“A Reaction to Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” The power behind politics goes beyond simple governing and finds its way into the social constructs that play roles within the lives of all people in some form or another. However, political power is connected with authoritative power and it’s not a secret that authoritative power sets boundaries and expectations for citizens within each region. These boundaries and expectations are typically the forces that keep people obedient and aware of social constructs without the awareness that they are living within a socially constructed world. According to the lecture notes, “Whether based on persuasion or coercion, power, especially political power, is about controlling others. Because many people revolt …show more content…
China has a history of censorship through both political and religious movements from falsifying records regarding the Sichuan earthquake, the one-child policy, Internet censorship, and the construction of false propaganda efforts during the Beijing Olympics to name a few. Ai Weiwei described the Beijing Olympics as, “The Olympics are a propaganda show” (Klayman). He says this quote in reference to the construction of the arena, as Chinese locals were unable to participate in any portion of the Olympics and many of the impoverished people were moved to a new location so that they would not be seen within the area. False advertisements had been created to showcase the development of China and their thriving region of Beijing. Ai Weiwei draws a correlation to the Olympics to bring attention to the fact that China often uses these methods to cover up their problems and appear as a flawless country. These methods were also used to cover up the Sichuan earthquake as well as the arrest of several Chinese activists who went against authoritative claims in an effort to expose the corruption of the Chinese