Government surveillance is a problem that everyone should be aware of and that everyone should be aware of and wary of. The topic is presented to the public as an effective tactic to ensure that the country and the citizens residing in it are safe and secure. While this may be true, the negatives are not addressed, and government officials such as James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, have been caught lying on camera about programs put in place, with little to no negative reaction. While it may seem like an isolated problem, nationwide surveillance is part of a broad recurring strategy that has existed for centuries. The problem stems from the deceptive tactics that governments have used to gain control over their country by hiding controversial policies, laws and regulations behind external and internal threats that supposedly attack its population, its way of life and the country itself. Allowing this to happen can cause things to quickly get out of hand, so you need to be vigilant and, if necessary, stop it to maintain law and order, freedom and independence. Through the examination and contextualization of Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, and the French Revolution, the damage that can be caused by people's blind faith in government has been made clear. While these issues have proven difficult to resolve and dangerous to unravel, preventative measures are the best way to prevent deceptions like this from taking place. For a simple guide, these are three questions that every person should ask themselves often on different topics to ensure they are aware of the situation; Do the proposed solutions take away the rights of the countries' citizens? Are the policies implemented actually solving the problem? And who do these laws help? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The most important question to ask as it allows you to clearly see if a political body like a party or government is doing something wrong Is; are they depriving people of their rights and freedoms to solve the problem at hand? This is often seen as a necessary evil and there is merit in this way of thinking. Change can occur faster if the government is able to ignore some limitations created by democratic states and is able to focus exclusively on solving a single problem. The problem is that whoever is the leader and the new holder of this absolute power must only use it for the purpose for which it was intended, and this is a very big risk to take for change. The rise of Nazism and Hitler's rise to power are a prime historical example of how the promise of improvement can go terribly wrong when the trust of the people of the nation is placed in the wrong hands. After the surrender of German military forces on November 11 and the official armistice to end the conflict on the Western Front during World War I later that morning, Germany was a paralyzed country. The implementation of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 weakened the country, its economy, its population and its morale through ridiculous demands made on the government. Forced to repay the debt incurred by the Allied countries during the war, this limited Germany's ability to recover. This could be described as a hotbed for a racist ideology like Nazism to flourish and a perfect storm for the rise of a dictator like Adolf Hitler. Through his manipulative tactics and clever use of the fears and frustrations ofpublic, Adolf Hitler presented tempting ways to solve various problems the country was facing, while at the same time depriving its people of their rights. Once Hitler became chancellor of Germany, the National Socialist German Workers' Party worked to resolve the communist revolution that they believed was at hand. As Joseph Goebbels, the new head of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, mentioned in his diary, commented: “In a conversation with the Fuhrer we set the line for the fight against the Red Terror... The attempt of Bolshevik revolution must first explode." With little evidence of a real threat from Germany's communist parties and public opinion not entirely convinced, Nazi leaders launched their own communist declaration of war by setting fire to the Reichstag, an important political building in German history. The blame was easily placed on a socialist arsonist named Marinus Van Der Lubbe who conveniently boasted that he wanted to burn down the German parliament building. The NSGWP was then able to use this attack on the country to present the Reichstag Fire Decree, which deprived the German people of numerous civil liberties in the context of safety and security. This gave Hitler and the soldiers of the “Storm Detachment” of the Sturmabteilung carte blanche to suppress any conflicting political beliefs that people may or may not have, without any legal repercussions, this was “the first experience the Germans had had, with terror government-backed Nazi. Subsequently, after months spent giving speeches about the crippling Treaty of Versailles and how business and commerce would prosper under the control of the Nazi Party, Hitler dissolved all trade unions. On May 2, on a day ironically intended to celebrate German workers and their economic rights, these were in fact stripped from citizens in the streets. This tactic to take control of the economy was much more brazen than the well-planned staging of a communist revolution, but it worked. Hitler and his party now had the ability to control exports and imports, to allow businesses to prosper if the owners donated to the party or to ruin them if they did not. Through an entire campaign to convince the country that the economy would succeed under Nazi rule, it was not the workers and hard workers of the middle and lower classes who benefited, but the politicians and the Chancellor himself. Finally, the Untermensch or Subhuman in English, were groups of racial, sexual and religious minorities who were slandered, attacked and almost eradicated in the name of purification and a better German nation. As Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement grew in power, they became more involved in portraying these minorities as the cause of the German people's problems through speeches and a constant flow of propaganda led by Joseph Goebbels. As Hitler stated in his “autobiography” Mein Kampf, “All the great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race became extinct through blood poisoning.” Hitler attacked African Americans, homosexuals and especially the Jewish population. The removal of these people's rights was not immediate, but his speeches and his book laid the foundation for a racist ideology to germinate in the minds of German citizens. There were boycotts of all Jewish businesses, subsequent slums were created to house Jewish families with terrible living conditions, and, through the use of mass labor concentration camps, Jewish families were executed on a scale never seen before . Through convincing solutions to seemingly urgent problems such as threatof a communist revolution, the failure of the economy and the impurity in the genetic heritage, Hitler took away from some, from all, most of the personal and economic freedoms to create a powerful, dominant power, and a ruthless totalitarian dictatorship. Secondly, there is a possibility that the proposed plan, which is taking away the rights and freedoms of a country's citizens, will not solve the problem. This can be caused by a lack of focus on the specific problem or a blatant disregard for what the original reason was. This can be seen in Russia in the early 20th century, where the power a communist dictatorship had over the country was abused. The origin of communism in Russia was largely due to the terrible military campaign conducted by the monarchy during the First World War. Poor planning, outdated tactics, and unprepared soldiers led to the massacre of thousands of Russian soldiers. which led to the revolt against the front-line commanding officers and, ultimately, the overthrow of the imperial government and the Romanov dynasty. What made socialism such an attractive political system to the Russian people was the fact that, as in many industrialized societies, the working class made up a large percentage of the population. This meant that the writings of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels resonated with large numbers of people and generations of workers. The Bolshevik movement, through the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War, drew inspiration from the suffering of the Russian proletariat and convinced them that the philosophy proposed by Marx was the answer to their problems, that “they were slaves of the bourgeois class and the bourgeois state; they were daily and hourly slaves of the machine, of the overseer and, above all, of the individual bourgeois producer.” That equality, the destruction of the upper class, and the acceptance of collectivism would create a utopia for all to enjoy. These proposed and implemented solutions did not work as they were promised, as Joseph Stalin's rigid government limited the solutions to the benefit of his own party, not to the benefit of those who suffered. Equality and how to achieve it were not specifically addressed in Karl Marx's writings, but the injustices and inequalities created by capitalism in nations were. This has led to socialist politicians like Vladimir Lenin having to propose their own solutions to the inequalities workers face, without clear guidance from the most respected communists out there, Marx and Engels. Lenin, with the creation of the Leninist movement, brought extreme political reforms to the country, especially improving the conditions and quality of life of the lower classes. It attempted to address inequalities such as the exploitation of the working class and the lack of rights and options for Russian women who wanted to earn a living. Many people have benefited from political change, but the redistribution of private property has created new forms of injustice. Factory and business owners have lost their homes and the source of income they completely depended on to make a living. Secondly, class struggle has always been an important issue in Marxist theory and philosophy and both Lenin and Stalin attempted to resolve it. To justify the unfair treatment to which the middle and upper classes had been subjected, both communist leaders drew inspiration from the victim mentality of the Slavic people. Portraying yourself as a victim allows for a deflection of responsibility and a desire to be compensated by any means necessary. This is what Lenin and Stalin drew upon and used to strip the upper or bourgeois classes of their means of production and their homes, forcing them to get lower-paid jobs provided to them by the state,as long as the state didn't do it. t execute them, which was common during Lenin's Red Terror and Stalin's Great Purge. The removal of upper-class citizens who owned land, employed workers, and ran various institutions in the community meant that they had to be replaced. This led to the creation of a new, but similar upper class, known as the Nomenklatura. Instead of being run independently, all members of the Nomenklatur were employed by the state, which only created another class struggle, but in the name of communism. What someone needs to ask is “do these solutions solve the problem?” If not, then there is justifiable reason to be concerned, especially when people's rights are being restricted in order to arrive at an unnecessary solution. The final question to answer is “Who really benefits from these movements, policies and laws?” ?” because when a government gets too much power and control into its hands, as seen in the French Revolution, Nazi Germany, and Communist Russia, the people at the top tend to make life better for themselves, not for others. In the beginning of the movement, the French Revolution was an attempt to create a better country for all, with the abolition of the death penalty, the redistribution of power to give more influence to people living in poverty, and a better third estate: everyone these were the objectives proposed in parliament. Although this was the original reason, time brings changes for better and worse and the ideals were lost and the Jacobins, Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety created a complete oligarchy that only aimed to maintain power. Through increased political violence and the destruction of the monarchy due to the beheading of King Louis XVI, a tyrant named Robespierre came to power who still preached for equality, liberty and fraternity, but imposed harsh punishments and seized power only for himself. It created a climate of fear in France and brought them into what is now known as the Reign of Terror. This same situation can be seen in Nazi Germany, where Adolf Hitler created a movement to improve the lives of everyday Germans, but what was created was an authoritarian government that lied, scapegoated, and killed its way to power. The German economy seemed to be recovering, an illusion created through the Mefo law which helped German industry grow in secret compared to other countries until it collapsed, and the removal of Jewish entrepreneurs which helped increase jobs for the “Germans”. The Nazi government's tight grip on the economy helped people at times, but it also completely ruined others and it wasn't in the name of the public interest. The Communist Movement in Russia was promised to help the proletariat. After decades of oppression, people were looking for change, to improve their lives in any way possible. Although the socialist party led by Lenin and then followed by Stalin talked about its plans to help the common people, what the party fought for was complete control over the nation, its institutions, its media and its people. Allow the elimination of enemies of the State, reduce all forms of opposition and also reduce millions of innocent people. These authoritarian governments all spoke of the peasant, the worker, the lower class serf, and promised them a better life under their rule. The problem is that when the government has absolute power, it can say one thing and do another without any form of repercussions and consequences. Creating a plan to effectively solve the problem of government deception is an impossible challenge, but looking back at key moments in history allows for.