Places And Forms Of Power

Who heads: the society or individuals?

Firstly, it can happen that the society intrudes upon the individuals' lives and so, dominates the individuals. For example in the extract of "The Scarlet Letter", Hester Prynne want avoid persecution and leave her monther country, so she arrive in a colony in Massachussets but in this country the inhabitants are mainly puritans as a consequence they respect strict codes. For exemple, clothing with lace are fordidden because people could see the woman's skin. Moreover, women can't live alone because puritan society thinks "this is not fitting for young women". The society allowed religion and tradition to interlude upon the individuals' private lives and intimicy. In this case, the society puts at stake the individuals basic rights.

Secondly, even if people are sometimes victims of the society, it can happen that individuals are responsible of the tensions between them. Indeed, the national party government applied the apartheid and seperared the population of South Africa in four "racial groups" : the white people, the coloured people, the indian people and the african people. The skin colour results a legal racial segregation and so group of individuals are dominated by white people it means that the south Africain society was dominated by a little groupe of individuals who seized the power. Thus, society sometimes abuses of his influence, as was the case in the USA in the 50s, communist sympathizers were persecuted by the government and a collectif hysteria took place.

In conclusion, individuals have to be cautious because they risk to abuse of their power for fear of difference and to fall in hatred and collective hysteria wanting to take over individuals.

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