Chapter 7, Questions of Conquest, We

In the three pieces of literature we were assigned to read, I noticed one very surprising similarities. We, Chapter 7, and Questions of Conquest, all suggest that life takes place in a utopia, or dystopia, similar to that of We. To begin with, I am going to talk about what I thought about Questions of Conquest by Mario Vargas Llosa. The author uses an extremely interesting incident to get his point across. When the conquistadores attacked the countries of South America, he questioned why the strong Incas fell so easily. He said that when the Spanish took the emperor, all the people in the civilizations and accepted the fate of death. No one knew what to do once the emperor was captured. He was the Benefactor. They were lost as the lacked the inability to think for themselves. This is like the One State in We because the denizens do not do things for themselves; they are humanized machines who work because that’s all they are told to do. He goes on to state that the Incas had things called Mitimaes which would take villagers who did not comply away until they became passive and showed respect. This is like, to a much lesser extent, what happens in the One State when one goes against the Benefactor. Lastly, the author states that the Incan civilizations only consumed rationally what it produced. It heaped together reserves for future times in case of disaster. This meant that the people of the Incan empire had no greed, but a long with that, no free will. Rebellious outbreaks were always localized and counterchecked by the obedient. The people of the Incan empire were like the people of the One State because they complied one hundred percent with the leader, had no ability to rebel and think for them, and did not know the luxury of things more than what is necessary.
The next article posed another interesting idea. What I got out from it was that we are all, to a less extent, part of the One State with Society being the Benefactor. It states that when we are children we are restricted to what we think and are taught things that may not be best for us. We are taught to smile and be happy. An interesting idea it poses is that to be “emotional” is considered a bad thing in modern society. The author says that from the beginning of education, original thinking is discourages. We are told to believe in facts, and that is what we end up believing in. It seems to me that we are being told what to do. We are taught not to think certain things, taught not to act certain ways. Lastly, and one of the most interesting things stated was as follows. He talks about how all men want more money, a better job, a nicer car. Then he poses a very crucial question: is this what I really want? “Modern man lives under the illusion that he knows what he wants, while he actually wants what he is supposed to want.” What do I want? I think I want what society wants. I want what the Benefactor wants. Even today, we live in a world we do not control. Do we really control our future? Free will comes into discussion here. In all three of these examples, We being the most extreme, and the daily life of all being the least, no one is doing what they want. But has anyone really done anything they want? I believe that since the beginning of time, evidence of a greater being has been setting the direction for us.