Privacy is a basic human right which is overlooked when national law is being threatened. Using surveillance as a means of control on a population is relevant in American society today, as well as in the novel, 1984, by George Orwell. The protagonist, Winston Smith, lives in a society where civilians are constantly monitored. The totalitarian government, known as the Party, keeps close tabs on everyone by using secret police, known as the thought police, to spy on citizens who may not approve of the government. The goal of the Party is to avoid any thought-crime or rebellion because if the citizens become aware that they are being repressed, the unjust society will never work and the Party will lose their total power. By exploiting emotions …show more content…
After the September 11th terrorist attacks, Americans were consumed with fear. Unsure about what was going to happen next and consumed with fear, Americans looked toward their government for protection against any threats. This fear allowed for the passage of the Patriot Act less than 2 months after the attacks. The act “...increases the ability of law enforcement officials to intercept discussions of terror plans by granting them greater power to monitor telephone and Internet conversations of suspects” (“The USA Patriot Act”). Through this act, any person with an inkling of a reason to be suspected of criminal activity can be monitored by the government. The Patriot Act exemplifies how the government employs fear in order to gain access to private conversations that could be used as evidence. Prior to the attacks, “Some of these measures had been opposed by members of Congress as infringing on the rights of Americans. But 9/11 swept away all these objections” (“CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION …”). Without this act of terror, Americans did not have enough fear instilled in them to cloud their minds. By prioritizing security, basic human rights, such as privacy, have been ignored. This exploitation of fear in order to gain control of the people is showcased in Orwell’s 1984. Orwell wrote this novel in 1949 during the Cold War. During this time period, Americans were …show more content…
During Winston’s interrogation, the narrator says, “He confessed that he had murdered his wife, although he knew, and his questioners must have known, that his wife was still alive” (Orwell 242). The telescreen is always watching Winston, which gives them the ability to know what he has and has not done. This not only infringes on his right to privacy, but it also shows how they illegally detained and obtained a false confession from Winston despite knowing that he did not kill his wife. The dismissal of the telescreen surveillance proves that the government’s control of security gives them the capability of taking away citizens rights. When Winston commits thoughtcrime in Mr.Charrington’s store by reading a book by The Party’s enemy, Goldstein, he is arrested because Mr. Charrington caught him doing so by secretly putting a telescreen in the room without Winston’s knowledge (Orwell 221-224). Even though Winston did commit a crime that could deem him as a traitor to The Party, Mr. Charrington’s surveillance of him invaded his privacy and this evidence should not be permissible for his detainment because it was obtained illegally. Similar to this, In America, the government can see internet and other technology history to get evidence of any criminal action. An example of this is when American Sixteen-year-old Ashton
Fear played the most crucial role in George Orwell’s novel 1984. In George Orwell’s 1984 scaring people was the most exercised and effective method that the party used to be able keep people under their control, keep them always obedient by warning them continuously that they were being watched and will be punished if they show any sign of rebel by their action or even by thinking of it. It is fear that worked as a dominating element to dictate the society and was the most exercised tool that the party used to manipulate the citizens of Oceania.
He purchased a small journal from a shop and began to write in it out of view of the telescreen in his house, which allows anything in front of it to potentially be seen or heard. At first he had some difficulties as he could only manage to write jumbles of some of his memories, but then he began to write things like “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER (Orwell, page 18).” He later had an encounter with one of his fellow coworkers, O’Brien, which got him thinking that there might be others out in the world who see things the way he does, including O’Brien himself. Winston eventually decides that his diary will become a sort of letter to O’Brien, and to a future or past where things might have been different. In these diary entries he wrote things such as, “To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone—to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone…(Orwell, page 28).” This refers to how citizens think and act the same and previous events are not written as they happened, but altered to Big Brother’s benefit. He also wrote, “Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death (Orwell, page 28).” This can be further explained by Winston’s previous thought, “The consequences of every act are included in the act itself (Orwell, page 28).” Winston
In 1984 George Orwell describes how no matter where you go in Oceania there is
The aftereffects of the September 11, 2001 attacks led to Congress passing sweeping legislation to improve the United States’ counterterrorism efforts. An example of a policy passed was Domestic Surveillance, which is the act of the government spying on citizens. This is an important issue because many people believe that Domestic Surveillance is unconstitutional and an invasion of privacy, while others believe that the government should do whatever is possible in order to keep the citizens safe. One act of Domestic Surveillance, the tracking of our phone calls, is constitutional because it helps fight terrorism, warns us against potential threats, and gives US citizens a feeling of security.
O’Brien tortures Winston due to his acts of thoughtcrime, Winston is told that the Party will be satisfied with nothing less than Winston completely giving in. O’Brien explains, “We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us; so long as he resists us we never destroy him” (210). Winston is tortured for the goal of eradicating the cause of Winston’s fight, to consider himself happy and free. O’Brien wants to destroy any possibility of Winston becoming a martyr for his cause. The use of the telescreens, microphones, and all other sources of the government spying on its people ensures a lack of freedom: “Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed- no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull” (26). The members of this society are monitored at all times for the sole purpose of government control, with constant monitoring they are able to discover the most they can about individuals and later use it against them to gain an upper hand in controlling any possible uprising. Fear is used as another tactic to gain control. Winston is aware of the fact that “More
Since the terrorist attacks at Sept. 11, 2001, the surveillance issue often has turned away the table in the debate of individual privacy or counterterrorism. By passing the Patriot Act, Congress gave President Bush an immense law enforcement authority to boost U.S's counterterrorism, and the President used his enlarged powers to forward specific programs in order to reduce the threat of terrorism and defend the country’s safety.
George Orwell’s Famous book 1984 is about a man who struggles to live under the superintendence of Big Brother. Throughout the novel, Winston struggles with constantly being surveilled and the lack of freedom. Similarly, in our world today, there are government agencies that have the power to listen to phone calls, track people's movements, and watch them through cameras. Winston’s world of surveillance and inadequate confidentiality both privately and publicly is in many aspects much the same as in our world today and the people should demand regulations to be set in place to protect their privacy.
Imagine being watched by your own government every single second of the day with not even the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and all the above to yourself. George Orwell’s 1984 is based on a totalitarian government where the party has complete access over the citizens thoughts to the point where anything they think they can access it, and control over the citizens actions, in a sense that they cannot perform what they really want to or else Big Brother, which is the name of the government in the book 1984, will “take matters into their own hands.” No one acts the same when they are being watched, as they do when they are completely alone.
Domestic Surveillance Citizens feeling protected in their own nation is a crucial factor for the development and advancement of that nation. The United States’ government has been able to provide this service for a small tax and for the most part it is money well spent. Due to events leading up to the terrifying attacks on September 11, 2001 and following these attacks, the Unites States’ government has begun enacting certain laws and regulations that ensure the safety of its citizens. From the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 to the most recent National Security Agency scandal, the government has attempted and for the most part succeeded in keeping domestic safety under control. Making sure that the balance between obtaining enough intelligence to protect the safety of the nation and the preservation of basic human rights is not extremely skewed, Congress has set forth requisites in FISA which aim to balance the conflicting goals of privacy and security; but the timeline preceding this act has been anything but honorable for the United States government.
The Invasion of Privacy is also used to control people. Devices called Telescreens are setup everywhere for the use of your entertainment and the party’s. They are objects that not only allow you to watch them and hear them like a television but in return you yourself are watched and heard by the party. Other ways in which privacy is taken away is by the use of little sound devices called “Bugs.'; In one scene Winston and Julia are talking and Julia says, “I bet that picture’s got bugs behind it'; (Orwell 122)1. When she says this she is implying that the party is listening to everything they say and do. The final way the party invades privacy is by The Thought Police. The Thought Police are members of the party that control life through the telescreens and bugs. When you are caught by them for a crime you must then go to prison for as long as it takes to purify or make you sane enough to work for the party once again.
It show I brought her up in the right spirit anyway,” (Orwell, page 233). This therefore shows that Oceania’s Big Brother figure was influencing its youth to work against their own family, their blood, just for the sake of keeping false peace in an unforgiving nation. Another form of privacy violation that happened in Nineteen-Eighty-Four was between Winston and his love interest, Julia. In a later part of the novel, Julia and Winston are engaging in sexual intercourse. They consistently engage with one another hoping that Big Brother isn’t watching in someway as there is no telescreen in the room that they are in.
1984, a novel by George Orwell, represents a dystopian society in which the people of Oceania are surveilled by the government almost all the time and have no freedoms. Today, citizens of the United States and other countries are watched in a similar way. Though different technological and personal ways of keeping watch on society than 1984, today’s government is also able to monitor most aspects of the people’s life. 1984 might be a dystopian society, but today’s condition seems to be moving towards that controlling state, where the citizens are surveilled by the government at all times.
In this case, the government has to use severe actions to ensure they will never act in this way again. Winston Smith, is a minor member of the ruling Party and is aware of some of these extreme tactics. Since Winston is not completely brainwashed by the propaganda like all the other citizens, he hates Big Brother passionately. Winston is one of the only who realize that Big Brother is wiping individual identity and is forcing collective identity. He is “conscious of [his] own identity”(40-41) . Winston continues to hold onto the concept of an independent external reality by constantly referring to his own existence. Aware of being watched, Winston still writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”(21) in his diary. Winston believes whether he writes in his diary or not, it is all the same because the Thought Police will get him either way. Orwell uses this as a foreshadow for Winston's capture later on in the novel. Fed up with the Party, Winston seeks out a man named O’Brien, who he believes is a member of the ‘Brotherhood’, a group of anti-Party rebels. When Winston is arrested for thought crime by his landlord, Mr.Charrington, who is a member of the Thought Police. Big Brother takes Winston to a dark holding cell, to use their extreme torture strategy to erase any signs of personal identity. Winston's torturer is O’Brien, the man he thought to be apart of the brotherhood. Winston asks
Many citizens today are truly unaware of how much of their private lives are made public. With new technological advances, the modern democratic government can easily track and survey citizens without their knowledge. While the government depicted in 1984 may use gadgets such as telescreens and moderators such as the Thought Police, these ideas depicted can be seen today in the ever evolving democratic government known to be the "equivalent" of the people's voice. Orwell may have depicted a clearer insight into modern day surveillance than one may have imagined from this "fictional" novel. Furthermore, a totalitarianism based government is a dictatorship, in which the dictator is not limited by constitutional laws or further opposition.
Technology is used to show how a totalitarian government invades the citizens right of freedom. Orwell describes how the citizens of Oceania are completely restricted as a result of telescreens: “ The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it … There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.