The Lord Of The Flies: Dictatorship

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Since the beginning of the creation of empires, hundreds of dictators did not positively impact the growth of their societies. The father of modern political theory, known as Niccolò Machiavelli, states in his book, The Prince, that rulers are capable of achieving higher goals if they choose to lead their people with cruelty rather than clemency because it results in a more constructive impact. He writes that there are different types of leaders and more in particular, a selfish individual who acts stingy in ruling the state. On the other hand, he states that one quality of a leader is not to be afraid of his own thoughts and instead, proceed to cautiously enforce laws that will immensely transform the entire society. Lastly, Machiavelli mentions …show more content…
As a result, it leads to mob mentality, a concept of how people influenced by their peers act on certain behaviors. People can easily adjust to their environment, blinded by the obvious negatives. In Lord of the Flies, Golding shows that the littluns, the younger boys, yield into mob mentality when trying to fit into a group. Ultimately, the intense pressure that perceives from others pushes individuals to give into mob mentality. Jack, the new head of the tribe, begins to torture Sam and Eric until he forces them to adhere to his rule and join his tribe: “See? They do what I want” (Golding 257). Moreover, if one says one thing, the others follow and quickly agree because they fear exclusion and judgment. During the Mughal Empire, the dictator, Aurangzeb, does not force others into this mentality, but instead, the empire itself does. In history—regardless of the ruler—many revolts took place because people disliked their environment. However, during Aurangzeb’s reign, no individual fought to change the laws because they greatly feared the dictator. Together as a whole, they allowed their dictator to take away their happiness and refused to act upon his rule. Defenseless and ignorant, the empire relied on each other for decision making until the end of his rule and as a result, nothing changed. Today, Saudi Arabia faces the same problem as well. The decisions people make affect the whole country. The people cannot act upon rules enforced by Salman because they lack the power to change them. Consequently, this leads to the effect on their perspectives of mentality and toleration of dictatorship. The society refuses to revolt against their dictator because they fear how powerful he is. These three examples explicate how the outcome of dictator’s actions leads to mob mentality affecting an entire
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