#12

         Power is a drug.  It brings the truest euphoria.  Once it is obtained it is hard to give away.  It becomes a strong addiction.  Lethal as it may be it is harbored and imbibed recklessly without stop.  George Orwell's 1984 portrays this aspect of power very clearly.  Winston Smith, the protagonist, continues to be re-indoctrinated under the care of O'Brien.  He is now in the second phase, the phase in which he learns why the party does what it does.  The answer to his question of why the party continues to do what it does is simple yet chilling, O'Brien explains the party's motives saying, " The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake.  We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power.  Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power...We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.  Power is not a means it is an end" (Orwell 263).  Here O'Brien puts it simply: dictators never take power for the good of others, rather they do it only to wield power, to control others.  This explanation is very blunt and astonishing.  Human nature tends to believe the best in others.  Yet in O'Brien's explanation it is very apparent that human nature is not inherently good.  Humans like power, people want power.  The Party is honest about this addiction that humans have to power.  They know that it exists yet, instead of hiding behind the age old explanation of usurping power for the good of others, they blatantly state that they have such a selfish and greedy motive.  Based on this illustration it is safe to say that Orwell argues that those who take power do not take power for any reason other than to have power itself.  Power is the envy of those who do not have it and the  potent stimulant of those who hold it.