1984 & it’s Presence in the Modern World

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1948 was quite a terminal year for the strained relation of America and the U.S.S.R. The Berlin airlift was in full-course and the Soviet Union was trying their hardest to obstruct the foreign aid. Tensions were high, and many people the world over felt that war was imminent. 1984 jumps 36 years in the future and proclaims that the world is divided into three super-nations. So large that one nation cannot topple another. In a constant state of war. Never at peace because dictatorships cannot exist during times of peace. We can observe some aspects of 1984 today in fact. Internet surveillance being the most obvious. Many people are worried that the NSA, National Surveillance Agency, is just a way the government can keep a watchful eye on its citizens. Much like the thought police of 1984 monitor the citizens through the one way telescreen. One recently brought to light issue of the NSA is the warrantless searches on American communications via a loophole in surveillance laws. This loophole allowed the NSA to perform searches on Americans’ phone calls and emails and whatever else they could get their hands on. The NSA programs that used this loophole are Prism and Upstream. Prism being used to collect information from many tech companies, ranging from Apple to Yahoo and everything in between. In another move reminiscent of 1984 was president Barack Obama’s defense of this broad surveillance in June of last year.1 However, it;s not just American spy agencies doing surveillance on citizens. According to recently leaked documents say that the GCHQ, a British spy agency, has tapped into fibre-optic cables and begun to share the information with their American counterparts,the NSA. The information being shared ranges from recorded phone... ... middle of paper ... ...te that the world in 1984 did. The citizen still has enough power to make a difference if they want to. Works Cited AckArchive." A Campaign Promise Dies: Obama and Military Commissions. TruthOut, 09 Mar. 2010. Web. 02 Apr. 2014. MacAskill, Ewen, Julian Borger, Nick Hopkins, Nick Davies, and James Ball. "GCHQ Taps Fibre-optic Cables for Secret Access to World's Communications." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 22 June 2013. Web. 02 Apr. 2014. McCrum, Robert. "The Masterpiece That Killed George Orwell." The Observer. Guardian News and Media, 10 May 2009. Web. 31 Mar. 2014 Sherman, Spencer, and James Ball. "NSA Performed Warrantless Searches on Americans' Calls and Emails – Clapper." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 01 Apr. 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. Beale, Lewis. "We're Living '1984' Today." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

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