Exercise Of Power In Babel

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“Babel” is a movie of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s that tells stories from Morocco, America, Mexico and Japan, all connected by the thoughtless act of a child, and demonstrates how each culture works against each other to compound the repercussions. Realism is a school of thought that explains international relations in terms of power. The exercise of power by states toward each other is sometimes called realpolitik, or just power politics. And it is also related to the selfishness of the people and the states by the same time. In Babel there is a lot of exercise of power of one culture to another. The first example is when the child shoots the American tourist in the bus by accident because he wants to test the weapon in order to see if …show more content…

The rural peasant gets kicked in the chest for no reason, the American tourist can bully local authority with impunity. The reason doesn 't even require an explanation to an American audience: one doesn 't mean anything, he 's a powerless old peasant, a broken man on the edge of the desert; the other is an American tourist with legal rights, one of a bus load of swinish Euro-tourists with dollars to spend, and the power of empires behind them, the kind of power that can bring retaliation to the impolitic. The mere mention in the media that the US Government suggested the bus shooting had terrorist link, is enough to shut down the air space in the area and, incidentally, delay the arrival of a medical helicopter to help the injured woman. Meanwhile in Tokyo, two detectives respectfully approach the businessman, who legally owns the gun used in the "terrorist" shooting, in the luxury of his apartment complex concierge. "We are very sorry to disturb you, " They begin quietly. "If this is bad time, we can come back tomorrow." The cultural contrast delineates the cruel, primitive culture of the rural suppressed poor, against respect for the accomplished and wealthy individual in a highly developed urban