The world of politics is a complicated setting. You need to go the extra mile to understand it and keep up with all the changes that take place every day. However, there are many articles and essays that make it easier to understand what the politics of the past and the politics of the present are all about and where they are headed. Here are some insightful pieces to help you look at politics with a critical eye and form a definite attitude towards the current state of affairs.
“Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell
To those studying politics, reading Orwell’s works is an essential step towards understanding political history. In an unconventional way, Orwell managed to analyze the political arena of the world and present his own take on it. One of his particularly cherished among the global public essays is “Politics and the English Language.”
In this essay, Orwell considers politics from the part of linguistics. He tries to explain the primary meaning of certain political terms. He also investigates the changes they underwent over the years. He tries to create a logical connection between political deceit and degraded language. For example, he presents the word “fascism” not as ultranationalism that comes with dictatorial power, but “something that is not desirable.” Such interpretation of the term shows how bluntly and categorically he looks at the political platform.
Orwell highlights how brutally dishonest the world of politics is. It uses words to manipulate and deceit rather than a way to manage a nation properly. He points out that politics is a big fat lie where statements are confusing and openly deceitful. Among the statements he considers is that the Soviet Union’s press was the freest in the world. Naturally, it is fair to question the statement as the press was always subjected to extreme censorship. People could hardly expect to learn the truth from governmental institutions. He also analyzes many other political words, like totalitarian, equality, class, and bourgeois.
“How American Politics Went Insane” by Jonathan Rauch
This article was written for the Atlantic. It focuses on the political environment that led to Donald Trump rising as the Head of the State in 2016. This essay is of particular interest to those interested in modern politics and to the students who focus on local politics as their major. Political writing can be hard to dissect and interpret. That’s why there are platforms like paperwritingservice.com. Students can get academic support with analysis of political pieces there.
In his “How American Politics Went Insane,” Rauch talks about the “chaos syndrome,” which made such a change in the political environment possible. To understand how America got to the point it did at the time, the author analyzes several reforms that preceded the election. These reforms caused turmoil in the US Congress. To those who wish to remain neutral in political matters, this piece might seem somewhat extreme. Rauch goes as far as calling Donald Trump one of the “political sociopaths.” It clearly communicates how negatively he feels about the 45th President of the United States.
According to the author, America’s political system is broken, with the “chaos syndrome” being the leading cause of the country’s governmental malfunction. It fuels public distrust and outrage and worsens the problem of political disruption. In his article, Rauch analyzes the vicious circle that dominates American politics and the events that fuel its downfall.
“How Politics Breaks Our Brains” by Brian Resnik
Compared to the two pieces above, this article takes a different look at politics. Resnik attempts to understand how politics disseminates discord among a single nation instead of understanding who is right and who is wrong. He examines how it turns people who don’t know each other into sworn enemies just because they favor different parties. To understand how and why that happens, the author looks at politics from the perspective of psychology and human evolution. He raises the question of partisanship and the need of people to belong to a certain group, protect it, and follow the ideas it preaches.
To enhance his understanding of the subject, the author agrees to participate in an experiment and look at different people’s faces (some of them being real people, others — dolls). Such an experiment was organized to see if people like some people more than the other just by looking at them and knowing their nationality or other facts that might make them “interesting” for a certain group. The author managed to illustrate how people fall victim to partisanship because of biological implications. He showed how they get prejudiced because of the type of thinking they favor, not even willing to consider the things their opponents claim are important. The article undermines the very value of partisanship. It proves that the latter poses a threat to the well-being and unified spirit of nations worldwide.