Why Do We Have Power In 1984

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Introduction “Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.” – Buckminster Fuller According to Fuller, the homosapien species is doing what we are best at: gaining knowledge, technology, power for reasons we never should have. Humanity is surrounded by technology, from the devices we use daily like phones, computers, and TVs to those that hold power to destroy worlds like the atomic bomb. What's more, do we actually understand the extent of the control they have over us? We, as a society, have become accustomed to the addiction of technology being an everyday occurrence. From children as young as 5 to elders in their late 70s, phones, computers, TVs, and headphones are all household items. Our screen obsessed selves …show more content…

The government or Party is restrictive and controlling; watching people through telescreens, forcing the use of a new language called Newspeak in an attempt to prevent rebellion, and prohibiting free thought, intimacy, and any expression of individuality. An anonymous figure referred to as Big Brother is the leader of the party. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is irritated with the oppression and strict control of the party and so begins to rebel little by little, beginning with illegally purchasing a diary to write all his rebellious thoughts into. Winston is convinced one of the higher ups in the party, O’Brian, is a secret member of the rebellion group, Brotherhood, who plan to overthrow the party. Soon Winston starts an affair with his coworker, Julia and together they meet with O’Brian before they realise he was only pretending to be a part of the Brotherhood to make Winston commit an open act of rebellion. He is then tortured for months before being taken to room 101 where they use his fear of rats to finally make him comply. In the end Winston Smith completely loses feelings for Julia and gives in fully to the party, allowing himself to be manipulated into believing them no matter …show more content…

How technology can be used to control people and how control can lead to rebellion are both common themes in dystopian texts. Be it underlying or forefront, nearly every text in the genre contains these connections in some way. Yet despite all these warnings, we continue to allow technology to control our daily lives. While acts of rebellion aren’t completely necessary just yet, who knows how long it will be before we are in a predicament foreseen and warned, yet ignored all these years ago. While it's not to say burn all your technology and live off the grid, there are a few ways we can try to prevent these predictions from becoming reality. You could start by slightly lowering your screen time, or making decisions and ideas based on your own morals instead of those fed to you through technology and media. These texts could all be headed as warnings or just something to entertain, that is the consumers choice

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