1984 Controlled
In a world controlled by a higher power, constantly
living in fear
of doing or saying something wrong. Any impure thoughts
may make you
"disappear". Constantly being watched, and observed
without knowing.
A telescreen watching every facial expression and
recording any
abnormal body language and movement every where you
go. Even in your
home there is no escape. Not able to get away or turn
off the power
of the Telescreen and "Big Brother". This seems frightening
but
unknowingly it is possible that we all are being watched
by the
government or a "Big Brother" of sorts and may not
even realize it.
Through the front of your cable TV box "Big Brother"
may be peering
into you room, receiving information about you through
their fiber
optic network. The wiring in your house may be being
used as a
listening device by the government to keep tabs on
your plans, lives
and business. Tapping of phone lines is easily done,
people listening
to your every word. Cameras and security devices are
found every
where you turn, under freeway underpasses to catch
you speeding, and
atop street lights to track your every move. Helicopters
that are
equipped with infrared and listening devices able
to hear a mouse
fart on the ground from 1000 ft up. Spy satellites
able to take
detailed photographs from space. The list is endless,
there could
easily be such a thing as "Big Brother" like in Orwell's
1984. And if
the right person wanted you to disappear they could
easily do so with
the technology available today. Technology has become
so advanced
that it could be possible to monitor your every move
twenty four
hours a day. My computer screen is recording everything
I do as I
write this and is sending the detailed information
through my
internet service provider straight to "Big Brother"!
One could become
very paranoid if they believed all this to be true.
Do you think we
will ever know for sure? Probably not.
Was there even such a thing as an
outside world apart from
Oceania? If you believed the government had fed you,
which you had no
choice in doing, they constantly lead you to believe
that there was. News of
wars with Eastasia/Eurasia would lead you to believe
there are other
lands outside of Oceania. There is public transportation
via "the tube"
but no means of Travel. This of course was not part
of being a outer
party member. No leisure time is allowed. And vacations
or travel outside
of Oceania would be of course be forbidden and unheard
of.
It may have been different
years before the revolution, but
there weren't many people left who's ideas were formed
before the
Revolution. "The older generation had mostly been
wiped out in the
great purges of the fifties and sixties, and the few
who survived had
long ago been terrified into complete intellectual
surrender."
(p.74) So, in reality, these conditions may only exist
in Oceania
and not the rest of the world. The only solid evidence
of an outside
existence or people are the Eastasia/Eurasia prisoners
bound in
chains and transported by truck through the streets
for all to see
heading for who knows where. Are these even prisoners
of war? Surely
no one would ever be able to talk to them without
being carted off
themselves. These people may not even be prisoners
of war at all,
just the members of the outer party or proles that
"disappear" every
day due to "thought crime" or are thought to be dangerous
and are
sent off to die at the hands of Big Brother.
Oceania could possibly be
a self contained country controlling
its people and feeding them lies, they would never
have any way of
knowing otherwise or any reason to think so. The rest
of the world
could be "free" and no one would be the wiser. Just
toys in a game
being played with and discarded at will being pushed
around and
controlled by a master hand from above. This reminds
me of an episode
of the "Twilight Zone" where a man wakes up to find
himself in a
world that looks familiar, and appears to be the same
as it has
always been, but everyone has disappeared. He cannot
find another
living soul. As it turns out, he is being kept by
an alien as a pet
and toy. His whole existence was under false understanding.
His world
was in actuality an outlet for someone else's amusement.
This in a
way shows the same type of a higher power of Big Brother
and the
country it controls, Oceania. The subjects or citizens
have no idea
of their true surroundings and is blinded of seeing
past the force
that controls their fate. As it is in our universe,
we may also be
subject to this type of "higher power" with out knowing.
No one may
ever know. The Universe is infinite, and the earth
may just be a
leftover cheerio in a box of uneaten cereal not yet
consumed by an
existing larger force.
The purpose of newspeak
by the Oceania government is to
simplify the language and unify thought in the public.
To unify their
way of thinking and speaking. If this is accomplished
there would be no
room for "Thought Crime" and every one would become
the model worker
/ citizen. As Syme said to Winston about the revision
of the Newspeak
Dictionary, "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak
is to
narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make
thoughtcrime
literally impossible, because there will be no words
in which to
express it". "How could you have a slogan like "Freedom
Is Slavery"
when the concept of freedom has been abolished"? (p.46)
They are
basically trying to take away the last form of freedom
that any outer
party member could poses, Their personal thoughts,
even if it was a
crime to "think". Simplification of words also takes
place in today's
society but not as drastic as Orwell's notion of Newspeak.
Peoples
use of slang for instance. Newspeak is a whole new
language being
forced into the society of Oceania obviously in an
attempt for Big
Brother to retain ultimate control over its people.
The conditioning process
of big brother strives for its party
members "purity of mind" extracting from them any
form of human
instinct or nature. If you were to have thoughts of
anything outside
the party or against Big Brother you would be "erased".
"Your worst
enemy is your own nervous system". In today's society
everyone would surely be
carted off to room 101 for having committed thoughtcrime.
It is in
our human nature to think evil, perverted, and disgusting
thoughts. The
telescreens could detect any form of body language
of someone that
would have a suspicious air to their movements or
facial expressions.
Body language plays
a big role in reflecting our thoughts in
society today, some of which could be misleading or
accidental, but
dangerous nonetheless. In today's world making eye
contact with the
wrong "homeboy" could result in obtaining a severely
kicked ass. In
Oceania, prolonged eye contact could be read by the
thought police as
having a underlying motive of conspiracy against the
party and Big
Brother, ultimately resulting in the same outcome
of having ones ass
severely kicked.
Governments throughout time
have always tried to obtain a stable
platform of control over their people. telling them
how to think or
what to do. Controlling them with propaganda, military
force, laws,
and war. That of course is what a government is set
up to do.
Sometimes abusing their power and ultimately destroying
their own
people and culture.
News programs are the most
evil and insidious way that our
society today has developed to control and fill the
blank minds of
americans with lies and hate. It's hard not to believe
something that
we've seen with our own eyes on the television screen,
but images, as
well as minds are easily manipulated. Video can be
cut in a way, not
showing you the whole picture. There is no way of
really finding out
the absolute truth about something unless you can
physically
experience it yourself. Someone's mother once said,
"you can't always
believe what you hear, or see on T.V."! I believe
this to be true.
The best way of gaining knowledge is through experience.
Through constant images of
death and destruction in magazines,
and on the news our senses have become numb. Nothing
is considered shocking anymore by today's standards. While walking through
the
Proles section, Winston casually kicked the severed
hand of a bomb
victim into the gutter. This obvious lack of emotion
undoubtedly caused by
the conditioning of Big Brother.
In the party there seemed
to be hope for the average thought
criminal like Winston and Julia that there was a rebellion
force
headed by the fabled Emmanuel Goldstein and that one
could possibly
gain entrance into this anti Ingsoc rebellion. . A
revolution
targeted at overthrowing Big Brother and its evil
ways. This as it
turned out was a complete fabrication by the inner
party aimed at
weeding out the thought criminals who would be of
no use to the
party. The power and thought behind such an organization
of Big
Brother has to be looked at as amazing. Every possible
angle of
deceit was looked into. There could not be any turn
against the set
ways of the party without being caught. Winston and
Julia realized
this, and it did not frighten them. They knew there
were others like
them among their peers, but no way of knowing for
sure. Winston would
have been more happy dead than living in this society
of Oceania.
How does one become
a prole, a inner, or outer party member? The
proles don't seem to have it half bad, that is if
you can avoid the
occasional "rocket bomb" dropping in on you. They
have no law, they
can drink, have as much sex as they can handle, party,
gamble,
allowed to have religion, and all with a minor risk
of being touched
at all by big brothers hand. Although members of the
thought police
walk among the Proles spreading false rumors and lies
to keep them
under control. As Winston said, "Proles and animals
are free". I
would think Winston would have led a far more satisfying
life being a
Prole than being in his current role as an outer party
member where
his only chance of escape would be in the form of
suicide. Where did
the Proles come from? Who decided who was to be recruited
into the
"party" and who would remain a Prole when the revolution
began?
Winston was separated from his family at a young age
before the
revolution. He was an orphan, and on his own. How
did he become a
outer party member? Did Big Brother take him from
the streets and
enlist him into the party way of life?
It seems that there
is so much separation between the party and
the Prole population. They stay clear of each other,
and do not inter
mingle. Winston says, "the power lies within the Proles"
in that if
they chose to form an uprising against Big Brother
they would have no
trouble at all considering they make up over 80% of
the
population. But the power of Big Brother is so great
that the Proles
would have no reason to do so because they are brainwashed
and
blinded to the things going on inside the party. They
were only
concerned with "heavy physical work, the care of home
and children,
petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer
and, above all,
gambling" They could care less about the party. As
Julia believed;
the rocket bombs came from the government of Oceania
in order to keep
the people frightened . This was a useful deterrent
to ensure that
the Proles would not rebel against the Party. Big
Brother had it all
sewn up. No chance for ever being overthrown.
The overall message
that I got from the book is that one should
always question authority, don't let the government
control your
lives, and strive for individuality. Simple things
are lost so
easily, as Winston realized as he found so much pleasure
in just
being alone with no telescreen peering at him, and
having his piece
of glass with coral in it reflecting an untouched
piece of history
that big brother had forgotten to alter. Love is gained
and lost so
easily, and venereal disease will always be a common
problem of
society.
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