George Orwell's 1984: Everything Is Run By Big Brother

The novel 1984 takes place in a fictitious world where everything is run by Big Brother. Everything from what books you read to what you’re allowed to say is controlled by them. To think that everything in my life would be dictated to me by the government and that if I objected to any part of this, I would be vaporized and they would erase my life as if I never existed, is abhorrent to me.
I feel that 1984 is very relevant in the world today. As we see from Snowden’s revelations, the government does spy on people and listen to their phone calls without our consent. In the book there is something called a telescreen which is used as a TV as well as a tool to spy on people. This is similar to what the NSA does. The NSA has the cabability to wiretap anybody and can even keep a record of all the conversations. If a phone

conversation gets flagged as suspicious then all previous calls made on that line are pulled out of the archives and listened to for any threatening key words. If they find that there is a threat to the united States the persons involved get arrested and interrogated. The NSA also monitors peoples internet activity for the same reason.
In the world today, democratic countries, like the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany , such conditions as stated in 1984 could not exist. People in the aforementioned countries can express their own opinion without fear of repercussion. As it says in the book if a person were to speak out or protest against the The Party or Big Brother, he would be arrested and never heard from again. In the real world if you feel that you disagree with something a politician said you can get a permit to protest. It also says that they rationed food. In the real there is no such thing as rationing food.
In contrast to this, Russia, which is not a democratic country, one does not have the freedom to do as he pleases, which is similar to the circumstances in 1984. Big Brother controls everything, including what is written in the books, magazines, and newspapers. During the era of the Soviet Union the government controlled everything. The movies you went to were altered by the government before they were released to the public. We see on page 38 that Winston’s job was to alter -or as the ministry called it “rectify”- anything that Big Brother deems necessary. You couldn’t read books that the government didn’t okay. Similarly in Russia during the era of the cold war people who were deemed enemies of the state were not only killed but were removed from pictures as well. They were trying to alter the past just like they do in the book.
I think that some of the conditions mentioned in the book could possibly come to fruition, but not to such extreme cases that he writes about.

It says on page 51 that Syme, has a job of perfecting the dictionary called Newspeak. They wanted to cut the English language down to the bone. People should not use Oldspeak only Newspeak The aim of Newspeak is too narrow your range of thought. They think that if people don’t know how to think they won’t be able to rebel. In the Unites States, The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and therefore we cannot be limited in our thought or words. On the other hand we have our own version of Newspeak that limits what we think, by limiting what we say. It is called Political Correctness. As Americans we have the right to express what we are thinking, but PC sort of dictates what we are allowed to say. If something is offensive people can’t say it. Some people feel that PC is a censorship as well as a danger to our freedom of speech. For example a University in Illinois forbade the students from chanting “USA USA USA” at a football game because if there were any Muslims attending the game it would offend

them.
1984 is still relevant and popular today. There are ideas in the novel that are similar in concept to things that are happening today. Because of the far reaching hand of surveillance and the never ending breakthroughs in technology people are afraid that some of the unimaginable things may come true. .
The concept National Security was developed after World War ll. It means that in time of war, hunger, and nuclear threat the government and military have the right to waive the rights of the people if they see fit to. If they think that a certain person is a threat during times of national security the military can arrest him without warning or reason. They don’t have to read him the Miranda Rights or Provide him with an attorney if he wants one.

Facecrime: it was dangerous to let your thoughts wander in public or within range of a telescreen. If you looked suspicious by talking to yourself or had a nervous tic or did anything that was abnormal you get arrested. They are coming out with state-of-the art cameras these cameras will have the ability to detect a persons stimuli by reading body temperatures,heart rate and respiration. All signs of a person trying to commit acts of . The hope is to catch terrorist before they strike.