Embracing the Holy Trinity of God
God. To some, it is just another word or figure but to many He is the unfeigned Holy Spirit, belief, or “creator”. The natural power and domination, God, has over a soul can either part a room in half or unite people together in manners that are unexplainable. Individuals, without force, endeavor and proudly seek the power and the word ofGod, so they can believe in something greater then themselves that would amatively guide their life. Religion is morally involved in everything you do and is the pure purpose and reason why you are who you are.
The fact that something not proven can be a doctrine you volunteer to do is a manifestation to how religion and the power of God can, without force, refrain and prudence all your decisions. Due to this reasoning, that is why controlled and repressed societies do not like the idea of religion. Or do they? Exploring the role of a religious figure such as, God in government is too jeopardous because religion is intimate, but what if I told you that leaders of these societies are introducing themselves as God to their people and isolating them from any other resources making them, in fact ,believe that they are the true and only God. Corrupted societies do not like the idea of religion and God because they want to be God. These manipulating leaders will, staunchly, without hesitation do everything in their will to subjectively peonage people to get all the respect just as how God does with his followers; even though these leaders are untruthful and barbaric. Corrupt and totalitarian societies underhandedly and insidiouslylike the conception of religionbecause they can see that control figures ,like God, have overbearing power over people’sactions, minds , and ways of being.
Instead of God being the figure to praise, the leaders or government in charge of totalitarian societies want that coequal recognition, so they eliminate God’s existence and become the “New and Perfect God” for their people. In the Novel ,1984by George Orwell”Big Brother” is essentially playing the role of God, and uses God as a guidance on how to control. Although they will never admit it, their concept of “religion” is what they base theirgovernments off of. Orwell distinctively creates leaders such as “Big Brother” to represent the never ending and internal figure Oceania has to follow because Big Brother is always watching. Sadly, although this is a novel, there is clear parallelism in real life with North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un.
He is not called God and religion is completely prohibited, but he is praised, loved ,and believed to be a Godlike figure in his country because citizens are enforced with lies. Instead of using religion for itemizing greatness, manipulative leaders recreate the conception of religion to use as an outline to inscribe control within people’s minds .After analyzing and annotating 1984, I have come to a conclusion that the more the party was powerful, the less it was tolerant. Winston Smith, main character from 1984, illustrates rebellion within the controlledsociety, Oceania, with a leader that is godly like. Winston attempts to question and break away from the false atmosphere he was surrounded by throughout his journey. In this case, the Godly figure will always win.
Totalitarian Societies want a leader to be praised because it forces control and “respect” to the ones in power. In the beginning of the novel, the readers are introduced to Big Brother in chapter one. As Winston was hiding his writings in his journal, he describes how outside a house in front of him had something saying, ” Big Brother is Watching You, the caption said while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston’s own” ( Orwell 2). From the basis, we view how writing in a journal is prohibited and that these individuals are watched how “God” watches you when you do something bad. Although Oceania takes the idea of religion out of perspective, you see that in order to control the people leaders must use a mighty force greater than citizens in order to control.
Then later on in the book, you specifically view how the only religion in Oceania is Big Brother and the religion isespoused by the party. Although religion is alluded only three or four times specifically in the novel, the consistency of the novel is about religion since religion is about consciousness, spirit, dedication, and devotion things the party aims to control, repress or eliminate entirely. When Winston is interrogation by O’Brien the readers get to see when God is brought up andhe mentions how “God is power. But at the present power is only a word so far as you are concerned. It is time for you to gather some idea of what power means.
The first thing you must realize is that power is collective” (Orwell 264). O’Brien is equating the party with God and religion, since the party seeks to be all powerful and control the minds of everyone. O’brien is questioning Winston because he knows that although he is questioning his society, he was raised and enforced with this idea of “Big Brother” being the mightiest, so he will eventually devote his life to Big Brother again. O’Brien then asks Winston if he believes in God (Orwell 270) and Winston responds in the negative. Since Winston does not believe in God (or the party as God) then he is reprogrammed.
Winston then mentions how he hates Big Brother and O’Brien replied how he must love big brother and do more then obey him, and towards the end Winston gives in to Oceania (Orwell 282) , but he eventually loves him again. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. The fact that religion was translated through this chapter says a lot about how Oceania viewed their people, but also the importance of power and how they were only able to obtain that through the idea of being an idolized figure like God. Although forced, unlike real religion, Big Brother’s Godly ways got the respect and idolization the government plees for. Winston Smith may have been a fictional character, but his situation was not.
Sadly, the role of acting like God in a government is crucial and existent. The civilians of North Korea are plagued by this conception that their leader Kim Jong-il, at the time, was glorious and highly praised too. Because I was so intrigued by State of Mind Documentary by Daniel Gordon, I decided to do further research on the social components of the living system in North Korea. I came across this article about a North Korean defector named, Yeonmi Park who fled North Korea with her family but described how she was brought up to believe that leader Kim Jong-il was “a god” who could read her thoughts.She mentioned how propaganda, speeches, enlightenment, etc. influenced her perception of her leader and glorified him tremendously.
Parkmentioned how living conditions were horrible, yet she, ” had to be careful of [her] thoughts because [she] believed Kim Jong-il could read [her] mind… [and] This whole time, [she] was still so brainwashed that [she] thought Kim Jong-il could read [her] mind from afar..
.Even though [she] had escaped, she wouldn’t let [herself] think anything negative about the regime” (Withnall p.4-7). When you are living under a lie, and you find out it’s about religion you can lose value within yourself. She was brainwashed and knew nothing of freedom.
Even though she was still free, the idea of her leader being god like and watching her scared her tremendously. This represents the power “God” can have over you. Park later elaborated how, ” When Kim Jong-il died she couldn’t believe it. [She] was in South Korea by then and she said, ‘He can’t die because he’s not a human, he’s a god!’ It was very hard for us to comprehend that he was just a human” (Withnall p.9).
This reminded me of the documentary we viewed in class called The Secret State of North Korea by James Jones. There was a section when they were talking about the importance of their leaders and how Villagers are required to glorify their leader or provide a ceremony for their leader once a week minimum. (Jones). This is like how religious people should go to church at minimum once a week to pray to God. Not only are these people getting cheated the propor life, these leaders are manipulating the beauty God and religion withholds.
These leaders are divergently embracing the Holy Trinity of God and cognition of endless purity negatively. Kim Jong il and now Kim Jong Un are monopolizing its government and declaring misery on its people. This proves how these societies act like they are God to uphold all the superiority in their government and to control the people in a “Godly” way.Many may disagree on my overall approach to the gist of explaining my basic opinion andthe significance of God, which willprobably conceive and initiate you to have different thoughts of my argument how corrupt and totalitarian societies structure their government based on the idea of the leaders being God-like to morph into the most powerful leader and demand respect. Some may say it is not that they are acting God like, it’s just that these officials do not want confrontation and aspire to cultivate their own people and just want power.
Yes, I fathom as to why that can be a reasonable answer, but you have to apprehend that history rhymes and it never stops. My interpretation recognizes that leaders stress and long for pure power and the only way you can get that is by acting like a higher power. In the article, North Korean Leader Stresses Need for Strong Military, there is a point when they explain how Mr. Kim’s speeches unite the people because they remind them of his grandfather. He is praised even more then usual because they remind his of a glorious leader a leader they still pray to nowadays (Sang- HunaprilP 13-14).
This man is getting praised because he is reminded of a figure that holds significance due to the force of power installed in the citizens. God is from the book ofGenesis to Revelation ofthe Bible. People can know the truth about God because he has chosen to make himself known to us. If he is indeed the creator of this vast universe, he must obviously be powerful enough to gather people and pray for his salvation, and these leaders aprire for that attention, respect, and embrace. The Bible declares that God has made himself known through both creation and history in a number of ways. In my bible, it states how.
“God’s eternal power and character cannot be seen. But from the beginning of creation, God has shown what these are like by all he has made. That’s why those people don’t have any excuse” (Romans 1:20).With religion comes the responsibility to giving back to your savior, and these leaders want prayers and support how God expects his children to do so. In a totalitarian state, religion is prohibited, blind faith is risky, and the idea of someone believing in something greater then themselves can cause chaos.
The idea of being praised like God is a consistent theme that I have seen throughout all these articles, videos, and novel because the role of God is the highest and most looked upon aspect on this earth. Big Brother and Kim Jong Un are leaders that crave and yearn this respect because they can’t receive in naturally like religion would. In order to receive power, a totalitarian government would do whatever is necessary, even in it’s forced upon.
