Of Government Surveillance In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
Government Surveillance Imagine living in a society where citizens are always being watched. In their home, when they are walking around town, at school, everywhere. Imagine that the citizens are reminded of the lack of privacy continually. The government constantly watching and judging its citizens’ every move would cause them to lose their rights to privacy. Winston Smith, the protagonist in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, lives in a society where this kind of government surveillance is the norm. The government, formally known as the Party, is always watching its citizens for signs of rebellion. They watch the people through screens in their home that constantly listen and watch the entire country. This kind of invasion …show more content…
In the country of Oceania, the Party is constantly watching their citizens, mainly through television screens which are in citizens’ homes and public places. For the most part, they are to be kept on at all times so the Thought Police can watch them whenever they need to. On top of this, the Party spies on its citizens by the use of helicopters that look into people’s windows, by forcing their children to relay information about their parents to the Party, by reading through all of their mail, and by close monitoring of citizens emotions and facial expressions. The citizens cannot even think their own thoughts. If America began using government surveillance in its citizens’ homes, America would no longer be a free country. The cons of government surveillance outweigh the pros. George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four as a warning about the dangers of a totalitarian government, and the use of government surveillance was a theme presented throughout the whole novel. The citizens of Oceania had absolutely no privacy, and if the United States continues to use surveillance than it can lead to the same level of manipulation as the
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