The successful exercise of power requires a social cage restricting the citizen’s option of leaving, a “closing of the escape route,” if you will.
Category: Essays
Divide and Conquer They Have. What Comes Next?
They have taken advantage of your fear, heightened it, and then exploited it. But to admit that we’ve been fooled is to admit we’re wrong.
Struggling as an Author? Success Depends on Marketing More than Words
By Aral Bereux Publishing in a world today, where the market is saturated by wannabes and talent, is growing increasingly difficult. Navigating your way around the industry has never been more difficult, contrary to all the self-help blogs out there. Instead, the contemporary publishing industry is a diverse environment of complex trade sector trends and…
Handmaid’s Tale Author: Encouraging Writers to Get Political Is a Recipe for Authoritarianism
Atwood’s admonitions against turning writers into propagandists offer a refreshing perspective on today’s literary culture.
A Rational Discussion: Childhood Immunisation and Should It be Mandatory?
(Written 28th May, 2018, Aral Bereux. Published 2020.) Mandatory childhood immunisation continually sparks debate in both developing and developed nations. In Australia, the active mandatory childhood immunisation campaign relies heavily on promoting the individual’s responsibility to society by adopting phrases like ‘herd immunity,’ to push for high rates of immunisation.[1] However, often the debate is…
‘Granny Killer’, Anti-Vax, Anti-Mask, Conspiracy: Only Human?
When will you become human again, that is the question.
George Orwell: The Man Behind 1984 and His Dire Warning to Us
George Orwell’s 1984. It’s the internationally acclaimed dystopian bestseller that some say depicts a prophetic view and a chilling warning to us all. Between the pages of ’84 are the dire consequences for man when propaganda is at its height; for when a government rules with an ironclad fist. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery….
The Dystopian Novel that Foresaw the Nightmares of Socialism
By Bryan Caplan Decades before the socialists gained power, Eugene Richter saw the writing on the wall. n the mid-nineteenth century, a new political movement arose: socialism. Germany was its epicenter. The German Karl Marx was its leading thinker, and the Social Democratic Party of Germany its leading organization. The socialists denounced capitalist inequality and…
How COVID-19 Justified World Government Coercive Power
French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau’s famous opening quote “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains” from the Social Contract alludes in part to the restrictions of man by the State. It’s a pertinent statement in a time of crisis. The world faces many uncertainties; financial strains and health burdens are moving into…
The Arrival of Orwell’s Worst Nightmare
1984, the brilliant piece about communism has turned on itself in real life. It is no longer a popular piece of entertainment but a functional handbook.
Is a Dystopia Synonymous with Humanity?
Why Dystopian? It’s a question I’m inevitably asked when discussing my books and essays. My short answer is: Do I get a choice? Followed by my long answer: It’s what makes us human. The dystopian genre is a messy reflection of the good, bad and in-betweens of humanity in difficult situations. The dystopian society is an…
The Parasitic Truth about Politicians
Pandas are cute. Toddlers eating the mud delicacy they have spent hours making in the backyard – cute. Even the grub crawling along in its slimy trail has its qualities. But talk to me about parasites? It’s strange, I get two images: those burrowing deep within the skin, having to be pulled out one inch…
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