How we cite our quotes: (Volume.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The ordinary traffic had been stopped, I believe, in order to allow of the passage of troops and guns to Chertsey, and I have heard since that a savage struggle occurred for places in the special trains that were put on at a later hour. (1.12.38)
Once again, we see the power struggle between people. There is the "savage struggle" between people trying to get onto the trains, but there's another use of power that we should recognize: the government is able to interrupt the ordinary traffic and put through their own troops. Of course, it's not like the government consists of some alien monsters that have this power. This government is (more or less) democratically elected. Their power over the people derives from the people themselves. It's kind of a weird situation. When you're in a community (like a country), you give up some of your power so that you have a more powerful force help you.
Quote #8
The legendary hosts of Goths and Huns, the hugest armies Asia has ever seen, would have been but a drop in that current. And this was no disciplined march; it was a stampede – a stampede gigantic and terrible – without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of civilization, of the massacre of mankind. (1.17.1)
In one of his patented big picture overviews of the situation, the narrator makes a direct comparison between the mass of people who have no power and the armies that used to terrorize large parts of the world. So why doesn't this huge mass of British people have the same power that a smaller group of Goths and Huns had? Are the British powerless simply because they don't have the right technology? Are they powerless because they have no rules and order?
Quote #9
"Aren't you satisfied it is up with humanity? I am. We're down; we're beat." (2.7.28)
The artilleryman (who else would be "satisfied" – meaning that he's both certain that this is true and that he's quite content about it) is very willing to admit that people have no more power in this situation. Curiously enough, he's also one of the most optimistic characters we meet during this invasion. Why is he so happy to give up? Well, we find out later that he's lazy, so there's that. We might also notice that, as just another soldier, he didn't profit so much from the old way of life. He had to follow orders because he had no power. What he plans for the future now is a world where he has all the power.