English homework

Taylor 1

Imam 2

Elizabeth Taylor

Professor Zeenat

ENGL 2321

6 May 2021

What happens after 1984?

Introduction: Your portable microphone sits in your room, listening and waiting for voice activation. Your doorbell scans for movement at the front door and records who enters your home and who exits. Your phone tracks what apps you use, and what content you interact with. The sites you use ask you to accept the privacy policy, and they store your information. All this data is monitored by the government. Decades earlier, George Orwell had already foreseen a future in which there would be mass surveillance, and privacy would become something of the past. The novel, 1984, written by George Orwell, is a dystopian fiction that accurately prophesied a future with mass surveillance, resulting in convictions, reduction of freedoms, and loss of individuality. This novel is significant because it depicts what may occur in our modern society if surveillance continues to grow unchecked.

Plot Summary: The novel, 1984, written in 1948, takes place on Earth in the fictional year of 1984, exploring a world plagued by mass surveillance, propaganda, and constant war. The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, lives in Oceania, and his job includes changing history records to cast the Party in a favorable light. The Party governs Oceania, controlling the history, language, and citizens. Despite the Party’s propaganda, Winston can still recall a time when life was different, and he retains some of his individualism through an illegal diary. Winston starts a secret affair with Julia, a coworker of his, and they meet up above a store several times. However, Winston remains fearful that the Party will catch and punish him. Eventually, he meets with O’Brien, a high-ranking Party member, who tells Winston he is a part of the Brotherhood to take down the Party, and Winston accepts O’Brien’s invitation to join due to his hatred for the Party. A few days later, while Winston and Julia are in the room above the store, they discover there was a telescreen hidden behind the painting in the room. Julia and Winston are both taken to the Ministry of Love, a place where people are tortured and brainwashed to become ideal Party members. At this place, Winston is separated from Julia, and he discovers that O’Brien was a spy for the Party who only talked to Winston about the Brotherhood to catch him in betrayal. O’Brien wishes for Winston to join the Party of his own free will instead of killing him, but Winston resists. O’Brien then takes him to the dreaded room 101, where Winston is threatened with his greatest fear, and he begs that the torture be done to Julia instead. In the end, this is what O’Brien wished for as Winston has finally accepted the control of the Party, and Winston is freed.

Reason 1: The novel, 1984, depicts mass surveillance as a dangerous tool that can be misused to result in both a loss of privacy and convictions. In the novel, Winston and Julia would meet up in a room above a store in the poorer part of the town. They believed they would be safe there from the Party, but there was a secret telescreen hidden behind a painting in the room which they were not aware of. This breach of their privacy resulted in them being convicted of thoughtcrime, rebellious thoughts against the Party, and taken away. This relates to the real world because nowadays, smart devices around the home constantly collect data on people, and the police have been known to convict people based on what they find in these devices. In fact, “according to a transparency report from Nest Labs, Google’s smart home division that sells smart alarms, doorbells, thermostats, and cameras, governments have requested data from Nest on 300 occasions—affecting as many as 525 account holders—since 2015” (Bronshteyn 470). This is especially concerning because in the future, police departments may begin to depend on this technology for fighting crime. This novel shows how mass surveillance can cause people to be convicted for “crimes” because mass surveillance gives the government too much power.

Reason 2: In addition, 1984 shows how mass surveillance takes away vital freedoms, such as freedom of speech and assembly. In the novel, Winston must always remain cautious in what he says. In one instance when Winston is talking to a coworker, he must censor his thoughts so that he is not taken by the Party. However, his coworker, Syme, does not, so Winston believes he will be vaporized. Winston thinks in the novel about Syme, “He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. The Party doesn't like such people. One day he will disappear.” (Orwell 53). Winston has become so used to the Party’s totalitarian ways that he must watch what he says so that he can survive. Even though Winston does not agree with the Party’s ideologies, he cannot display his dissension in any way because this will result in his death. This aspect of 1984 is something that may have seemed ludicrous at the time, but around the world today, there are many countries in which freedom of speech is forbidden, and it can result in death. In addition, after 9/11 in the United States, the FBI started to monitor people taking part in peaceful protests. Reports show that “the bureau and local police organized preemptive, suppressive tactics to curtail public expressions of political activity” (Greenberg 40). This loss of freedom of speech and assembly has the negative effect of taking the country away from a democracy and more towards the totalitarian government Orwell imagined. With these parallels, 1984 shows what may happen to freedom of speech in America if mass surveillance continues to grow.

Reason 3: Lastly, 1984 shows how mass surveillance can lead to a loss of individualism in people. In the novel, there is a concept of “two minutes hate,” during which everyone is required to watch the screens promoting propaganda generated by the party. Winston observes how most people become frenzied in their hate for the rebellions against the Party, and he too must act patriotic for the Party so that the thought police do not take him away. Winston thinks to himself, “to dissemble your feelings, to control your face, to do what everyone else was doing, [is] an instinctive reaction” (Orwell 17). This thought demonstrates how the citizens of Oceania had to do what the Party expected, so much so that it became a second nature to them. Winston could still differentiate some parts of himself at this time, but by the end of the novel, he too had conformed to become an ideal member of the Party. Our individualism is what makes us who we are, and its loss would have detrimental effects on the development of society. The loss of individualism in 1984 is due to fear of authority, and it is conducted through mass surveillance.

Presenting the counterargument: However, some critics claim that mass surveillance is necessary to protect the National Security of the United States. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration began a new age of surveillance with the goal of identifying and eliminating threats before any harm can be conducted on the public. According to General Keith Alexander, the Director of the NSA, this monitoring has helped to prevent dozens of terrorist attacks, both domestically and abroad (Whitesides and Cornwell). In addition, Assistant commissioner Mark Rowley of the Metropolitan Police stated in 2017 that since June of 2013, the UK Security Services prevented 13 potential terror attacks ( BBC News). In other words, supporters of mass surveillance argue that the surveillance of phone calls and emails have helped prevent terrorist attacks. Some even assert that if a person has nothing to hide, then they have nothing to fear from surveillance. Similarly, in 1984, Winston is subject to surveillance, so he lives in such a way that does not make him out as a threat to the police. He thinks to himself, “You had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and . . . every moment scrutinized” (Orwell 3). This surveillance in the novel was successful in preventing any threats against the Party because rebels were taken away.

Refutation: It may be true that surveillance has helped to disrupt or prevent terrorist attacks from occurring. However, not only is this surveillance a breach of privacy, but it also comes at a high cost to taxpayers. According to a review on the spending of the U.S Department of Homeland Security, in the decade after 9/11, the spending increase was over 1 trillion dollars (Mueller and Stewart). Furthermore, analyses of this exponential spending increase show the increased expenditures are not cost-effective, and this funding could have been used for a number of other more beneficial programs (Mueller and Stewart). In addition, a major problem with the “I have nothing to hide” argument is that it regards every form of privacy as concealment although that may not be the case. According to Cofone, a faculty of law at McGill University, “Privacy can increase social welfare because disclosure of information that is relevant to decision-makers may also result in disclosing irrelevant information that an individual prefers to keep private” (88). Therefore, any gain of information by decision-makers results in a loss of privacy for people, and the information gained could be completely irrelevant. In short, mass surveillance is not cost effective enough to justify its widespread use, and research has shown that privacy, rather than surveillance, leads to greater social welfare.

Conclusion: 1984’s dystopia demonstrates a reality in which mass surveillance of citizens is conducted by the totalitarian government. As seen from 1984, if surveillance is not firmly regulated, it can have far-reaching effects on society. Firstly, mass surveillance can result in wrongful convictions due to the monitoring of information from trusted devices in people’s homes. In addition, mass surveillance takes away from democratic freedoms because people are compelled to remain vigilant in their words and actions as they know that everything they do is monitored. Lastly, mass surveillance may cause people to conform to what is expected of them because of their fear of authority, so individual expression is diminished. The fact that many parallels exist between our modern society and Orwell’s 1984 is unsettling to say the least. All in all, Orwell’s 1984 depicts mass surveillance as a dangerous tool that can be manipulated to serve the government’s purposes, and it serves as a warning for what may happen to our freedoms in modern society if mass surveillance continues to grow unchecked.

Works Cited

Bronshteyn, Gabriel. “Searching the Smart Home.” Stanford Law Review, vol. 72, no. 2, Feb. 2020, pp. 455–501. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=142348923&site=ehost-live. Accessed 23 April 2021.

Cofone, Ignacio N. “Nothing to Hide, but Something to Lose.” University of Toronto Law Journal, vol. 70, no. 1, Winter 2020, pp. 64–90. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3138/utlj.2018-0118. Accessed 21 April 2021.

Greenberg, Ivan. “The FBI and the Making of the Terrorist Threat.” Radical History Review, no. 111, Fall 2011, pp. 35–50. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1215/01636545-1268686. Accessed 24 April 2021.

Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. “Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security.” Homeland Security Affairs 7, Article 16 (August 2011). https://www.hsaj.org/articles/43. Accessed 26 April 2021.

Orwell, George. 1984. New American Library of Penguin Group Inc., 1961.

“Security Services 'Prevented 13 UK Terror Attacks since 2013'.” BBC News, BBC, 6 Mar. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/uk-39176110. Accessed 27 April 2021.

Whitesides, John, and Susan Cornwell. “NSA Director Says Surveillance Helped Stop 'Dozens' of Attacks.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 12 June 2013, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security/nsa-director-says-surveillance-helped-stop-dozens-of-attacks-idUSBRE95910O20130612. Accessed 26 April 2021.