Abuse Of Power

961 Words4 Pages
Edmund Burke once said, “The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse”. Authority is used to guide society, provide order and create a sense of security. The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, the award winning film The Changeling, and the play One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Dan Wesserman all exhibit different circumstances involving abuse of power. Though it comes in different forms, the outcome is consistently a miserable experience for certain individuals in each case. Throughout the novel Anthem, by Ayn Rand explores the thought of a government created dystopia. With a complete absence of individual freedoms and expressions, the government has dictated what you will do with your life and who you will become. People who live in this community are deprived of the notion of “me, myself, I”, and left only with “us, we, and ours”. A young man, Equality 7-2521 fights in his own mind against what society tells him is right and wrong. He was told from a very young age his thoughts and feelings, strengths and weakness do not matter in the eyes of the Council of Vocations. “Dare not choose in your minds the work you would like to do when you leave the Home of the Students. You shall do that which the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you. For the Council of Vocations knows in its great wisdom where you are needed by your brother men, better than you can know it in your unworthy little minds. And if you are not needed by your brother men, there is no reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies” (p 22). The Council of Vocations believes any opinion but their own is insignificant and not to be bothered with. They control everything making life seem as miserable as a prison, as if they were being punished. Without authority, who would protect our rights and freedoms? Manage conflicts peacefully and fairly? This government has gone overboard with protection
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