Privacy In George Orwell's Dystopian Society

Privacy seems to be valued in today’s society. However, how private are people's’ lives really? Is Orwell’s dystopian society depicted in 1984 as far off as we think? Given the advances in technology, one can state that some of the events described in 1984 are happening in various modern societies. Due to heavy surveillance and the constant threat to individual thought, Orwell’s terrifying dystopia is not as far fetched as it seems.

It can be easy to be blinded by the severity of surveillance because it may not be seen as a major in this country, yet. Countries such as North Korea and China have taken extreme measures to keep tabs on their citizens. North Korea has been criticized for their high level of surveillance, but no one is one hundred

North Korean athletes were allowed to participate in this year's Olympics, however, their privacy was completely sacrificed. They were not allowed any time alone. They were even forced to only talk about how good their government was. A former North Korean police stated, “team members would be under 24-7 surveillance -- unable to go to the bathroom alone and informants would monitor who is talking to whom”(Hancocks). This represents the Orwellian idea of a telescreen in the sense that citizens are always being watched and have not even a slither of privacy. Citizens are deprived of any time alone to gather their thoughts. This causes emotional and mental trauma that negatively impacts the lives of the citizens in both 1984 and real life. Furthermore, a North Korean athlete said, “We were educated that we would be sent to South Korea not only to cheerlead but also to boast about our leader. We were told that we should

Governments that seek total control of their citizens rely on lack of individuality to push their standards. If all citizens comply and no one questions what is going on, then it is easy for these governments to take of large masses of people. This is demonstrated in 1984, with the proles, they were easily controlled by the Party because they either feared being eliminated or they simply did not care. Often, people comply to these standards for multiple reasons. These reasons may include fear or it might be easier to just comply than to fight a fight that could be lost and have catastrophic consequences. For example, China is planning on developing scores for each individual citizen. Their scores could be impacted by any debt they may have, their credit card history, their social media posts, and even their friend's and family’s social media posts. Therefore, if a family member posts something deemed inappropriate, they will risk being isolated because others will fear them affecting their score. Internet privacy experts argue that “What China is doing here is selectively breeding its population to select against the trait of critical, independent thinking” (Mitchell). People will be more willing to comply with whatever is socially acceptable because this way they will not have to face the consequences caused by holding different, “risky” opinions. This is extremely