As we have spent time this year learning about places around the world, one thing that culturally separates countries from one another is how they are run. For example, when a country is a democracy vs dictatorship, the lives of the country's citizens are greatly impacted.
After we have reflected on our needs and wants writing from last class, let's take a moment to look closer at the different types of systems that govern the many countries of the world.
Question to think about: Do the needs and wants of people change depending on the country they live in and it's government?
We will then take a read and respond to some quotes regarding power. Finally, we will then write our own thoughts to reflect our thinking.
Let's get started!
Democracy - Brain Pop
Communism - Brain Pop
United Nations - Brain Pop
After watching the videos and going over the quotations with your group, write a response to the following question.
"What are the benefits to human rights in a democratic society?
Quotations regarding Power
You can have power over people as long as you don't take
everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no
longer in your power.
Wealth may be an excellent thing, for it means power, and it means
leisure, it means liberty.
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will
know peace.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Great men are almost always bad men.
– Lord Acton, 19th-century
British scholar and writer
Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the
powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
– Paulo Freire, famous
Brazilian educator and thinker (1921–1997)
Only within the moment of time represented by the present century
has one species—man—acquired significant power
to alter the nature of his world.
– Rachel Carson,
environmentalist and author of The Silent Spring
Power, however it has evolved, whatever its origins, will not be
given up without a struggle.
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the
less we use our power the greater it will be.
– Thomas Jefferson,
president of the United States (1801–1809) and author of the Declaration of Independence
If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
– Mother Teresa, Catholic humanitarian among the poor in India
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I
don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the
people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't
find them, make them.
– George Bernard Shaw, 1893, British writer and playwright
Non-violence is the weapon of the strong.
– Mahatma
Gandhi, Indian leader and non-violent rights activist
Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide
upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always
difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map
out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same
courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men
and women to win them.
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more
to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace
so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and
let them have it.
– Dwight D. Eisenhower, United States General and President of
the United States (1953–1961)
Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness,
consideration and co-operation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.
The world will never have lasting peace so long as men reserve for
war the finest human qualities. Peace, no less than war, requires idealism and
self-sacrifice and a righteous and dynamic faith.
– John Foster Dulles, American Secretary of State (1953–1959) during the Cold War
between the U.S. and Soviet Union
When I recall the path of my own life I cannot but speak of the
violence, hatred and lies. A lesson drawn from such experiences, however, was
that we can effectively oppose violence only if we ourselves do not resort to
it.
– Lech
Walesa, 1983, labour leader and non-violent worker for human rights in Poland
We must indeed resolutely refuse to be tempted to violence: that
is the short cut which invariably turns out to be the blind alley.
– A.J. Muste, American minister and writer, supporter of
non-violence
An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time
has come.
– Victor Hugo, French writer and humanitarian
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the
final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than
evil triumphant… I believe that what self-centred men have torn down, men
other-centred can build up.”
– Martin
Luther King, U.S. civil rights leader, on his acceptance of the Nobel
Peace Prize
