Jonathan Swift's Violence Vanquished

A History of Violence
When governments ignore their citizens the violence of a realm will increase. This reality is displayed in “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, “Violence Vanquished” by Steven Pinker, “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell and other historical facts. When a government ensures that the basic needs of their people are met, poverty decreases and crime and violence decrease. When the government doesn’t do this the opposite happens. By ignoring citizens they will be left with meeting their own basic needs. In theory people can do this, but not when others hold them back. Once a government stops protecting its people and starts exploiting them it becomes difficult to avoid poverty. This apathy on the government’s part causes
During the Colonial Period, England was driven by a desire to conquer more than their European foes such as Spain and France, and they couldn’t care less that their colonies were treated poorly. The British, for example, exploited America. They taxed common items such as tea, newspapers and playing cards and its soldiers invaded the homesteads of regular citizens whenever they needed the free housing. To add insult to injury, the Americans did not have a say in their own governing as Parliament made all the authoritative laws for them and no representatives were allowed who weren’t British.Unfortunately for King George III, some of his subjects would rather die than suffer such abuse, even when it was done under the pretext of keeping the colonies safe. The unbearable treatment would lead to the most violent conflict imaginable, war. The Americans’ intent was not to wage war. They pleaded to the British king in the Olive Branch Petition. They promised to remain a faithful colony to their mother country if only some representation in the Parliament could be granted. The British government, especially its king, didn’t give their pleas any notice and as a result thousands of violent deaths would ensue in the War for
Burma was a relatively happy country for most of the nineteenth century. The Burmese fought the British Empire for years to maintain their independence but the superpower didn’t care that their future subjects desired to be free, and finally conquered them in the late 1800’s. England redrew the borders of Burma and made it part of India, even though Burma was a totally separate country with its own cultural and political identity. After years of oppression under a government that ignored their well-being, the Burmese of 1920 were sick of and dying under foreign rule. As a young officer in Moulmein, Burma, George Orwell was “an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so. When a nimble Burman tripped [him on a football field] and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter.” (216). After enduring bullying at the hands of the Burmese, Orwell’s main purpose as an officer was to appear strong and wise in front of the Burmans. This resulted in Orwell violently murdering an elephant to maintain an air of superiority. In sum, because the British government didn’t care about the Burmese, tensions ran high which led to