People Use Religion example essay topic

Dystopian Societies in Literature and in Life Ever since man began making tools, he has been in search of a better life. For some it is not just a better life they are after but a perfect life. These people are in search of a utopia. Philosophers and novelist have been teaching classes and writing books on how to reach a perfect society with no grief or turmoil. The philosopher Karl Marx wrote "The Communist Manifesto" to express his vision of what is necessary to form a utopia. Religious leaders like Jim Jones have lead separated communities working to be a utopia within itself.

When Karl Marx ideas were put into practice the society never came together as he believed it would. When Russia raised the communist flag life improved for awhile. Over time the strife came back and became much worse. Not only was life getting harder for the public, the government began to take away rights in order to maintain control. Many writers focus on this aspect of utopias.

Many times they become dystopias. Jim Jones' community in Guyana ended in the death of most ever person in the society. Books like Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Farienheigt 451 by Ray Bradbury portray the message that it is the very tools used to maintain societal control that create a dystopia. To maintain societal control in a dystopia the controlling party needs to dis inform the public, offer an accepted release from reality, and a penalty to non-conformers.

In the book Brave New World they began conditioning people before they are born. The embryos are divided into castes and then conditioned according to what is predestined to be their life. The embryos are taken into the Predestination Room. Over a nine-month process of development substances are added or taken away from the embryo in order to make the person like their lives.

The disinformation begins by producing humans on a production line. Those in power tell the populous that they are not individuals but only a part of the society, the World State. The state's motto is "Community, Identity, Stability" (Huxley 1), signifying that the world is unified into one state with one main government that has one set of rules and regulations. This motto in no way indicates that the people have equality. People from one caste are told from a young age to fell superior to those castes below them and to stay out of the way of those above them. To make the members of the society believe in the castes and the morals the state using sleep teaching on the babies to force the social stratification dependent upon the biology of one person.

The sleep teaching is used for moral education. If everyone acts under the same morals and ethics with deviation the society will run smoothly. Morals are also taught to the populous in the state run schooling. The book opens with students touring the decanting and conditioning facility.

The students are there because, .".. if course some sort of general idea of they must have, if they were to do their work intelligently-though as little of one, if they were to be good and happy members of society, as possible" (Huxley 4). The world controllers have set up a world where the populous are trained to believe what they are told and are not told what they needed be. The world controllers maintain control not only through disinformation but through not informing the masses either. The society is also lead to believe that history has no baring on their lives.

The history they know is what the world controllers tell them to create order. Mustapha Mond, one of the world controllers, puts their stance on history simply as, "History is Bunk" (Huxley 24). The method used by the World State gives them control over the majority of the society. The Communist Party in Russia used some of the same techniques to condition the masses to support communism and foster a dislike for other nations. The public schools received new revised books on history and the teachers were forced to teach the new versions of historic events. Teachers in public and private schools were also forced to promote the ideals and beliefs of the Communist party.

The children grow being taught the virtues of their society and woes of other ones. These methods are not new. Many totalitarian dictators of the 20th Century used these methods. In Germany under the Nazi regime schools were used to promote the governments ideals in the youth. Both of these parties also took control of the entertainment business and put their ideas into the media of the time.

The Nazi party supported major book burnings in public squares and arrested people for possession of banned literature. Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451 he shows a society with many of the same practices as the Nazi Party. The main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman, but the word fireman has a different connotation in his society then is usually attached to the word. Montag's job is to start fires. When individuals in the society are caught keeping books the firemen are sent to burn the books. Those in power in Fahrenheit 451 banned books because books are the bases for differing ideas and thoughts hence the end of individuality.

They fear will lead to chaos and unhappiness. The schools do not teach children to think for themselves or to be individuals for those reasons. They emphasize memorizing facts, not questioning and self-discovery. The kids are taught to except what they are told by the educational system, by the media, and by the ruling powers. People who do not think for themselves are not individuals. Another contributing factor to the loss of individuality in Fahrenheit 451 is the media which is publish by those in power and is designed to promote the ideals of the state.

The government broadcasts show the viewer what their life should be like. The program "The Family" is geared to show what life should be like in homes. Conditioning like that controls how people act and think about things. Media is an extremely strong influence on society. In Fahrenheit 451 the media is not only used to pass on morals and ideals, it is a source of escape for many people in the culture.

When you take away people's individuality and try and control their ideas the person is unable to deal with problems. In a society where people do not question or try to think for themselves people are not useful because they cannot work through their problems. The media offers the masses an escape from reality and their problems. Some members of the society like Guy Montag's wife substitute the media for reality. There are control units for the system that allow you to interact with the program and the characters in the program. Another control unit can insert the users name into specific places making it appear the user is actually interacting with the characters.

Members of the society become almost addicted to the reality the media offers them. The media resembles a drug. It affects their perception of reality and causes them to ignore the woes of life. In Brave New World the World State encourages the masses to use a drug. The drug the state provides is soma.

It is supposed to be the perfect drug with no bad side-effects. The people of the society are taught from a young age that when things get hard they need to just take soma and forget about it. Aldous Huxley displays a world where people are almost mindless. When some people of the lower castes are upset in an establishment violence breaks out. Soma is sprayed over the crowd to settle them down. Instead of rationalizes with the people and talking them out of anger they are just drugged.

The authorities know that people who are not encourage to think for themselves are hard to calm down by talking through their problems. In order to maintain order amongst these people they do not try and calm them down they distract them with a drug euphoria. When Linda is brought back from the reservation in Mexico she is unable to handle the drastic change back to the World State's society. She was raised to strongly disapprove of sexual reproduction and living in uncivilized places like the reservation. When she returns to the World State she cannot handle the feelings of self-disgust that she feels. To escape the scourge of the society she returned to she took a large amount of soma.

She cannot handle the disapproval of "civilized" people because she was conditioned to follow peer pressure and to fit in. So she hides from the o pions of other in soma. If people tried to stand up for their actions and support them then order is questioned. Religious communities offer their members escape from reality and their worldly problems by offering them the idea of a better after life. When people in the community have problems in their lives they are told to pray. God can offer you a better life and if you follow these guidelines you will go on to the afterlife.

People use religion to work through their problems. It is. ".. the opiate of the masses" according to Karl Marx. He believed people used religion to hide from their problems and to offer easy answers to very hard questions. Some people use religion like Linda would use soma or Mrs. Montag the television. Religion offers people reasons for problems in their lives and a reason to be alive. The easy answers religions offer draw people to want to be a part of a separate religious community.

Jim Jones set up Jonestown in Guyana by offering people the answers to their questions. The people trusted Jones because he had saved them from many outside threats. They considered him their religious leader and protector. Jones told them the government was out to destroy them, but he would protect them. He offered them an easy answer to the threat. To move to his community and create a reality of their own free from strife and separated from those out to harm them.

He offered his followers an escape from the reality of the world. In his community racism and ill human intentions did not exist. The people did not need to worry about those problems. As long as he protected them from their problems he had their faith and trust. Jones told his people day in and day out that the community, .".. was a noble ideal. One, as Jones would constantly remind them, which was worth dying for" (Jonestown 2).

The final escape from reality the Jones offered his followers was the poison given to them when the government came to investigate the community. Instead of facing the old world the people came from they chose Jones' escape which ended the same as the escape Linda took in Brave New World. Jones' felt that the dead cannot refuse the terms of the utopia he offered. Those who did not take the poison were forced to or shot by Jone's guards. When people still refuse to conform after all the conditioning or when escaping from reality does not solve a persons problem then society must institute penalties. All but one person from Jim Jones' community in Guyana died.

The only reason the one person survived was because Jones did not know. The price for refusal to conform was death. Many people who fled or refused to take the drink were shot. Before Jones fed his followers poison he needed other ways to penalize those who would not conform.

People who did not work for the good of the community received negative feedback from their peers. The people were trained to be wary and not to be too close to those who were not in complete agreement with what Jones taught. The World State in Brave New World also used peer pressure to keep its citizens in check. In the book Marx did not fit in because he refused to believe in the values and morals taught by the state. He also did not take soma to ease his problems. Marx also does not practice the same sexual promiscuity that the rest of the society did.

Marx's peers look at him askance and wonder what happened to make him different from everyone else. Lenina and Fanny disco use Marx's odd behavior before he takes Lenina to the reservation. Fanny did not think Lenina should go with Marx because he does fit in. Fanny tells Lenina. ".. he spends most of his time by himself, alone" (Huxley 45).

Her face shows her obvious horror at the fact that he spends much time alone. Using peer pressure to make people act a certain makes the people act that way because they assume it is right because everyone else is doing it. The ultimate punishment in Brave New World for those who do not conform is to be banished from the society. When Marx is told of his fate for not conforming he says, "Send me to an island? ...

You can't send me. I haven't done anything. It was the others. I swear it was the others" (Huxley 226).

He does not take his banishment well, but in the World State those people who are banished are sent to a place where they can express their ideas. They live with others like themselves. Watson receives the same penalty as Marx but he looks forward to living among other individuals. In Fahrenheit 451 people received more sever penalties for not follow the rules. Those who keep books and are caught have their house invaded by firemen and search for books. When they find the books they burn the books and the person who had the books..