Authority Everywhere

In regards to totalitarianism and technology, I feel that it is everywhere around us today, although not nearly as aggressive as Hitler had shown it during World War II. What I am referring to today is something as simple as the media. There is no doubt in my mind that the media is essentially a way of controlling society. Like I had stated before, it is not as nearly as aggressive back then, however I feel it is similar and this is only one comparison I am really making. In what I mean by the way the media is controlling society, it seeks to distract the public with news that quite frankly causes absolute chaos. I am not stating my political stance here, but a perfect example is all the "fake news" or whatever you want to consider it. Spewing information that might not even be true to information that is not even true in general is obviously nothing but controversial. But I feel that all of that "nonsense" is just distracting us from what is really going on in the world, what is occurring beyond closed doors. Totalitarianism is seen today through the use of our computers, and the internet as well. We had discussed this in class briefly but I feel it is important to add here. The fact that the internet has the ability to track what we search and then create advertisements that appeal to our search histories is a way of control. The government being able to tap into any of our devices at any given time is control as well, it just hasn't necessarily happened to any of us so I feel we really do not think about it. We had spoke about the use of symbols in class, and I feel this is something so important in regards to totalitarianism. In a way, technology created these symbols and they were printed, and spread for the world to see. These symbols have a certain message or rhetoric embedded within them. I feel the exposure to such symbols is a way of controlling, for you are surrounding people with them and making them believe what they stand for in a way. For example, the swastika became such a prominent symbol in Nazi Germany at the time, it was there flag, it was everywhere, etc. Everyone was so wrapped up in it, it was seen at every corner, it was what everyone believed was normal at the time.

I feel this political cartoon does nothing but depict totalitarianism perfectly, not just with Hitler, but with any authoritarian type of leader and what they essentially seek to accomplish.