Government Surveillance In George Orwell's 1984: Bogus Security

In George Orwell’s novel 1984 Big Brother controls the population of Oceania by way of numerous techniques. One of these approaches is surveillance monitoring everyone’s each and every move. This instills fear in the people in their everyday lives to carry out their moves and actions a particular way. In our society nowadays the surveillance described in 1984 is not as harsh and substantial but it does exist. In a way, we also monitor ourselves socially, producing certain not to behave in a way that portrays us in a way we don’t want. Massive Brother’s practices in 1984 are not completely equivalent to our government today, but you can locate some little underlying similarities in the foundations of our lives.

In 1984, surveillance is a key part of how Large Brother has a grip on the lives of the folks in Oceania. The citizens are constantly beneath the watch of the government. The monitor them in their homes, at their jobs, in the bathrooms anyplace they go, they are becoming watched. Massive Brother does this to make sure that the individuals are not undertaking something to go against the guidelines of the government. This fear of continuously being watched and knowing that if they act out they will be punished, forces the citizens of Oceania to reside their lives linear to the guidelines set in spot by the government.

There are diverse sorts of surveillance utilized by the government. Telescreens are the principal kind of surveillance in Oceania. These screens see and hear everything and are placed in houses, jobs, public areas, and other places “Any sound Winston created, above the level of a quite low whisper, would be picked up by it,” (Orwell four). There are also tiny microphones hidden in parts of the country in trees or other locations. If it is not sufficient to monitor people’s each and every move and each word, there are also Believed Police, that try to monitor men and women they assume to be thinking ill of the government and Huge Brother. Via monitoring the telescreens, they accuse individuals who act a particular way of becoming against Large Brother. They also use children as spies to listen to what their parents say and inform on them to the Believed Police if they speak in any ill manner against Big Brother or the government:

The Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any price they could plug into your wire whenever they wanted to (Orwell 5).

The government also monitors you at public events, such as the Two Minutes Hate. If you don’t attend such gatherings or show sufficient enthusiasm you are suspicious to the government of thoughtcrime. Thoughtcrime is pondering in ways you ought to not be, “Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death” (Orwell 30).

In our society we are not as heavily monitored as the people of Oceania are, but there are numerous techniques that our government monitors what we do. Due to advancements in technology, we have the internet, computers, smartphones, and gps amongst far more technologies. Our social media accounts, world wide web history, contact and text logs, and location using gps can very simply be accessed by the government. At any time the government can know who you’re speaking to and what you are speaking about and also know your precise place. Many individuals have a sense of safety and privacy, but there are a lot of way that the government has approaches to know what you are doing.

In 2013, a scandal broke out about the NSA, the National Security Agency. It was reported that they allegedly collected the phone records of millions of Americans. According to an post on BBC, the NSA tapped straight into the servers of Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and other internet organizations in order to monitor people’s accounts and track their on the internet communication. Former CIA agent, Edward Snowden, leaked this data to warn the folks about these invasions of privacy. With advancements in communication it is also easier for the government to monitor our communication. The government tries to justify the monitoring of our communication with laws like the Patriot Act, that offers the government access to telephone logs in order to avoid acts of terrorism. This access to our communication is misused, as observed in the NSA Scandal.

Though our government does not take surveillance to an intense like Big Brother does in George Orwell’s novel 1984, there are some notable similarities. In Oceania, the government makes use of telescreens and microphones to monitor every single citizen’s moves and words. Whilst our government uses a main technologies, the world wide web, which we use for entertainment, to monitor our conversations. We have a false sense of safety and privacy in our lives. Our residences are not monitored like the citizens of Oceania, but it is just as undesirable that the government can access our phone calls, texts, and social media accounts at any time they wish.