In Orwell's 1984, 'Big Brother' and 'the Party' are government of England. As such they are attempting to control all aspects of civilians lives, so far in that simply one's thinking could be a death sentence if exposed. Lives of 'outer party members', essentially middle class, were to be lived in worship of the government and the ways that were set forth by the upper class also known as the 'inner party'. In this era children were taught to spy; the little minions would even turn in their parents, if anything suspicious came to their attention. So in essence 'big brother' was not just one person, but all that allowed the mental flogging of deceitful information to take hold in their brains.
In our society today i believe 'big brother' exists, but in a different sense. No the government does not strictly control our every movement, but they can tap into our phone lines if there is reason to believe that treasonous behavior has or is taking place. Corruption in government is something we still see a lot of today, yet for some reason we accept it as more bearable, maybe because one political figure does not have as much influence as one did in Orwell's novel.
Aside from the obvious, we are all in a sense affected by another 'big brother'. We give up our right to privacy by using technology. Anything that we post online or send in a text message can be retrieved, whether it be of malicious intent or not. Once you hit send or post, that personal information or conversation is forever lingering in cyber space for anyone to stumble across and interpret in anyway they please. My apartment complex has a protection on their internet usage, that will quarantine your computer if malicious content is found on your laptop through their filtering system. They can go through your files and recent searches to see exactly what you were doing.
So do we still have privacy? Maybe, if we protect ourselves...
I agree with everything you said. Maybe the whole tapping into our phone lines in the movies I see do have some truth to it. Not that I think they do it all the time but it is something the government are capable of doing. I also think that technology has a big role when it comes to our privacy. People can find out so much information about someone else online. Do we still have privacy? Hard to exactly say. I say we have some but complete privacy. . .no. Oh and google maps anyone?
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is a matter of choice. The lifestyle we live today is because of the will of the common people. You're right. If we lived in a way that didn't require so much use of technology we would be better protected. It's just a shame because I think the best part of the internet, by far, is the new ability for people with like opinions seperated geographically can now commune and exchange ideas. It would be nice if the advancement of thought weren't so burdened by a suppression of basic rights.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that "Big Brother" in a way does exist in our society. I never thought of it in that way, with the technology, we sometimes do freely give up our privacy! In the fact that we post things about our lives also we freely put pictures on Facebook even though we know that Facebook has rights to share those photos. Maybe we need to be more careful of the amount of privacy and information we give out to people.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that it is up to us to keep our privacy. If we avoid the things that can be tracked, there is no way for the government to invaid our privacy. Also, if we do not put ourselves out there, there is no reason for the government to become interested. I feel as though people should be careful with the information they put on the internet if they are so concerned with their privacy.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that it is completely up to the individual to give up their privacy when it comes to social networking. I also feel as if though that the government does have a right to invade our privacy if we are doing something that is potentially harmful to our society. I do agree though that is completely up to us to control the things we put out there willingly.
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