1984 Present Day Analysis

There are different aspects throughout 1984 that we, in present day, share with the made up world of Oceania, making our world seem more and more like a dystopia every day. In 1984, George Orwell creates a tragic society in which the government has gained complete control over their citizens by gaslighting and manipulating them. Although present day civilization is not currently at the stage that is shown in the book, it is starting to show symptoms that Oceania contains, such as thought control, invasion of personal privacy, and the ignorance and conformity of the greater population.
The first notable grasp that the Party has on its inhabitants is thought control. As a group of people who have been given free thought, present day people in

The first, most obvious sign of this are the telescreens in every room and microphones placed everywhere in order to listen and watch residents’ every move. Although the U.S.’s observation is not as extreme or noticeable, it still holds the same basic concept: observation of the general public in order to be informed of things happening in the country at all times. It is not a secret either, there are signs or noticeable cameras in every public establishment that normalize the constant surveillance to the point where no one has a problem being watched anymore. In 1984, the telescreens and microphones were used to keep Party members in check and making sure nothing suspicious was happening; if something suspicious was happening, the telescreens aided the Party in capturing and vaporizing those responsible. This is partially the purpose of security cameras with built in microphones: to supervise public areas in order to ensure laws are not being broken. The difference between the two scenarios is that real-time’s version of surveillance has not reached private residencies as they do in 1984—although there are some people that pay to have their property secured, it is not mandatory. Adding along to the topic of surveillance, there is a type of vigilance in almost all buildings across America. All businesses, schools, and corporations have security cameras or security guards that look after the buildings/rooms all day, leaving no public building left unattended. In some cases, there have been cameras added to telephone poles to keep the streets watched as well. If there are not street cameras it is most likely that the neighborhood has a neighborhood watch program started, which in a way is worse because they essentially have people spying on each other in the name of keeping their city protected. These ploys are implemented by the Party with the telescreen