Locations and forms of power BAC Anglais

Locations and forms of power

« What is the influence of the power on the people and can it be dangerous ? »

I’m going to talk about the notion of “Locations and forms of Power”. Sometimes we are thinking about what really means power and how it can change our lives. Power is the ability to have a great influence, to control others, to become a leader,to change the course of events. Power can be exercised with different ways : terror, manipulation, violence. Is power always dangerous and what kind of people could it attract ?

I – The role of political power in our lives

II – The power of a protest song

III – Mediatic power

First of all, from my point of view, for some people, political power is the way to freedom and for the others, it’s a kind of force which doesn’t let them be free. It’s a coercive power, which means that people can be influenced and forced to do smthg, being threatened with a punishment. We can give the example of the novel Animal Farm written by George Orwell, who criticized totalitarianism and the governmental abuse of power. He criticized the abuse of political power during the times of Hitler who ruled Nazy Germany, Stalin who ruled Soviet Union and Mussolini who ruled Fascist Italy. They had the ability to influence the people, to manipulate them by using propaganda. Besides, power of propaganda was used as a weapon of war and was trying to persuade people to think or act in a certain way. It was an arm to achieve the goals. So we understand that sometimes, the abuse of power can lead to some unexpected situations and it can attract everybody.

Secondly, I would like to speak about a song which perfectly illustrates our notion. The protest song I’m going to speak about is John Lennon’s Imagine (1971). From then until now, this song is considered as the most widely recognised anti-war song. Its lyrics encourage the listener to imagine a world without any barriers of religion, of nationalities and where everybody is equal. He tried to make us understand that we can live a life without any material possessions, that we can imagine a place where things that divide people (religion, social classes) don’t exist. Moreover, he asks us to imagine a different world, a united world. Another protest song that we have studied during the year, is Blowin' in the Wind written by Bob Dylan in 1962. It poses questions about peace, war and freedom. The words of these protest songs contain messages, things that can’t be said directly. They are accessible to everybody and can be understood by everybody . I suppose that if we continue to spread the idea of « hope, peace and love », maybe someday « the world will live as one ».

Thirdly, I would like to speak about the power of the media and advertisements which can influence many people. I guess that advertising is everywhere and we are dominated by it. It has become a part of our everyday life. We can think that they are innocent, but in the reality, they use the power of propaganda which can influence everybody, which reminds us the political power which used propaganda too to be able to influence people. Media is able to change our choices, so it’s the time to recognize that advertising is not about just informing

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