Government run only by members of Abnegation?

Discuss the June 2014 book of the month Divergent by Veronica Roth. While only Divergent--the first book of the series--is the book of the month, feel free to use this subforum to discuss the rest of the series or to talk about the movies, but make sure not to post spoilers unless noted in the topic title.
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alinerangel
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Re: Government run only by members of Abnegation?

Post by alinerangel »

I believe that out of the other factions, they are the better suited for it. however, the most selfless human will always be a human first, and they will never be completely selfless. And who's to say that the selfless acts they do are really what's best for everyone. Eventually everyone looks over the fence and thinks the grass is greener on the other side..
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Post by unicorny07 »

The government is run by Abnegation because they are supposed to be selfless, and therefore should not be biased. It sounds like a good idea, but I don't think the government should be run by only one faction. There should be representatives from every faction to try to keep a balance. That's my personal opinion.
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moozie
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Post by moozie »

I don't think its a good idea. Diversity has been shown time after time to be more effective than a single mind set
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Post by Little House »

A government can only work when the good of the community comes before the good of an individual. Of course, if everyone is looking out for their neighbor, then lots of people care about what happens to you. A government run by Abnegation would work because the people running things care more about the community than they do about themselves.
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474lizzie
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Post by 474lizzie »

I dont think it would be a good idea at all.. It could be easily infiltrated. what if a person in any of the other factions decide Hey I want to rule in the government all they have to do is switch to abnegation.... And while I do believe knowledge is power I dont believe it corrupts people no i believe that human nature.
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Post by Hadiqa »

Abnegation are defined as people who are selfless and think about others before themselves. So being a leader should have the quality of sacrifice and selfless and for some cases and situations, I completely agree with “valuing knowledge above all else results in a lust for power, and that leads men into dark and empty places”
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Post by abookishblogger »

I don't think it would work. The government would need a larger variety of traits to maintain itself. The Abnegation may not be brave enough to take certain risks. The government needed a variety.

As to the 'knowledge is corruptive' It can be... It all depends on the other traits of the person.
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Post by Hadiqa »

abookishblogger wrote:I don't think it would work. The government would need a larger variety of traits to maintain itself. The Abnegation may not be brave enough to take certain risks. The government needed a variety.

As to the 'knowledge is corruptive' It can be... It all depends on the other traits of the person.
Agreed :-)
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Post by dememusicaddict »

To be honest, all of the factions should've had a representative. If we only had overly selfless people running a country, or even a city, that area would have no more resources.
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Post by deah319 »

I think it emphasizes the point that their system is flawed, things are are not black and white. I do not think that this whole project was a good idea and whoever came up with it deserve to be tried for violation of human rights. Being too smart may sometimes be detrimental to promoting the common good.
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Post by Katygalloway »

I think the government needs to be a mixture of all different factions so that they can cater for the needs of lots of different people so I don't think an abnegation only government would work
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Post by brooklynegan »

I think it would be a great choice at first because Abnegation are always selfless, but if there was no need to be selfless than it could go down a different way. To become a successful leadership they would need the bravery of Dauntless, the honesty of Candor, the peace of Amity and, the academic knowledge from Erudite as well as the selflessness of Abnegation. Though this could cause problems and conflict it would be fairer and easier to run the government this way.
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Post by ElphabaEvans »

If the government was to be solely one faction, the abnegation was probably the best choice, but at some point I would think that having all the power would cause at least a bit of inner conflict for an Abnegation. We know Tris struggled with accepting the lifestyle fully, and even choosing it at 16 probably wouldn't tamp down a person's complete inner nature. There have to be some in that faction that would be tempted by the power of being in complete control.
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Post by megg1088 »

I agree with others that in theory that would work- however without someone who favors knowledge or bravery, etc how would they know how to react to others in a manner that is best in the end? They would become too predictable and could easily be overthrown by another government.
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Post by ChelseaDeview »

I believe that abnegation would be a good choice of faction to lead as they are selfless. But in being selfless they are also being selfish. They want to be liked by all. Is that not selfish? Also, I believe that in order to have a helthy, strong government, there must be a multitude of characteristics.
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