Snowden Vs Orwell

I think there are a few ways in which aspects of Orwell’s novel can be correlated to the practices in Western democracies. The most obvious aspect that first comes to mind is that of surveillance. For instance, Orwell’s novel is based on how “Big Brother” constantly surveillances you and this relates to practices in Western democracies, such as the NSA and their data collection procedures brought forward by Edward Snowden. Thus, drawing a point of contrast for how Orwell’s totalitarian surveillance procedures relate to our Modern day concerns over the NSA’s surveillance procures. Therefore, both Orwell’s novel and today’s issues with NSA draw concerns over the idea of the government always watching over you. Another aspect of Orwell’s novel
that I think corresponds to practices in Western democracies is that of propaganda and or deceptive media. For example, in Orwell’s novel “Big Brother” controls everything that is being released to the public; which is done through the Ministry of Truth. On the other hand, you can see this corresponding to Western democracies as well with their use of propaganda and deceptive media. For example, I remember during the Wisconsin Act 10 protests, Fox Media was caught showing a clip of protestors fighting in Florida, and they presented it as if it was Wisconsin but nobody was fooled because you could see palms trees in the background. Thus, I think both of these examples demonstrated how there are ways in which aspects of Orwell’s novel can be correlated to the practices in Western democracies.