The Similarities Between 1984 And George Orwell

Every government around the world is slightly different, nevertheless they all have one of many concerns in common known as confidential information. The government around the world and the government described by George Orwell in 1984 are unquestionably similar in countless of ways. In both governments described there is classified information mysteriously held from the public. This secluded information is held from us on the grounds that the government believes, they are protecting us from something terribly disheartening or catastrophic.

Correspondingly, the government that George Orwell brings to the attention of the audience compared to our government, also has four branches in their government, they are known as the Ministries of Truth,

Love, Peace, and Plenty. As described by Orwell, the Ministry of Truth is responsible for academic, entertainment, fine arts and the news. By way of expectation, it is the government departments ultimate responsibility is to spread the rumors and popularity. The Ministry of Love is responsible for maintaining law and order; the Ministry of peace, as Orwell introduces doublespeak, is concerned with war; and the Ministry of Plenty is responsible for the economy (eNotes).
Similarly, our government has four branches as well.

These branches are individually in charge of very similar possessions compared to the description George Orwell gave about Big Brother. Our branches consist of the Legislative, Executive, Judicial branches and most importantly, us. The Legislative is well known as the congress; they make the laws. The Executive is known as the president, who runs the daily business of government; the Judicial branch, is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state, it also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes. As for the fourth branch, that one is us, the people. We are the ones that put every other branches’ rules into play. Without the people, our government would most likely fall

apart.
Given this, our government is not exactly perfect. They have an immense amount of intelligence and data to hide, such as the stuff they use our tax dollars for. John Maxwell Hamilton and Kevin Kosar believe, “These are just some recent examples of the executive branch using our tax dollars to shape our opinions”. This displays that Washington is using the taxpayers money to turn their assessments on the taxpayers themselves. They progress by saying, “America becomes less democratic when the $3 trillion executive branch uses its resources to tilt the debate in its favor”. As declared by Hamilton and Kosar, “We have a right to know which companies receive government contracts, how to collect insurance benefits and social security payments and what public school educational reform will look like.”
One of George Orwell’s descriptions about the government depicted in 1984 was when Winston was said to be in room 101.

“This room, introduced in the climax point in the novel, is the basement torture chamber in the Ministry of Love, in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia, with the object of breaking down their resistance” (eNotes). The way room 101 was introduced and the reasoning for the introduction was in the breaking of the law by physical and through thought. While Winston was in the room “His sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess…” (Orwell, page 306). He proceeded to confess to various reasons as to why he might have been called in to room 101. George Orwell recognized Winstons confessed reason , “...the assassination of eminent Party members, the distribution of seditious pamphlets, embezzlement of public funds, sale of military secrets, sabotage of every kind…” (Orwell, page 306). Among the long list of reasons, Winston confessed sale of military secrets was one of many. Justifying that the government in 1984 illustrated by George Orwell is no different than our very

own.
In addition to secrecy, both governments trust that they are doing the right thing in order to keep the people away from something that might turn into an unfortunate situation if released to the public. The government that surrounds us in reality, not only shields things from us, but they also control what we witness in the media. Many people have the same assumption as Glenn Halbrooks, “Media censorship takes many forms in the way you get your news”. This includes social media, paper media, and television. According to Order of Truth, “Any organisation that controls mainstream media has incredible power over what people do and how they perceive and think about the world they live in”. Articulating that everything we identify in multimedia are effective things that they want us to or “allow us” to look at.
George Orwell also discusses the way that Big Brother spies on everyone through their televisions and cameras, giving the people absolutely no privacy. As specified in the novel,“Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard” (Orwell, page 5). This brings one image and a few concerns to mind. The image, a room with a giant television screen containing a camera and recorder in order to detect and hear what Winston is doing and saying, in case he decides to break the law. The concerns are more worries; what if the government is actually able to spy and hear what we’re doing right now?
Not only does our government control what we think about everything, it also has a way of turning everyone’s thoughts against each other based on opinions they have helped create within every single person. Consequently, Zachary Sniderman states, “Governments are starting to take serious notice and incorporate social media into their own day-to-day actions”. Bringing this to the attention of the public, it is stating that the government has noticed how much all of media is being used; therefore, they are beginning to incorporate more of their personal opinions in ads, websites, and popular forms of search engines.
Likewise, in 1984, Winston found out that Parsons was imprisoned by the thought police for thoughtcrime. According to George Orwell, thoughtcrime is when someone from the community thinks about anything that is the opposite of what Big Brother wants them to (Orwell, page 241). The novel states that Parson was turned into the police by his daughter who overheard him speaking in his sleep. The words she heard him say were “ Down with Big Brother!”. Another example, in 1984 was when Winston was sent into room 101. While in the room O'Brian was explaining to Winston the reason as to why they called him in. After Winston replied with why he personally thought was the reason he was there by saying it was for punishment.
In reality, as well as in the novel, there are many who choose to rebel against the governments and their laws. In 1786, there were a series of protests by the name of Shay’s Rebellion led by American farmers who were against state and local enforcement of tax collection and judgements for debts. It is said that during Shay’s Rebellion the rebels tried to capture the federal arsenal at Springfield and harassed leading merchants, lawyers, and supporters of the state government (History.com). Not everyone agrees 100 percent with the government, frequently not even 50 percent agree. Those who do not agree go through extreme measures to be heard by their higher power, so that they can try to change the outcome of what has become of the government's decisions.
Almost everyone that was compelled to follow Big Brother’s laws had a reason. They all believed there was something wrong with those laws; therefore, they decided to do something about it. Winston was one of the first examples George Orwell introduced in the novel. Winston knew that buying a diary to write his thoughts in was against the rules. For Big Brother, having a diary fell under the category of thoughtcrime. According to Winston, “This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty five years in a forced-labour camp” (Orwell, page 9). Although it may not have been a law to not own a diary, Big Brother made it clear that anyone who owns one would be punished, maybe even by death. George Orwell states that there is no specific reason for Winston to be writing the diary other than for his own pleasure. Everyone forgets something every once in a while, but Winston wants to be able to go back into his diary and remember what happened, what he was thinking and why.