{"id":118,"date":"2018-02-16T16:49:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T21:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/?p=118"},"modified":"2018-02-17T11:53:10","modified_gmt":"2018-02-17T16:53:10","slug":"118","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/second-blog-power\/118\/","title":{"rendered":"Orwell&#8217;s Structural Power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Orwell&#8217;s account of shooting an elephant brings up a paradoxical example of power and its influence. Orwell undeniably has all (or most) of the power because he benefits from and works within the structure of British imperialism. However, in this instance of shooting the elephant, his power, influence, and renown within this Burmese community is what turns the tables on him. Having established an identity within the community that is rooted in power and domination of the people around him, it seems they only expect him to continue this demonstration of power with the elephant. After all, &#8220;a white man mustn&#8217;t be frightened in front of &#8216;natives.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There is also an important distinction between lasting structural power, and momentary influence. It is clear that Orwell is in the position of structurally-enforced power within the community. Similarly, just because he felt pressured and forced by the Burmese people to shoot the elephant does not mean that this power has disappeared. Orwell&#8217;s superior position within the community, as well as his visual display of power (the gun), created an isolated instance in which the community&#8217;s expectations, and &#8220;intimidating&#8221; group dynamic could have influence over Orwell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Orwell&#8217;s account of shooting an elephant brings up a paradoxical example of power and its influence. Orwell undeniably has all (or most) of the power because he benefits from and works within the structure of British imperialism. However, in this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/second-blog-power\/118\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1888,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-second-blog-power"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1888"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}