A Power in Silence, Essay Example

Civilized nations grant rights to their citizens- rights which protect them from harm coming from outside forces, but governments cannot protect citizens from their own officials, weak armies, and moral weaknesses. Genocide requires a conspiracy between the weak masses and the strong forces upholding corrupt policy. This makes the opinions and beliefs of the ‘average man’ an important part of the social structure which takes leaders from the masses. Rethinking the reasons for racism, the reasons for its survival in the larger picture, and the ways in which it continues to affect the masses- and even grow more severe- as the majority denies that any problem exists. Confronting the problem as what it is the first step in unifying racial groups.

Adams stresses the role of violence in the make-up of a nation and the importance of unity to the prevention of genocide. While the chapter talks about the role of imperialism, the meaning behind the word describes slow genocide through advantages taken against a weak group (p. 65). In time, the winning group believes that the weak became inferior. The building of a nation seems to encourage “war’s role in enabling and justifying genocides throughout history”, specifically talking about the rise of nations being linked to war (pp. 65-66). From an economic and military standpoint, war moves the citizens’ participation into overdrive. It is only one aspect- preceded by state-building and imperialism and followed by a social revolution (2010, pp. 66-68). The attacking nation and the victim of the attack both benefit while the fighting continues, as internal industries produce goods to ship to their supporters and fighters. The winner adds the defeated nation’s lands and influence to their own and usually faces no outside interference. These governments are most dangerous when they are on the rise and on the fall, “their waxing and waning phases” (p. 80). In other words, Adams makes a case that a nation not satisfied with its current powers always finds itself in a war, and war makes violence so normal in the day that people become accustomed to it (p. 82).

Power (2007) points out that this idea of the nation’s boundaries as being sacred enables genocide- making the vigilante a folk hero- by explaining the case of an Armenian survivor who killed the man who attempted to take his life along with millions of others of his race. The sovereignty which protects men who kill becomes part of the problem which the book’s title hints at: Problems from Hell. Government pressure forces new actions to be taken when no one wants to get involved, because there is nothing for the nation to gain except for a little boost in their reputation. In the middle phases of the cycle of violence which Adams describes, nations covered by sovereignty are less dangerous to others and more prone to internal violence- until they reach their own waning phases (pp. 17-19). The average citizens, the bystanders, participate in this sovereignty by not questioning it from the inside, the only place where the circles of hell came full circle. The cultural preservation of a racial group enhances its public image and decreases the hatred within the sovereign nation (pp. 20-21).

From “Superman” to Man occurs as an open racial dialogue between a senator, such a representative with power over government relations, and a porter. The senator encounters arguments that he never considered simply because there never was an open and honest exchange of ideas. For example, the porter points out that the desire to change personal appearance does not mean that a person mimics another racial group. They alter their own image at will to see themselves as individuals- not as some supreme master race (2012, pp. 25-27). Within the same race, specific countrymen or groups separate themselves because they disagree, view issues differently, or experience other cultural rifts which create a top and a lower group in the power-driven social groups.

Speaking of power-driven groups, white traders early on saw the African community as one which valued assets that were considered simple and inexpensive to the Europeans. More than that, the white traders saw the lifestyle differences of culture and defenses in Africa as an opportunity to create a new product of the very different-looking Africans themselves (Thompson, pp. 26-26). This opportunity appeared again in the ‘New World’, which echoed the problems of the old. The religious beliefs of the white culture allowed them to justify these suspicions with claims that they saved the souls of Africans and Native Americans. The holy guide of white culture became the drive that justified its power structure which placed the ‘weak’ racial groups under their sovereignty. The proof of the shallowness of these claims lies in the fact that the white Protestants who, according to the dominant white Catholic belief system, endangered their souls were not enslaved and were only killed in situations that threatened the survival of the Church (pp. 29-30). The religious union of nations created the same problems facing the nation-state, including the dangerous phases described by Adams, the sovereignty of Powers, and the individual voice described by Rodgers.

Because European societies outlasted many others, white settlers assumed that they developed the superior society. As the beginning of Power’s argument shows, Nero was the emperor of a highly-developed society and still arranged the torture and execution of an entire Roman society which killed the people of the very religion that they would later kill for (2007, pp. 17-19). Diamond’s documentary showed how European white cultures developed stronger weapons and sought out war, and that the early phases of their nation-building provided them with these skills, the ones that would create the opportunity to place themselves over other groups. The other reasons for showing their power were only excuses to continue living the high life the way they wanted it. The voices of the people were indigenous groups in an earlier phase of cultural and national development, groups different enough for Europeans to think of them as another species and not just another race.

Conclusion

The changes within a country prove more important to the direction of racial relations than the outside influences. Even though other countries unified to defeat Germany’s campaign against its old enemies, the problem continued along with the traditional ways of dividing power, money, and government control. The news we receive, the stories we are told, and the movies we watch, these are all smaller pieces of society, puzzle pieces which make one bigger picture of racism as a tool of denial and profit. The spread of racism in the New World shows the true nature of hidden attitudes. Seeing through the thousands of years of white culture is not easy. Even supporters of the African American (and other minority) communities do not recognize the extent or the flawed reasoning behind racism. Instead, it has been accepted as an unavoidable, dark part of human nature. From the top down to the bottom, our readings and videos show that each person makes up a piece of the way that the world sees itself. Every single person matters—no matter where they came from or what skin color they inherited. The differences of people are used as excuses to get what they want, and if it is not about one difference, then there is always another. Racism is a problem because it is in the dark- where no one must take responsibility for their part.

References

Adams, J. (2010). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. Print.

Diamond, J. (n.d.). Guns, Germs, and Steel. Hip Hop Beyond Entertainment.

Power, S. (2007). A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Print.

Rodgers, J.A. (2012). From “Superman” to Man. Print.

Thompson, V. (1987).Wealth and Power: The Making of the African Diaspora, in the Americas. Print.