And lancelot knelt down and took the king’s beloved hand in both of his and kissed it. “good night, my liege lord, my liege friend,” he said, and then stumbled blindly from the room and felt his way down the curving stone steps past the arrow slits.

as he came to the level of the next landing, guinevere issued silently from a darkened entrance. he could see her in the thin light from the arrow slit. she took his arm and led him to her dark chamber and closed the oaken door.

“a strange thing happened,” she said softly.

source: steinbeck, john. the acts of king arthur and his noble knights. new york: penguin, 2009. google books. web. 7 july 2011.

what is the author’s purpose in the above passage, and how does he achieve it through his organization and choice of details?

beginner

government is strong when they have the ability to persuade those they govern to believe government has enough power to force them or should be forcing them to do government’s will.

when enough of the citizenry do not believe government can force them or should force them to do its bidding, government has lost or will lose its strength and power to coerce.

when enough of the citizenry do believe government can force or should force them to do its bidding, they become passive at the least or actively pro-government and repeat government’s own rhetoric to pass on what they have been persuaded by government’s propaganda.

a true majority isn’t always needed to govern or to stop government. many times all that is needed is a strong minority. if a determined 30% of the population rises up against government in a concerted effort to bring it down, this size minority usually will succeed as long as those actively opposing the minority are less in force than the minority. so if 41% of the population sits at home watching tv rooting for one side or the other, they don’t matter. it’s the active parties who make a difference.