In George Orwell s 1984, the entire book is about a time in Oceania when a group has

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1 Section 1. In, the entire book is about a time in Oceania when a group has taken complete control over the city (society, really). Big Brother and the party are the control. He is who everyone is expected to follow and do what Big Brother commands. This government is the most extreme realization imaginable of a government with absolute power. The Party has forced psychological stimuli upon the people of the city designed to manipulate them into not thinking of anything else except what the Party wants them to. All this manipulation starts at a young age with brainwashing children into being Spies. Not only is there psychological control but also physical control by constantly watching through their TV and other ways not to mention torture. The main character Winston, is always keeping his expressions to himself in order to keep from being executed, or vaporized, for something as simple as a facial twitch. Another form of control used is the people s memories and history. The Party has completely erased all history and rewrote rewritten it the way they wanted it to beconsistent with current party thinking. It is an everyday event to be rewriting the content of newspapers, books, and records. This way, even if there is a memory inside your head, there is no physical proof it ever existed. Also, since the Party controls the past and everything that has happened, they can justify themselves for what happens in the present. This is a social problem because of the amount of people it affects. Everyone is forced to believe in the same thing, forced to not believe anything. They are expected to be in a certain unconscious state of thinking. Know anybody like that? Whose areas of expertise seem to involve a couple of TV shows and the timing of sales in the mall stores? A social problem is an issue that multiple groups can t agree on, and in this story, if you don t agree you are killed. Well, social

2 problems often benefit a relative minority at the expense of the majority (but not always, for instance global warming, our use of oil does benefit a minority of the world s people, but in the long run we ll suffer as others if the predictions of scientists turn out to be true. This society has been manipulated to a point where they will believe anything the Party tells them, even if it is contradictory to what they have been told before. Doublethink, for example, is having two different ideas at the same time. This affects all of Oceania at this time. Consequences of this way of living and government are a complete governmental control over the population. The Party will continue to eliminate supposed traitors or the Brotherhood, who is a group trying to overthrow the Party. The Party benefits from this way of government by having complete power of the city. Their goal is to make the community zombies that will follow and believe everything said and done. If or when they reach that goal, it will be the most powerful form of control in a government. (careful about treating it as a non-fictional scenario) Not only does the Party manipulate by psychological, physical and historical means but also through media and advertisements. Language is of the most central importance to human thought because it structures and limits the ideas that individuals are capable of making. The Party is trying to take control of the language in order to alter the structure and make it impossible to think disobedient thoughts. The new language being formed is called Newspeak. Eventually, the people will not be able to create an idea or think anything that does not agree with the Party s beliefs. There are also signs and posters everywhere with the statement: BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. The TV in everyone s house is constantly advertising the successes of the Party. There are frequent reminders everywhere and at every time of the day of Big Brother and the Party. Who benefits? Who pays? How are the problems framed in a way that justifies the

3 government s actions? Section 2. Edward Denison The architectural photographer as terrorist. April 21, Open Democracy. Online at The fear of disobedience causes government officials to act in a way that is not civil. Simply taking a photo of a building, or making the wrong face and being caught, is enough reason to question, interrogate, and possibly torture or execute the unfortunate person that was doing a simple everyday action. Trying to control people in order to keep the world safe is understandable, however the techniques used or the attitude and actions used towards the supposed terrorist or traitor are questionable in both now and Orwell s Obviously 1984 describes a more extreme form, but similar situations are happening. Is governmental control becoming more manipulation rather than protection? Possibly, but maybe it is necessary. This article describes a simple act that was taken as a threat. In the book, Winston is afraid of even making a wrong expression in fear that it will be perceived as a reason to eliminate him from the world. Both are very similar in meaning and interpretation. David Kravets Courts, Congress shun addressing legality of warrantless eavesdropping. Jan 29, Wired. Online at In this article by Kravets, one of the stories was about an Arab-American who found a secret GPS tracking device underneath his car. Soon after removing it, the FBI came to his house

4 and asked for it back. Many of the stories in this article was were about secret spying on people Formatted: Font: Bold, Font color: Accent 1 done by the government. Webcam spying on students, full body imaging machines at airports, and installing GPS devices on vehicles without a warrant. Privacy is becoming a word that isn t respected. And the government s framing to justify this? This is similar to the government s control in 1984 with their cameras in each household and constant surveillance on every person s every move. Now, in 2010, we are becoming what George Orwell describes. People s privacy is being violated. All in order to protect us from terrorists or other dangerous people. Similar Formatted: Font: Bold, Font color: Accent 1 to the Brotherhood in the book. Some measures are necessary to take so that the general public can be protected, but there has to be a line between absolute control of people and taking steps to stop dangers. Sam Cage UN calls Guantanamo a U.S. torture camp. Feb 16, Associated Press. Online at Torture has been reported in Guantanamo similar to that done to Winston in order to get him to convert him to follow and believe Big Brother and The Party s ideas and beliefs. Torture is used by government so that they can reach their goals of overall power, like the Party. When asked to shut down Guantanamo, they refused because the prisoner s prisoners were being treated fairly (according to them?), and after all, they are dangerous terrorists. Had they been accused of crimes? In fact, a couple of international groups, one of them the Red Cross, estimated after being granted a brief visit that probably 80% of the detainees were innocent of any hostilities against the US, and had merely been the unfortunate victims of a dragnet conducted by bounty hunters in Afghanistan and paid for by the US Govt. As if simply being accused of a crime that the government considers wrong is enough to cause pain and torture someone. Good point. US

5 citizens are supposed to have a legal system where the suspect is innocent until proven guilty. However, in the book and as described in this article about the U.S. torture camp, pain and suffering is the consequence of rebellion. Overall, after reading the book 1984, my perspective of the way things work in the world today changed. There were many similarities that even though the book was more extreme, the same type of thing is happening today in our country. One big difference maybe being that Americans don t seem to mind some of the mechanisms of social control, and in fact kind of like them who wants to give up 3-4 hrs of TV/night, or checking your friend s tweets, facebook pages, hitting the mall, etc. Throw in the legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, and the forms of social control may distract people enough to keep them from paying attention, or even caring, about what things look like outside the matrix. After comparing the book to 2010, there are many social problems that our country has to deal with, and have possible created themselves. Some good insights and observations, though you didn t always address those questions cause, consequence, framing, etc. overall though, you got at some important points, and communicated them well.

6 pts possible pts Making your argument supported by sources, book Assessing multiple perspectives self-explanatory Analyzing language examples from book, articles Drawing conclusions what you ve learned