Totalitarianism In The Lives Of Others

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Paragraph 1: Question 4) In the film The Lives of Others the consequences of the totalitarian state, were that people were fearful and on edge at all time, and because of that, some people began to lose themselves through addiction, suicidal thoughts, risky behaviors and other forms of self-abuse. During the Cold War the East German government had a strict watch on all of its citizens. 2.5% percent of the population was Stasi and it was sometimes unclear as to who was a Stasi, which made people paranoid, as they couldn’t tell to whom they could tell the thoughts they had, that the government would disapprove of. You had to be very careful what you said and to whom you told certain things to and even whom you were around when you said them. An example of this from the movie, was when the young man at the cafe make a light-hearted joke about the sun setting in the West and not wanting to come…show more content…
In the end he was just kidding, but it was not uncommon in that time, for people just making a joke about current events, to be taken in for questioning and a lot of the times imprisoned. This is a consequence because this lack of freedom of speech and the fear of punishment, made people want to escape from this form of government and it created a huge lack of trust, between the people and the government. Another consequence of the totalitarian state, was that because people were paranoid of their own government, and sometimes when people were blacklisted by the government, and without a job, they would become depressed and would try to subside their depression in various, harmful ways. For example, because Christa-Maria is so depressed, anxiety-ridden, and crazy, she turned to substance abuse, with pills, and sex with other men to diminish her negative feelings. Similarly Albert Jenska, the blacklisted playwright ended up committing suicide, as because he had been blacklisted for seven years and couldn’t work because of it, it was simply too much for
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