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Modern Day Government In 1984 By George Orwell

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In 1984 written by George Orwell, an overbearing government is displayed and directly correlates to many governments in the world today. Orwell explains ways INGSOC uses technology to invade the lives of citizens and justifies its actions. 1984 draws direct parallels with modern day government and the violation of personal privacy. Every modern day government has some way or another overstepped their rights into the personal lives of people and uses the most prominent thing in their lives, technology. The tyrannical government in 1984 uses technology to invade the privacy of all citizens and justifies its actions; this directly correlates with modern governments and their need for power over the people using technology. 1984 displays a society …show more content…

The citizens are slowly becoming trained by the government without even realizing. Technology is the easiest way to do this. It is everywhere and something every person comes in contact with. INGSOC uses telescreens to monitor the people at all times. They are in every single home and cannot be shut off. Orwell describes the telescreen by saying, “The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. 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.” (Orwell). This essentially makes it impossible for the citizens to have any privacy at all. They cannot say or do anything without fear of Big Brother knowing. This is how the government manipulates the people into becoming an ideal citizen, one who cannot think on their own. The only sort of freedom they have is their thoughts and even this is a crime which one can be arrested for. The goal of the government is to brainwash the people so they can have more power (Napolitano). INGSOC justifies everything they do by saying that it is for the safety of the people but in reality they …show more content…

Anything that is done today inevitably uses technology. There is no way to avoid it in the modern world. Modern day government in the United States today even oversteps their bounds of citizen’s rights to privacy. For as much freedom as people have in the U.S. the government still invades the privacy of citizens. Most of the time people do not even know that their personal privacy is being breached. For example, when anyone goes to the airport they are forced to go through security. The security in airports has evolved over time due to previous terrorist attacks. Today the question of whether the new security measures should actually be allowed or if it is an invasion of personal privacy (Regan). Even having a cell phone today becomes a way for government to invade privacy of everyday citizens (Case). At any time the cameras and microphones on phones could be monitored by the NSA (Pulliam-Moore). Everything that has ever been done on your phone can potentially be seen by the government. Nothing ever actually goes away since the internet has evolved (Ackerman, Spencer, and Sam Thielman). Anything ever tweeted, snapchatted, or messaged is still in existence today. Essentially there is no such thing as privacy anymore (Drehle). Glenn Greenwald talks about this in his Ted Talk “Why Privacy Matters”. He discusses the concept of how privacy is something to be sought after. The government has the ability to access some of the most

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