George Orwells 1984 Compared to Today
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Art imitates life and vice versa. Some of the greatest works in literature turned out to
predict major events throughout the history. George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, is a fictional story that describes a time where England is overruled by English Socialism. The story’s point of view is through the main character, Winston Smith, who is an intelligent member of the middle class. The reader is walked through his later life, where his intellectual thought is overly prominant. The novel focuses on a corrupt English totalitarian society, and the dangerousness of an unchecked political power. Although this dystopian novel seems quite far off from our society today, there are some key similarities with whats happening behind the scenes today in American society. 1984 might be a dystopian society, but today’s condition seems to be moving towards that controlling state, where the citizens are watched by the government at all times.
This novel focuses on a corrupt leader in an English society named Big Brother. In the novel “Big Brother is watching you” (Orwell 2) at all times. Big Brother liked to stress the fact that the citizens were always being watched by making sure that the words were written everywhere, from street signs, to giant billboards throughout the city, to signs in the Victory Mansions. The closest thing to Big Brother that is represented in today’s society would be the National Security Agency (NSA), who “spies” on the public through many sources, one being street cameras. There are street cameras everywhere, watching the sidewalks, the cars on the road, and appear at almost every entrance and exit on public property. We are constantly being observed no matter where go, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. With the recent terrorists’ attacks and threats, our society should feel protected by the cameras, knowing that if someone attempts to create chaos, it’ll be easier to capture them if they are caught on video. Even though this is a form of protection, the government has been slightly over zealous with what exactly they are looking for and taking advantage of the fact that they can watch citizens. “In lower Manhattan, for example, the police are planning to set up a centralized surveillance center where officers can view thousands of video cameras around the downtown – and police-operated cameras have popped up in many other cities across America in just the past several years.” Though this is a high crime area, it seems to be too much to put in cameras that can see every square inch of the area. These cameras are to be surveillanced 24 hours a day in order to watch for possible crimes.
In order to control and manipulate the demeanor of the mass population inhabiting Oceania, the reign Party created four main branches which helped influence and virtually watched over and controlled the people. The entire apparatus of the Party was divided into four Ministries: “the Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts; the Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war; the Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order; and the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for the economics affairs.”(Orwell 4). The United States foundation is made up of three similar branches/”ministries” and it is an on going process which our current administration uses, and they are: Executive branch, which is headed by the President of the US, who is the Commander in Chief (controls the US Armed Forces). The President is empowered to sign or veto bills passed by Congress, negotiate treaties, and appoint a cabinet. The Judicial part of our federal government includes the Supreme Court and 9 Justices. They are special judges who interpret laws according to the Constitution. These justices only hear cases that pertain to issues related to the Constitution.