1984 And Present Day In George Orwell's 1984
1984, a novel written by George Orwell, reflects on the totalitarian state of Oceania. The book displays the control, manipulation and mindset of the “party”, also known as the government. Many opinions have been suggested, about the similarities of the way the government rules in the book and present day. It is safe to say that the book does reflect some of present day issues and techniques, but it would be an exaggeration to say that the world nowadays has turned out to be like the totalitarian state outlined in 1984; Although events occurring in the present make us question whether we might end up in a 1984 picture. There are a lot of similarities to suggest that we should be worried, such as the government having access to most of everyone’s
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personal information, the act of spying, endless war, mass mind control by using propaganda press and manipulation of events, excessive power, and finally the idea of the hope of having a stable and worthy government lies in the hands of the common people. There are a lot of similarities to suggest that we should be worried.
1984 depicts the future. It was truly written in 1948 about how the world would be or could be like in 1984. In the novel, the government has spies to detect any kind of crime. The most frightening part of the act of spying and then telling the party about it, was done by trained children, who would rat out their parents, friends or anyone they saw commit a crime. Trained adults like O’Brien and Mr. Carrington, also were involved in spying on those who are suspicious and/or against the party. Winston portrays the children spies as little savages.
“With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy. Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it.”
The Party seeks to maintain power by separating and destroying a family/home, by making their children spies; they served as extra surveillance forces for the Party. Today, believe it or not, in extreme cases the US government uses their spies to interfere into civilian calls. They use wiretaps to listen in, on conversations as well as text messages, emails and any sort of communication through social media. The FBI and CIA have spies all over the world, who investigate and watch over those suspicious or those committing crimes. According to NBC news, “The Obama administration has been caught spying on the Verizon phone calls of tens of millions of Americans. The spying effort specifically targeted Americans living on U.S. soil. NBC News has learned that under the post-9/11 Patriot Act, the government has been collecting records on every phone call made in the U.S.”
Obvious to us, war is an ongoing issue that has caused more problems than it is “supposed” to be solving. In the book, war is used as a scapegoat for people to focus on one thing, rather than on the government’s deceptions, control, frauds, and evil. This shows how easy it is for the party to shift everyone thought and life into one certain event, while they hide behind war to continue on with their brainwashing, mind control and manipulation of the helpless people. In the quote from the novel, it is seen how the hate week, becomes the designated scapegoat to which all focus shifts to that, and people don’t notice the fact that the Party has just controlled them.
On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns – after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces – at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with East Asia. Eurasia was an ally.
Currently government’s (countries) use war as a distraction for the people, and manipulate them by making war seem like the best thing for their country, making them feel superior to those they are fighting against. War often hides the fact that the government has once again shifted the focus, off of important social matters to deal with fear and terror. For example, the US since WW1 have been in constant war, a distraction for hiding the truth behind other things such as environment, education crime, and illegal acts committed by the government itself. After WW1, came WW2, then the Cold War scaring people of a nuclear war (holocaust), then came war in Kuwait, and finally the ongoing war for years and years, the war on terror in the Middle East and North Africa, that started when George Bush, a American president invaded Iran and Afghanistan.
Governments today try and hind the truth behind certain events, situations or mind sets, techniques and ways of doing things. The government in the book and in my opinion today, use excessive power meaning that they could and can do anything that they want, although they say they can’t (present day). The party in 1984 can arrest people without a trial or questioning which believe it or not can be done today by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), who can detain a person without a trial. Similar to the novel, government can obtain any information from a person, organization, business etc. The authorities both in the book and in present day somehow scare people into doing what they wanted in the first place- using manipulation of stories, events and the truth. The government and the press use either real or fake stories/news in their favor by using them as propaganda to scare people into believing what they want them to believe, which eventually leads to the government having so much power over the people. The story that most shocked me was the where CNN, manipulated a picture to make it look more dangerous and heart breaking. (6 examples of Media of Manipulation, activistpost)
In 1984, the party, had made fear a day to day emotion. “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing.” The fear of having someone watching over you 24/7 with so much, power, it oppresses peoples thought, wanting to stand out and have a voice. Winston’s jobs consists of editing and rewriting historical records to fit the picture set by the party and their lies, as well as to support the INGSOC causes. This means altering facts, fabricating false information and then printing it as war propaganda. We are familiar with the way the Press controls and contains the flow of information in our society. Today, people use propaganda to tug on the emotion of the people, it affects their subconscious mind into falling for something they would not have originally fallen for or supported if the real, and two sided story was given to the individual. In 1984, the party uses slogans that confuse people into thinking, exactly what the authorities what the people to think. “From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the party: War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. (Enotes 1984 Power Quotes)
Winston, a member of government, realizes that the only way change will ever occur is if the regular members of the population, the proletariats, choose to revolt. The problem is these people live comfortable lives, are ignorant to the truth, and seem resistant to the idea of the government conspiracies, because they are too scared to face the fact that they are living in a world, of evil and lies.
If there was hope, it MUST lie in the proles, because only there in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated.
The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of coming together or even of identifying one another. (Enotes 1984 Power Quotes)
Today, we see the same concept, the future and hope of a peaceful, stable world, lies in the hand of the common people. The only way the world will avoid war, not be corrupt and actually care for the people, and to stop hiding behind lies and come out wit the truth; is if the common people, instead of laying down and getting hit with all the government throws at them they stand up for individual freedom, to have the right to say the truth no matter what, then maybe the future wouldn’t look as dark as it looks today.
As stated before, the government ways depicted in 1984 are very similar to those used to day. As we are living in the present day we can state as a fact the it is not as totalitarian as in the novel 1984, but it makes the reader think about the future and how things could end up being, if we, the common people don’t stand up for freedom of speech, privacy and individualism. George Orwell did an amazing job portraying the future, because believe it or not, today, we are closer than ever to being the way the world “was” in the novel,
1984.
personal information, the act of spying, endless war, mass mind control by using propaganda press and manipulation of events, excessive power, and finally the idea of the hope of having a stable and worthy government lies in the hands of the common people. There are a lot of similarities to suggest that we should be worried.
1984 depicts the future. It was truly written in 1948 about how the world would be or could be like in 1984. In the novel, the government has spies to detect any kind of crime. The most frightening part of the act of spying and then telling the party about it, was done by trained children, who would rat out their parents, friends or anyone they saw commit a crime. Trained adults like O’Brien and Mr. Carrington, also were involved in spying on those who are suspicious and/or against the party. Winston portrays the children spies as little savages.
“With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy. Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it.”
The Party seeks to maintain power by separating and destroying a family/home, by making their children spies; they served as extra surveillance forces for the Party. Today, believe it or not, in extreme cases the US government uses their spies to interfere into civilian calls. They use wiretaps to listen in, on conversations as well as text messages, emails and any sort of communication through social media. The FBI and CIA have spies all over the world, who investigate and watch over those suspicious or those committing crimes. According to NBC news, “The Obama administration has been caught spying on the Verizon phone calls of tens of millions of Americans. The spying effort specifically targeted Americans living on U.S. soil. NBC News has learned that under the post-9/11 Patriot Act, the government has been collecting records on every phone call made in the U.S.”
Obvious to us, war is an ongoing issue that has caused more problems than it is “supposed” to be solving. In the book, war is used as a scapegoat for people to focus on one thing, rather than on the government’s deceptions, control, frauds, and evil. This shows how easy it is for the party to shift everyone thought and life into one certain event, while they hide behind war to continue on with their brainwashing, mind control and manipulation of the helpless people. In the quote from the novel, it is seen how the hate week, becomes the designated scapegoat to which all focus shifts to that, and people don’t notice the fact that the Party has just controlled them.
On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns – after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces – at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with East Asia. Eurasia was an ally.
Currently government’s (countries) use war as a distraction for the people, and manipulate them by making war seem like the best thing for their country, making them feel superior to those they are fighting against. War often hides the fact that the government has once again shifted the focus, off of important social matters to deal with fear and terror. For example, the US since WW1 have been in constant war, a distraction for hiding the truth behind other things such as environment, education crime, and illegal acts committed by the government itself. After WW1, came WW2, then the Cold War scaring people of a nuclear war (holocaust), then came war in Kuwait, and finally the ongoing war for years and years, the war on terror in the Middle East and North Africa, that started when George Bush, a American president invaded Iran and Afghanistan.
Governments today try and hind the truth behind certain events, situations or mind sets, techniques and ways of doing things. The government in the book and in my opinion today, use excessive power meaning that they could and can do anything that they want, although they say they can’t (present day). The party in 1984 can arrest people without a trial or questioning which believe it or not can be done today by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), who can detain a person without a trial. Similar to the novel, government can obtain any information from a person, organization, business etc. The authorities both in the book and in present day somehow scare people into doing what they wanted in the first place- using manipulation of stories, events and the truth. The government and the press use either real or fake stories/news in their favor by using them as propaganda to scare people into believing what they want them to believe, which eventually leads to the government having so much power over the people. The story that most shocked me was the where CNN, manipulated a picture to make it look more dangerous and heart breaking. (6 examples of Media of Manipulation, activistpost)
In 1984, the party, had made fear a day to day emotion. “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing.” The fear of having someone watching over you 24/7 with so much, power, it oppresses peoples thought, wanting to stand out and have a voice. Winston’s jobs consists of editing and rewriting historical records to fit the picture set by the party and their lies, as well as to support the INGSOC causes. This means altering facts, fabricating false information and then printing it as war propaganda. We are familiar with the way the Press controls and contains the flow of information in our society. Today, people use propaganda to tug on the emotion of the people, it affects their subconscious mind into falling for something they would not have originally fallen for or supported if the real, and two sided story was given to the individual. In 1984, the party uses slogans that confuse people into thinking, exactly what the authorities what the people to think. “From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the party: War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. (Enotes 1984 Power Quotes)
Winston, a member of government, realizes that the only way change will ever occur is if the regular members of the population, the proletariats, choose to revolt. The problem is these people live comfortable lives, are ignorant to the truth, and seem resistant to the idea of the government conspiracies, because they are too scared to face the fact that they are living in a world, of evil and lies.
If there was hope, it MUST lie in the proles, because only there in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated.
The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of coming together or even of identifying one another. (Enotes 1984 Power Quotes)
Today, we see the same concept, the future and hope of a peaceful, stable world, lies in the hand of the common people. The only way the world will avoid war, not be corrupt and actually care for the people, and to stop hiding behind lies and come out wit the truth; is if the common people, instead of laying down and getting hit with all the government throws at them they stand up for individual freedom, to have the right to say the truth no matter what, then maybe the future wouldn’t look as dark as it looks today.
As stated before, the government ways depicted in 1984 are very similar to those used to day. As we are living in the present day we can state as a fact the it is not as totalitarian as in the novel 1984, but it makes the reader think about the future and how things could end up being, if we, the common people don’t stand up for freedom of speech, privacy and individualism. George Orwell did an amazing job portraying the future, because believe it or not, today, we are closer than ever to being the way the world “was” in the novel,
1984.