Examples Of 1984 Ideals In Today's Society

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1984 Ideals in Today's Society Reese Mulford Our Lady of Mercy Academy Honors Literature Mr. Spalding May 24, 2024 1984 Ideals in Today's Society Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts. If anyone were to ever question this, George Orwell’s novel, 1984, is the only proof needed. Orwell’s novel shows a dystopian society and the corruption that took over. It is led by the figure Big Brother, who is “always watching” through cameras that are constantly recording. The book mocks the Communist and Nazi ideals that were present during World War II. It serves as a warning to people of what could happen if these totalitarian ideas get out of hand. With Big Brother and his party enforcing things like Newspeak and the Thought police, it seems …show more content…

There are many real-life examples of when people should have realized that the power was getting to people's heads. Especially when United States Senator, Joseph McCarthy, was making claims that the communists were invading the government. Representing the state of Wisconsin, McCarthy served for a total of ten years. The primary thing he did was create an idea called McCarthyism. In the United States, the period of McCarthyism is also referred to as the “Second Red Scare.” The first Red Scare took place from 1917-1920 and U.S. citizens were in hysterics that the communists were going to take over. Well, history loves to repeat itself, so in the 1950s the second Red Scare occurred under the pseudonym of McCarthyism. Oxford Dictionary defines McCarthyism as, “an aggressive investigation during the 1950s against people in the US government and other institutions who were thought to be communists, in which many people lost their jobs.” Joe McCarthy gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia claiming that 205 communists infiltrated the state government. Of course, this sent everyone into a tizzy. The world at this time seemed to be taken over by communists, the Soviet Union had nuclear bombs and China fell under …show more content…

Opposing McCarthy was the calm and collected Joseph Welch. Welch soon proved to be a bit of a difficulty for McCarthy. In these hearings, McCarthy presented himself as a hot head, making cheap attacks desperate to win. Welch had strategically thought through rebuttals and attacks against McCarthy and Roy Cohn. This got under Joe McCarthy’s skin and ended up costing him the biggest mistake of his career. A previous agreement had been made between Welch, Cohn, and McCarthy. This agreement stated that Welch would not bring up how Cohn had escaped being drafted for the Korean War, despite being draft age. In exchange, Cohn and McCarthy would not bring up attorney Fred Fisher, who was part of a Communist group while at Harvard. Fisher was not part of Welch’s team any longer, but Welch did not want him brought up in these hearings. Mention of Fisher would ruin the young attorney's career, like many others’ careers had previously been. At this point in the hearing, McCarthy was getting impatient. Welch and his subdued demeanor vexed him. Welch and Cohn were having a typical argument when McCarthy butted in and blurted the name Fred Fisher. Bringing up on the record that Fisher had previous ties to communism,

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