Blancing+Act+of+Trust+and+Betrayal

"It's funny how one person can make you trust nobody..." Even though there is no name listed to tell who's words were told it is important to recognize this opinion because there is no greater problem in the world then the issue of trust. Winston, from George Orwell’s novel //1984//, didn’t trust the government because he was having doubts of his own. He started to go against society and eventually was caught because the man whom he thought was helping him turned out to be baiting him to commit a crime.The crime would be the freedom to voice their opinion and to rebel against the government. Winston and Julia were tortured for their "crimes," but the torturing wouldn't have happened if Julia and Winston hadn't put their faith in the wrong hands. In Cory Doctrow’s novel of //Little Brother//, the main character Marcus had absolutely zero trust in the government after he was arrested for being a terrorist when he and his friends simply were at the wrong place, at the wrong time. The memories of being tortured and the idea that his friend Daryl might still be at the location where they were tortured, haunted Marcus and lead him to revolt and display the mistreatment of civilians by the [|District of Homeland Security (DHS)]. After what Marcus had been through, he didn't trust his government or his country and with nothing else he was determined to change the government. Everyone has doubts or problems with authority. It is the reason why teenagers rebel against their parents; that fact is also the reason why governments are willing to kill their own civilians to remain in control. Many governments have done it before, because so many heart-wrenching things have happened recently, trust in someone is difficult to maintain and to have.[| 9-11] shocked the world and then security in the United States went into this safety hysteria with rules and regulations because of one person, or of one event that ruins it for everyone. After reading and analyzing both books, the ideas of trust and betrayal have a fine line separating them, and when a society makes a decision that teeters onto either side, not only can it protect its people but destroy their rights as well; on this topic anyone can only hypothesize on what the future holds and that is even a greater problem than this issue of trust.

It is human nature to desire for something better and there are some people who would lie and back stab for the power, the money, and the social status. By being jealous it can help people give an excuse to lie. Jealousy usually leads to betrayal or when someone pushes other people down to make them stand taller. It all ends in the same destination, a broken and sad place where no one trusts anyone and back stabs are as common as saying "Hello" in the morning. Trust is a tricky subject to explain because different levels of trust are shown everywhere. When on the bus, students trust that their bus driver will get them to school, at school students trust that in the case of an emergency that their teacher will get them out safely, but good things don't always happen. Just like the fact that every nice person slips up and does something mean eventually. "He was the tormentor, he was the protector, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend," (244, Orwell). To continue that sentence the reader could imagine he was the liar, he was the cheater, and he was the one, anyone least expected. O' Brien, the character that betrayed Winston and Julia had all of the power and used it to use Winston and Julia to fall right into his plan. They learned about the history of their world, and then were reduced to nothing, both mentally and physically. The betrayal between O' Brien and Winston and Julia was a complete surprise to the reader and to the character. Winston realized after the betrayal that he couldn't trust O' Brien because his actions out spoke his words. O' Brien was all of the things that the quote described him to be. He was the authority that everyone knew about but had no idea where it came from or why it was there. The power and control that the government had over its citizens silenced their precious voice in this world, and time and time again it is taken for granted. "So you guys follow everyone who comes out of the BART station with a funny ride history? You must be busy," (105, Doctrow). The police in the book gave the excuse that they are trying to catch the criminals, but it always isn't the case because people make the decision to abuse their power and their position to give us all a reason to question them and our safety. Police officers have stalked, beaten, and peppered sprayed people to stay in control and make sure that no "harm" is done to the rest of the world. The chance of that actually happening is very small, but the chance of a terrorist attack is very small also. But, just because the government says that its people are safe the question most people think about is asked. Do they trust the government ? Is it truly safe? It is hard to tell when most people have mastered their poker faces. "Both men and women lie in approximately a fifth of their social exchanges lasting 10 or more minutes; over the course of a week they deceive about 30 percent of those with whom they interact one-on-one," (Kornet). People lie or fib because they think that if they lie then everything will be okay because if nothing is "wrong" then there is nothing to worry about, which only benefits the person telling the lie. Trusting someone may be harder to some people than others because of past experiences that haunt them. From what children know it is scary to think that no one can be trusted anymore because the world that they live in gives them no reason to, but they must try to open their heart before living in a bubble goes from a fantasy to a reality. While you are reading do you agree or disagree? Do you trust others? Take the quiz linked and find out. [|TRUST QUIZ]

It is hard to for see what the future holds with the fine of line of trust and betrayal and how the world responds to it. The television has brought entertainment and news to this world but with the news, brings the horror of the truthful things that are happening or have happened. Some people just don't want to face the truth and continue to lie to themselves and others. "Look at your emaciation. Do you see? I can make my thumb and forefinger meet around your bicep. I could snap your neck like a carrot, (272, Orwell). When Winston looks into the mirror once he has been starved and beaten for months on end, he understands that he has nothing and is nothing when compared to O' Brien. O' Brien had reduced him to nothing but a broken man unable to do anything to stand up for himself. He lied to himself when he thought that he loved Big Brother, for he went against what he had said earlier, because one thing that threatened him forever changed him. One thing changes many minds and opinions for one mistake is all it takes for someone to be displayed for what they truly are. In //Little Brother//, Marcus's father fully supports the decision by the DHS to hunt down the terrorists at all costs even if they do invade people's rights, but after Marcus tells him the truth about what happened to Marcus and his friends then the opinion completely changed. "He'd come to believe that the terrorists had nearly killed his son and it had made him crazy. Crazy enough to do whatever the DHS asked, to line up like a good little sheep and let them control him, drive him." (254, Doctrow). Marcus's father now wants the DHS to be out of power because of what had happened to his son after the DHS wrongly accused him and has been stalking his every move. Now the only problem is getting the truth out and making people believe it with facts that can prove that what the DHS is completely wrong, but sometimes the facts lie and the people who tell the facts exaggerate the truth too much. "Those 250 prisoners served 3,160 years between them; 17 spent time on death row. Remarkably, 67 percent of them were convicted after 2000—a decade after the onset of modern DNA testing," (Balko). I find it absolutely amazing that even though we believe in the system that puts criminals behind bars, it is absolutely far from perfect. It is a known f act that all human beings make mistakes but young adults originally thought that the judicial system that the United States government created would have very little flaws instead of the many innocent people that we all have sent to jail. Even when the only thing that proves people are different than everybody else except for twins, DNA still didn't save the criminals from jail in this system and it is absolutely terrifying. Yay, anyone and everyone can go to jail. I'm just kidding, if everyone was behind bars then it would a problem because this country would be broken. Also, not only America would fail but every country that relies on America to give them their supplies, every person that lives in poverty because of a World Disaster would starve unless another country came to save them. Everything that the American citizens had worked so hard to earn after wars, riots, homicides, and creating laws to protect their rights and their country it will become the system of //1984//. Since no one is trustworthy, everyone will turn to the government who holds everything and everyone in the palm of their hand, and can dispose of them as they see fit. So here is the question. When was the last time you told a lie, a fib, or exaggerated the truth? Because they all are the same, I don't know how to stop lying, it is a sin that we are condemned to do because our never ending craving for power has ruined us.

To where do we go from here? There is no idea, for there is no instruction manual on how to "fix" this. One may suggest that lying to get their way is almost second nature, because it seems that Americans would rather take the easy way out and deceive and cheat to get where they would like to go while some good people work for what they want and good things happen to them. Some people use what they have to get what they want and then they continue on their devious streak unless people see the truth and then they finally stop, but after they have been caught the damage has already been done. There is no undo button, and there is no lie detector that is one hundred percent accurate unless you are the one telling the lies. "I always look cheerful and I never shirk anything. Always yell with the crowd, that's what I say," (122, Orwell). Julia uses her body and sexuality to get what she wants from Winston, which is the joy of sex. She acts as the leader of a [|celibacy club] so that no one will suspect her of doing the crime of doing it because it is just who she is. She tells Winston that she loves him even though they aren't in love. Julia falls asleep when Winston talks for long periods of time and what he thinks is important she doesn't, yet the only thing that unites them is the sexual desire that they share with one another. It is a part of life that we all lie to ourselves because we think that we know whats best but the true answer is sometimes wrong. Winston showed signs that Julia wasn't the one for him towards the end of the book while in the book of //Little Brother// Marcus and Ange are in a real relationship. They care for each other like a mature relationship would be. It just shows that even when we trust each other we still make mistakes. No system is perfect even though everyone wants it to be. Therefore, the question is where do we draw the line? When is enough, enough to stand up and say that this isn't working? Does the Police Department ever go away? Should the people trust the system? Are Americans lucky to have a criminal like they do? People don't like the American system because it takes so long to analyze the facts and they still get it wrong. "They can't just sweep in and throw open the doors. Everyone here is going to have to be processed through the criminal justice system, (348, Doctrow). At the end of the book it describes how the DHS is no more and that the U.S. Government will hold trials for all of the crimes that the DHS committed, but in time I predict that the DHS will be created again because the U.S. will see a need for it. "There are law enforcement jobs at every level of government, from the FBI agent to the small-town sheriff," (Mannion). If the police officers are everywhere and they work for the government, than they will never go away. The Military Services will always be there to protect us but it doesn't mean that every once in a while, that they slip and abuse their power. In the future the idea of lying to get what you want will never go away. The idea of betrayal and wanting to see the worst in people once they have done something horrible will never cease to exist. This world can only stay on the same course or rebel and then have the future be unknown. The fine line of trust and betrayal will always exists for as long as humans continue to think they way that they do. Money and power can't be everything in this world. The reason why kids should want a career shouldn't be because of the money that they earn. It shouldn't be the reason why [|people commit a crime to go to jail and to be fed three times a day and to receive health care.] We need to stop worrying about celebrities and how many children they have. We need to focus on telling the next generation that the ideas of truth and trust are important to succeeding in this world and if we don't change the way that we trust people than the issue of trust will only get worse.

The difference between trust and betrayal doesn't allow for any leeway in this world, because anything said or done can cross the line, and questioning and hypothesizing on what the future holds only leads to more problems than what we originally started with, including an unlikely future without any clue on how to fix it. People lie to get what they want and it has ruined our ability to trust each other. Self confidence is lacking within a society and within its people because failure and crimes are plastered on whatever the people watch. When there is no other way to solve the issue of trust then to run to someone or something who can protect us the current system fails. Now, whether we run to the government or to the police, the system that is created could easily turn into one of the two novels. The futuristic system will stay the same because people believe that the tradition of this government has always worked and will continue to work. When the next opportunity for you to lie arises please dismiss this common idea .Please don't deceive the person standing in front of you. Please rebel against the current system, because somewhere deep inside we all may predict that without any trust, [|World War III] and World War IV won't be too far off.

//Works Cited://

//Balko, Radley. "How Many More Are Innocent?"// Reason Magazine//. Reason.com, 8 Feb. 2010. Web. 11 Feb. 2012. .// //Doctrow, Cory.// Little Brother//. New York, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2008. Print.// Fastenberg, Dan. "Man Goes to Jail to Get Health Care Benefits. Should You? - Careers Articles." //Jobs, Careers, and Job Listings - AOL Jobs//. AOL Jobs, 22 July 2011. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. . "Jealousy - Definition of Jealousy by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia." //Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary//. Ed. HarperCollins Publishers. Farlex, 2002. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. . //Kornet, Allison. "The Truth About Lying | Psychology Today."// Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness Find a Therapist//. Psychology Today, 01 May 1997. Web. 08 Feb. 2012. .// //Mannion, James. "Police - Government Jobs."// Netplaces//. Net Places. Web. 11 Feb. 2012. .// //Orwell, George.// 1984//. New York, New York: New American Library, 1949. Print.// //"Why We Lie."// Changing Minds and Persuasion -- How We Change What Others Think, Believe, Feel and Do//. Changing Minds, 2002. Web. 09 Feb. 2012. .// //Plane, Nato. "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Libyan Farmer Who Helped To Rescue American Pilot Shot By NATO Plane."// Progressive Values//. Blogger, 11 Mar. 2011. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. .// //"Quiz: Are You Too Trusting?"// Teen Advice - Advice and Community For Teens//. About.com. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. .