World", I would certainly include freedom as one of the most important characteristics. There must be human rights , laws and norms to maintain freedom in the society. As Thomas Sowell wrote, we must be alert and not let any extremists take control. Maintaining the freedom is as important of achieving it. Everyone in the society should be able to have freedom and rights. The freedom of speech, thought and independence.
Looking at Dystopian societies, I realized that many of them lacked freedom. Back in Germany1923, hyperinflation began. Adolf Hitler and his racist regime began to win more votes from the citizens. Hyperinflation was a turning point for Hitler, the citizens gave him more power because they saw him as a political savior that could save them from the hyperinflation. Freedom was disregarded as Hitler took over Germany and began oppressing the Jews. Propaganda also helped to influence the citizens, in one poster, Hitler was shown as a knight in shining armor to rescue all.
I also connected with the Knife of Never Letting Go ;I chose this picture because it looks like a hot air balloon sailing towards an unknown place beyond the mountains. Viola was "crashing" towards a new unknown world. The clouds behind the hot air balloon looks like the flames when her spaceship was crashing. In Todd's Dystopian society, freedom was ignored, they aren't allowed to leave Prentisstown, Knowledge was also taken away. Books was burnt and destroyed, school banned and banned teaching. The Mayor doesn't want anyone to have freedom and uses his authority to become a tyrant, a corn farmer was in jail because he refused to give Mayor free corn.
A Dystopian book called Nineteen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell in 1949 talks about a future Adolf Hitler society. Propaganda is everywhere and even the freedom of thought is restricted. Thoughtcrime is a crime very similar to The Knife Of Never Letting Go 's Noise where everyone can hear each other's thoughts. If you think the wrong thing, you get arrested by the government. Newspeak is a reduced English language, this is similar to Todd's society where they ban the books to make Todd uneducated. The civilians in 1984 are uneducated to prevent rebellion thoughts and keep them from the truth. Memory Hole is kind of a deletion of a event, photograph or documents to pretend the event or the information never existed or happened.
While building a new society, we must build it around the idea of freedom. Freedom leads to democracy, the freedom of vote and voice. Freedom also leads to education, the freedom of knowledge and intelligence. Freedom leads to peace, there is no war and argument if everything is fair. The UN millennium development goals will be achieved if freedom is gained. There will be no poverty, gender inequality, poor maternal and child health, poor global partnership and environmental issues because freedom leads to education and education leads to a job which prevents poverty. They are also educated enough to be unbiased and Eco- friendly. Global education will also be achieved because freedom promotes education. Freedom is the characteristic that can not be missing from any society on earth.
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