Big Brother is watching us and George Orwell quite accurately predicted the future. George Orwell was right on the mark in his predictions of what the world would be like in the future. He did have the exact year wrong, other than that he brilliantly foresaw that which the Earth would become. Most of what he said was hyperbole, but it still rings true. All the surveillance and monitoring we have today is just ignored and accepted, just as it was in Oceania. We are sensored and picked on and have no long term control over what happens to us.
Recently my school was plagued of talk of the video cameras that had just been installed in our school. Small purple spheres were placed down in the corridors, hallways, atrium and even outside. The students were not consulted. They were not surveyed. They weren’t even informed of the decision. We arrived and the cameras were there.
We are being observed every move we make. One of my friends was pulled out of class and accused by the vice-principal of being a drug dealer. With forces like those of the ministry of love (board of education) and the thought police (administration) people are being pestered, threatened and falsely accused of deeds that were done under their watchful eye.
As advances in technology are made in our society we are taking steps towards helping “Big Brother”. When someone steals a credit card, or has committed another crime, to find them police can check their credit card or bank uses and pinpoint their exact location. If they can do this to find a criminal, why can’t they do it to locate anyone else? No one is to say that we are not being monitored every step we take. Our credit cards and bank book are our little breadcrumb trail.
The internet is a tremendously vast resource. Millions of people are on-line everyday. They write e-mails, they visit web sites, even make their own homepages. When an e-mail is sent your IP address is attached to it, no matter what you do. People can attach themselves to your connection, so they see whatever you do, They can even track your connection and find out where you live.
In Oceana the government knew all this. The thought police could track you. They didn’t even have to be inconspicuous about it, though they often were. They had spies that would watch you. A simple old prole in a run down old antique shop meant the end of an outer party member. Mr. Charrington seemed to me old, lonely and kindhearted, but in the end proved to be a spy for the inner party and Big Brother.
One of the greatest foresights that George Orwell ever saw was telescreens. Images are broadcasts 24 hours a day and shape your mind to whatever the media chooses to have you believe. The media of today, like telescreens in 1984, can cause hate, fighting and controversy (i.e. abortion) or unite people of all nations and ages together.(i.e. the world morning for Princess Di.
The broadcasts in 1984 were blatantly dictating.. It’s obvious to anyone that reads the novel, but to a citizen of Oceana, telescreens would seem perfectly normal. Perhaps to an onlooker of 1998 the manipulation of the population by the media would be as flagrant as the fictional 1984’s transmissions. From commercials to the news and infotainment, we are under control of our televisions.
Miniature video cameras were found all through London and Oceana. When the novel was written in 1949 the microchip technology that exists today was virtually impossible to conceive, due to the lack of scientific developments that would lead to such discoveries. Above Mr. Charringtons shop was a tiny room, a picture on the wall concealed a tiny video camera that cataloged events in the room. Telescreens stared back as they were glared at themselves.
Big Brother could be watching today. We, as a society, seem not to know, or care. George Orwell was a futurist, novelist and generally, a brilliant man. If so many of his predictions came true, who is to say that others have not and we just don’t see it. Like the proles and outer party members, we are blind to what transpires in front of us. George Orwell saw the path the world was on with the development of radio and the early stages of television and saw the hideous future of the world. He wrote it all down in a book which was a preview of the world in the late 20th century. The only way to change this is to open our eyes and see what we can accomplish if we link together. The proles eyes never opened. We aren’t any better than them. Big Brother is watching. It’s a staring contest that’s a losing battle on our side.