1984 vs. Today

George Orwell created a dystopian future in his novel 1984. Winston Smith is an outer party member who works in the records department in the Ministry of Truth. His job is to rewrite the past so it is in accordance with the present. Winston is not like the others in Oceania. He secretly hates Big Brother and The Party. Winston has a love affair with another outer party member named Julia. Winston and Julia elope to a room above an old antique shop owned by Mr. Charrington. O’Brien, an inner party member, senses Winston’s discontent for the The Party and invites him to his home to become a part of “The Brotherhood” an underground organization with the intent of bringing down Big Brother. One day while Winston and Julia are in the room above the antique shop the “Thought Police” charge into the room and arrest Winston and Julia for being “thought criminals”. Winston is taken to the Ministry of Love to be interrogated. While there Winston discovers that O’Brien is actually a supporter of The Party and set Winston up. While in the Ministry of Love O’Brien explains he will make Winston “love Big Brother” which he eventually does. In the novel 1984 George Orwell correctly foresaw public surveillance, and people willingly giving up their right to privacy out of fear. Orwell incorrectly predicted the government trying to break the ties people have with their families and each other, and trying to abolish the act of sex.
Orwell imagined a system of public surveillance where people do not have privacy in public or in their own homes. In reality what the government is able to do is more sophisticated. In the case of U.S.A. v. Manuel Cuevas Perez circuit judge Wood said “They made the system that George Orwell depicted in his novel, 1984, seem clumsy and avoidable by comparison.” This quote says that the system of surveillance imagined by Orwell pales in comparison to what the government is capable of doing. What Orwell presented in his novel has not only come to pass, but has superseded his expectations. This is thanks to the invention of cell phones, GPS, the internet, and social networks. Although citizens can fight against this type of invasion of privacy they have largely taken it laying down.
George Orwell predicted that people will give up their personal freedoms, and right to privacy out of fear. He was correct with this assumption. In the article “The Patriot Act: Security Tool or Big Brother 2011” Luis Flores states “... those who believe that act “goes too far and poses a threat to civil liberties” has decreased from 39 percent in 2004 to 34 percent February 2011. This could be an indication of the populous accepting certain perceived realities of the modern age and, perhaps reluctantly, adapting to them by giving up liberties”. After 9/11 the U.S. passed the “Patriot Act”. At the time, people in the U.S. thought this was necessary and justified to keep national security. This was largely accepted out of fear and because the events of 9/11 were still fresh in Americans minds. In the novel people accept telescreens in their homes because they fear not only foreign dangers, but also Big Brother, and each other. People Oceania distrust each other and that is what the party wants.
In 1984 Orwell envisioned a world where people did not trust or think much of each other. This has not come to pass. While torturing Winston, O'Brien says “No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend... there will be no loyalty except, for loyalty for the party. There will no love, except the love for Big Brother.” Unlike what Orwell thought, people still generally value, trust, and care for each other. People have not been dehumanized and made to love or worship a figurehead more than others, like in the novel. People still value the family, they still love. The Party does not want this. They will go as far as to try to abolish primal human instinct and act.
Orwell thought that to have complete control governments would try to control one of the most primal acts humans do. Sex. Although religion has tried to control humans sexual instinct governments as a whole have not. Winston explains how the party has tried to suppress the sexual act “Sexual intercourse was to be looked at as a slightly disgusting minor operation... Junior Anti-Sex League which advocated celibacy for both sexes”. The U.S. government has stayed out of people's bedrooms. Although abstinence is taught in sexual education classes, safe sex is also taught. The government has not tried to abolish sex, but try to encourage safe sex with programs like Planned Parenthood.
Although George Orwell correctly foresaw government's spying on their citizens and the citizens accepting their governments watching and tracking them of fear for their own safety, people have still held onto their humanity. People have not been turned into desensitized beings that only care about themselves or worship some larger than life figurehead. People are still human.