West European Studies

Power is a very controversial idea. There is no standard and exact definition of what it is but the whole mankind has a full understanding of what its about. Each generation, each nation and each individual have its own experience of what is power is and therefore, power is not a naive idea that we are yet to understand instead a dynamic idea that keeps on acquiring new meanings for itself.

Germany is one of the most important countries in the history not only of Europe but in the whole world, and it will forever be remembered as once the most powerful nation there ever was. The fame of Germany is greatly allocated to one of the Worlds most cruel dictator, Adolf Hitler. He is responsible for the death of thousands and thousands of Jews all over Europe and for the bloodshed that had stained the fraternity within the European continent.

I could not imagine any historical book or discussion not touching on the part of our time where Hitler was hailed king, in fact even more. He was like a god who was worshipped by people (maybe not at all because of love but of fear, nonetheless he was still worshipped) and took the lives that he wants to take without any fair justifications. Hitler was one of the very few powerful men who shaped history the way it is now. Though it is very clear that Hitler contributed negatively to our past, it cannot be denied that he has become an icon in history an interesting subject for contention and debate.

Hitler is no doubt powerful, he was able to implement the kind of laws that he likes and was able to turn the nation and a major part of the world into a place as he would like it to be. He is a very powerful man, but the power that Hitler possessed relied greatly on oppression, on cruelty and on abuse. His power comes from annihilating those whose power is smaller than his. With the aid of his influence as a military official and with his political power he was able to acquire more and more power as he grew to be as what he came to be.

Hitlers power is the kind of power that comes from other people, therefore it is external. He needs other people to determine his power, without them he becomes weak. So in order to further strengthen and maintain the power that he possesses he needs to do more crime and cruelty  more murder, more rape, and more racial punishments. As the people below him have lesser physical and political power they have no choice. The more people he kills, the more powerful he becomes, therefore he is in great dependence to torture and bloodshed as it is his only way to find himself powerful. That power is very frail and temporary as it comes from another source, not that type of power that comes from within. The dependency of Hitler to external measures of power was very evident when his regime fell and he flew from Germany but later on committed suicide. Had he possessed the kind of power for that came from within him, that which does not need to be glorified by the weakness of others, he could have led Germany to being the most famous nation in the world through positive means, not by creating an image of a country where people suffered.

In George Orwells Book, 1984 he also made a manifestation of what power is. This  power is greatly similar with that which Hitler showcased, it took most of its lessons from the Nazi regime as it was written after the fall of Nazism.

In one of the scenes in Chapter 3, OBrien said that they are interested only in power, not in luxury not in money but in power alone. He even said that long life and happiness are nothing as they only will power. He also said that power is not a means but an end. This tells us the historical context of the book, since it was written shortly after the fall of Hitler and his Nazi Party.

OBrien further asserts that power is collective, that only through being with the majority that a person can be called powerful because what he lacks can be complemented by the others. Tow heads are better than one, how much more three or four working on a common end with multitudes of skills and abilities.

OBrien also said that suffering or inflicting pain upon the subject is the only way to guarantee that he will follow or he will recognize the power that the person in position possesses. According to OBrien obedience is not enough as the person can always chose not to obey the second time, but if they are able to build and instill fear and suffering in him, then they have him in his neck.

Winston does not want to live in a world that OBrien describes, that which he asserts they will later on create. But Winston does not have any choice because the Big Brother has control over practically everything in Oceania.

George Orwell tells us that even at the end of Hitlers rule there is still a lot to think of. Freedom should still be fought in other parts of the world. The likes of Stalin in Russia continue to oppress people to his delight and Mao of China continues to enslave people politically and socially.

The Power that Hitler showed is that which relied greatly in external forces, George Orwell showed the same kind of power but calls on people to build a new foundation for power, both individually and politically, that kind of power which relies not in bossism and does not feed the ego alone, but that which creates better societies and more opportunities for improvement.

As the power that Hitler showed is very much dependent on external forces in the likes of annihilating people and building a feeling of threat and fear to be obeyed, it feeds only the ego and is deeply rooted in self  praise. Such kind of power is no power at all because in the absence of other people, e.g. the weaker ones, then there is no venue to showcase or acquire power.  True power is the one that comes from within. In the same context that OBrien in 1984 said that they need to persecute a person in order to control his obedience and loyalty, it again focuses on the dependency of a stronger force to a weaker force. In a more elaborated standard, the Nazi Party had guns and had deep influence in the military which are very powerful people in the society.

True Power is genuine. It does not oppress or plant fear among the people, true power further empowers people in order that all of them may be strong and build a rigid and society and generations ahead.