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Essay on The Surveillance Society
Why government surveillance is necessary
Essay on The Surveillance Society
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Surveillance and repression can be used in the most brutal and hostile situations against people in a society. Such used of surveillance and repression are what the totalitarian leadership of Big Brother stated against society in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. People living in this repressive society have to face surveillance and repression on a day to day basis. People are being watched at all times with no privacy, even in their own homes. Winston Smith one of the main characters in the novel, is going through such experiences of strict surveillance and repression in the novel. Smith, a 39 year old member of the society, working at the ministry of truth, is completely against Big Brother. Smith believes in the existence of a secret brotherhood who is plotting the takedown of Big Brother and he wants to join. However the party makes it almost impossible for society to revolt. Smith, manages to revolt significantly against the party by committing a variety of crimes. The crimes range from keeping a secret dairy where he writes how much hatred he has for Big Brother. The act of having an affair with Julia, which is prohibited by the party. Smith is married making his affair with Julia more dangerous if caught, unfortunately for Smith his marriage did not work due to the repression and surveillance both his wife and himself suffer from. Smith commits thought crime that is punished severely in society. Smith and Julia’s belief of the secret brotherhood leads them into trusting O’Brien, a high ranking member of the party. O’Brien however betrays them and gets them arrested by the thought police. In the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, surveillance and censorship play an important role by... ... middle of paper ... ... wanting to have a baby with Smith to make their relationship stronger family wise, she feels as if it was her duty to bring a new member to the party. The women in the novel were portrayed as baby making machines and nothing else. The women brought new members (kids) to the party, then as the years pass those own members that they brought are going to be the one’s turning them into the thought police. In today’s society if a women gives into sexual intimacy with another person it’s for love, but in the novel women had no right to deny any man since it was against the party. The party repress the whole population from living their lives as they wanted it to, they had no right to make their own decisions. By the party repressing society from finding and marrying their true love, they destroyed any sort of family connections and any type of sexual intimacy.
to their future criminal behavior, they commit the crime because they have been associated by
Imagine being watched by your own government every single second of the day with not even the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and all the above to yourself. George Orwell’s 1984 is based on a totalitarian government where the party has complete access over the citizens thoughts to the point where anything they think they can access it, and control over the citizens actions, in a sense that they cannot perform what they really want to or else Big Brother, which is the name of the government in the book 1984, will “take matters into their own hands.” No one acts the same when they are being watched, as they do when they are completely alone.
Totalitarian rulers often control the thoughts and beliefs of people as well. The citizens of the community are forbidden to question or explore things that are unknown to other citizens. By doing this, the government emphasizes that they know everything and have ...
This novel was set in the early 1900’s. During this time, the black people were oppressed by white people. They were abused and taken advantage of. Not only were the black people were oppressed but also women were oppressed. They had little freedom and were unable to be self-sufficient.
1984, a novel by George Orwell, represents a dystopian society in which the people of Oceania are surveilled by the government almost all the time and have no freedoms. Today, citizens of the United States and other countries are watched in a similar way. Though different technological and personal ways of keeping watch on society than 1984, today’s government is also able to monitor most aspects of the people’s life. 1984 might be a dystopian society, but today’s condition seems to be moving towards that controlling state, where the citizens are surveilled by the government at all times.
reflects upon the theme of the novel. As it highlights the fact that if people in the society
The book, 1984 by George Orwell, is about the external conflict between Winston Smith and Big Brother; and the internal conflict between the two ideas, democracy and totalitarianism. Orwell wrote the novel to show society what it could become if things kept getting worse: he sensed of the expansion of communism when he wrote the novel. The conflict between democracy and totalitarianism at the year of 1945 created two characters, Winston Smith and Big Brother, in orwell's mind. Big Brother is the embodiment of all the ideals of the totalitarian party. In contrast to Big Brother, Winston Smith keeps the idea of democracy emphasizes freedom, he has to hide his own thought because the Big Brother's party will punish him by death if the party finds it out. George orwell criticizes of Big Brother's society by describing it as a dark and a gloomy place. It warns that people might believe that everyone must become slaves to the government in order to have an orderly society, but at the expense of the freedom of the people.
This method of surveillance effectively curtails negative social behaviour by keeping the population under constant fear of being watched. The objective of this intense surveillance is to create a modern Panopticon, a prison designed by British architect Jeremy Bentham in the late 1700s. This prison featured a centralized guard tower surrounded by brightly lit cells. Due to the difference in the quality of light, the prisoners were not able to see the guard tower so, “not knowing if they are being watched, but having to assume that they are, the prisoners [adjusted] their behavior” (Jan Kietzmann 135). This method was adapted by many societies including soviet Russia where the people were so afraid of being spied upon that they would only meet their friends in public to avoid being suspected of private conspiracy (Enteen 209). As in communist Russia, the governing body’s manipulation of surveillance is in an effort to ensure that no citizens are doing, or thinking of doing anything contrary to the goals of the party. This omnipresent surveillance has been shown to cut down on crime, however this comes at the cost of the citizens’ freedom and spontaneity, turning vibrant humans into fearful
Totalitarianism describes a Political system where the sate holds all the authority over the society and controls all aspects of public as well as private life. So to do this they would need an organization to enforce anything they want. This is where secret police step in, the role of secret police is to do the dirty that the public doesn’t need to know about.
Totalitarianism is achieved when the citizens have surrendered their free will to the government; they must choose to obey the Party’s teachings. The government encourages this mindset through propaganda. Winston describes, “On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It is one of those pictures which are so contrived that eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran,” (5). In psychology, one of the motivators is the superego; our conscious that makes us behave according to expectations . If one feels that he is being observed, he will be much more likely to behave according to society 's standards. The poster is a constant reminder of this god-like figure watching over them. Any sane citizen would avoid punishment and the immense feelings of guilt by simply obeying Big
In the novel 1984, the characters are always being watched. They feel as if there is no benefit to being watched, especially when they get arrested for things they say. Technology is at the point where, “Who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell
The general perspective of the Soviet Union was that the country was a dictatorship, specifically, an oppressive, brutal, top-down autocracy that guided all aspects of life of its people. From grocery stores having set quantities of goods, only purchasable by ration card, to strict, set times of work and off-duty hours, to censored press, The Soviet Union was indeed a dictatorial state. However, the people of the Soviet Union did not simply fall into line with the established rules of society- They had diaries, they wrote down their opinions about the government or their job, they wrote detailed memoirs of their life within the USSR. The people of the Soviet Union had some freedom, and it was even codified in the Constitution of 1936. Yet, scholars and most people in general still widely accept the notion that the Soviet Union was a totalitarian dictatorship. The question then arises: Why did the Soviet people have freedom, otherwise known as sociological ‘agency,’ to denounce others or write down their views about society, if the country was perhaps one of the most totalitarian and dictatorial countries to exist in human history? By analyzing Totalitarianism as scholars perceive it, as well as the Soviet system, along with examples from the people of the USSR, one will be able to realize that totalitarianism set the rules for society within the Soviet Union and provided its people with a distribution of power, which was used by those that understood the system and could act within the framework of the system.
Smith is best described as a tragic hero. 1984 presents an imaginary future world where a totalitarian
In modern history, there have been some governments, which have successfully, and others unsuccessfully carried out a totalitarian state. A totalitarian state is one in which a single ideology is existent and addresses all aspects of life and outlines means to attain the final goal, government is ran by a single mass party through which the people are mobilized to muster energy and support. In a totalitarian state, the party leadership maintains monopoly control over the governmental system, which includes the police, military,
Identity, in today’s society, is often taken for granted. We have the ability to be anything we wish to be and act in any way we wish to act, but in the novel 1984 by George Orwell, identity is not taken for granted because it does not exist at all. Winston Smith, the narrator, lives in a dystopian society based on the idea of totalitarian government rule. This government is known as Big Brother. In order for Big Brother to stay in power, a few things are necessary: identity cannot exist; everything and everyone must be uniform; the past must be controlled in order to regulate the present; and the people must constantly be practicing the ideas of Newspeak and Doublethink, a form of control the government holds over the people. By enforcing these simple laws and regulations, the government is able to keep a tight grip on its people, with few ever releasing themselves from its grasp. Winston Smith on the other hand, seeks to know the truth behind the government, he is constantly questioning everything and repressing all the ideas forced upon him. Winston “seeks truth and sanity, his only resources being the long denied and repressed processes of selfhood” (Feder 398). All identity is gone in this place called Oceania, and for the sake of Big Brother and its continuous control of the people, it will never exist again. In 1984, the absence of identity strips the people of all creativity and diversity, as well as takes away any chance the society has to advance as a people or in the area of technology.