Controlling Society

Government:

The following excerpt is taking from 2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

"Or something," said the painter. He took a list of names from his smock pocket. "Duncan, Duncan, Duncan," he said, scanning the list. "Yes—here you are. You're entitled to be immortalized. See any faceless body here you'd like me to stick your head on? We've got a few choice ones left."

She studied the mural bleakly. "Gee," she said, "they're all the same to me. I don't know anything about art."

"A body's a body, eh?" he said, "All righty. As a master of fine art, I recommend this body here." He indicated a faceless figure of a woman who was carrying dried stalks to a trash-burner.

"Well," said Leora Duncan, "that's more the disposal people, isn't it? I mean, I'm in service. I don't do any disposing."

The painter clapped his hands in mock delight. "You say you don't know anything about art, and then you prove in the next breath that you know more about it than I do! Of course the sheave-carrier is wrong for a hostess! A snipper, a pruner—that's more your line." He pointed to a figure in purple who was sawing a dead branch from an apple tree. "How about her?" he said. "You like her at all?"

"Gosh—" she said, and she blushed and became humble—"that—that puts me right next to Dr. Hitz."

"That upsets you?" he said.

"Good gravy, no!" she said. "It's—it's just such an honor."

"Ah, You admire him, eh?" he said.

"Who doesn't admire him?" she said, worshiping the portrait of Hitz. It was the portrait of a tanned, white-haired, omnipotent Zeus, two hundred and forty years old. "Who doesn't admire him?" she said again. "He was responsible for setting up the very first gas chamber in Chicago."

"Nothing would please me more," said the painter, "than to put you next to him for all time. Sawing off a limb—that strikes you as appropriate?"

"That is kind of like what I do," she said. She was demure about what she did. What she did was make people comfortable while she killed them."

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Leora Duncan is a citizen that worships Dr. Hitz simply because he created the first gas chambers. When asked a question she blushes and states “Gosh..that – that puts me right next to Dr. Hitz”, she’s basically hypnotized to the point that she thinks anything that Hitz does is for the well-being of the people. Basically in a dystopian society the people follow authority in order to avoid putting themselves in danger or because they can’t think for themselves – authorities will take advantage. Leora is an example of following others and thinking they’re great because she feels that it’s right; however, she’s not thinking about the consequences – she could even be the next person sacrificed. But yet she still “admires him”, the fact is, when given a chance people follow leaders instead of thinking rationally. In this dystopian society, the government censors us into follow their lead, if we don’t, we’re sent to the gas chambers. Fear is the whole control; thus we can’t think for ourselves leading us to look for someone that can lead us. It’s obvious that Hitz is a villain, but yet Leora worships him as if he was a god. As a result, Hitz has condemned society into believing gas chambers was right – a correct way of trying to control and maintain society – to what he feared, if population became too big a revolution would begin.

After World War II, the Milgram experiment was conducted – people had headphones, a button, and an authority figure standing next to them. They were told that the person in the next room would be shocked whenever the button was pressed; no matter how badly they wanted to stop (since they could “hear” the person screaming stating that they need to stop because they had a heart condition) they couldn’t since the authority figure said they had to continue. However, the trick was that they did not have to stay – the authorities weren’t forcing them to stay. This experiment proved that people listen to authorities even if they don’t agree with their ways; more people in this experiment continued on; but only a few actually left. Along with 2 B R 0 2 B, this shows that people follow authorities even if they don’t believe in their ways. As a society we just follow laws and only a few people would go against it – these people believe that some laws are wrong and should be revoked. Though, the majority just follow and never question because they believe that authorities are always right – though this is not always the case.