The Tyranny of Leadership

Author’s Note: My reading group was reading Inheritance by Christopher Paolini and we had to write an essay on what themes there were in the book and my group came up with government corruption and good versus evil. I didn’t want to write about good versus evil because it was way too easy because it’s in almost every book so I wrote about government corruption and I was surprised to find how many books had government corruption in them so here’s my essay.

The ideal leader for any aggregation of people is fair, just, and kind, but there are some leaders who get power hungry or are too concerned with their version of the greater good to listen to the people. These leaders are the kind that will kill people unless they are a certain skin color or race and they sometimes can make the country the armpit of the world. Many authors like to make these kinds of people with extreme authoritarian policies and appalling measures the leaders of their communities. All books have themes and the theme of novels with these tyrannic leaders is government corruption.

The complete abolition of all freedom can sometimes be called good by the leader’s minions, but you see it as the true evil as it if it is told from the perspective of the people against the leader’s empire: in Inheritance by Christopher Paolini the story is told from the point of the Varden, the force fighting the awesome force of the tyrannical leader Galbatorix. The Varden believe that life was better when the Dragon Rider’s were still in power: “It was a beautiful time, the Dragon Rider’s kept the peace and the most the people of Alagaesia had to worry about was a dwarf clan war or how the local butcher was charging too high a price,” This was said by Ajihad, the Varden’s founder who believed in the cause so strongly he was willing to die for it. Galbatorix destroyed the people’s freedom and killed the most beautiful creatures in the world the dragons. In the land of Alagaeisa this is the most corrupted act a person could commit and Galbatorix likes it.

Even when author’s stories aren’t even close to being similar they have a similar evil villain. Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter is that evil villain. In the last book he has completely taken over the Ministry of Magic which has never been the voice of reason but has always been against the Death Eaters and diabolical ruler Lord Voldermort. Voldemort’s philosophy is that only pure-bloods should possess magic and he is killing any people who aren’t or who stand in his way. The Ministry of Magic has always kept the peace and it is not and the government is so corrupt that you can’t even get near it if you’re not a death eater or loyal to Lord Voldemort. This is the most terrible way I can think to live in constant fear that they are going to find you if you’re not loyal the empire of Voldemort but that is the way some people many people used to live. That truly is a corrupted world and would not wish that life upon anyone.

Many Novels can be compared to real life events like Harry Potter and Inheritance can be compared to the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler was just like Voldemort and Galbatorix because he thinks that the world would be a better place without Jews like Voldemort and Galbatorix think that their land would be better off without a certain kind of people. Hitler brought terror to the land that he was supposed to be serving and protecting, like Galbatorix brought terror and mayhem to Alagaesia like Voldemort to the world.

Terror. Mayhem. Chaos. These are things that all three of these “righteous” leaders brought to the lands they used to rule and that is the common theme that is shared in books of government corruption and even our own history.