Orwell fears a dictatorial state prohibits information (i.e. books) from reaching to public to keep it powerless. Whereas Huxley, writes of fearing that society will be amused by distractions, overwhelmed by loads of information and not realize that they are powerless. Postman’s foreword continues to show the correlation between his views and the possibilities of Huxley’s views. In Chapter 1 "The Medium is the Metaphor", Neil Postman (1985) writes about the decline from “ the Age of Typography" to ascended to the "Age of Television" (p.8).
Readers are often angered by the ending of 1984 because of Winston’s betrayal of his previous life for the acceptance of the party. This is a semi-appropriate ending because of the impossibility of going against the party because of their total control of all people’s lives through the use of fear, which had not been accomplished by any authoritarian regime before the rise of the party. The novel’s ending was semi-appropriate because it stresses a society where all people are equal, but on the contrary makes it so that people must give up all of their freedoms and have all of their aspects of life controlled to conform to the standards of the society. The party controls people’s lives off of three founding philosophies “war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. (Orwell 26) War is peace refers to the fact that if the party always frames another enemy to direct all hate towards.
People lose pieces of themselves, and sometimes, they don’t even know it. They lose the piece that makes them who they are, their humanity and this is all because of totalitarian social control, which obviously is dehumanizing. In Orewell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, it is seen that totalitarian social control is in fact, dehumanizing. There are some unanswered questions regarding these two novels, “Are these works warnings about the dehumanization effects of totalitarian social control?” It is believed that it is a warning. All forms of social control led to dehumanization in both 1984 and Brave New World, from monitoring telescreens, to the use of soma.
Justify through textual evidence. The dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell stresses on the totalitarian regime of Big Brother and the Inner Party. In Orwell’s novel, 1984, he warns us about the mind control of Big Brother and how the power of the government is continuously rising over the lives of citizens by spying and using fear to diminish their freedom and ‘rectifying’ the past. There are three sacred principles of ingsoc, these are newspeak, doublethink, and mutability of the past. One of the issues raised in 1984 is the idea that history is mutable or changeable, that truth is what the Party deems it to be, and that the truths found in history are the bases of the principles of the future.
1984 Compared to Individuality and Freedom While reading George Orwell’s disturbing novel 1984, there are many items that are able to be taken away from it. Some might see doublethink used today in each political party's talking points. Others might see the Patriot Act as a first stage towards a similar sort of government encroachment on privacy that was a part of Orwell's story. Obviously, when compared to some of the truly oppressive governments, this novel is clearly very similar to those situations. One of the novel’s lessons shows how the government managed to stay in power despite the terrible depression that the people were living in and lack of freedom that was given.
Mark Ohlms Ms. Ayers Contemporary Literature February 4, 2009 Privacy or Protection Imagine a world a world where your every action and thought is monitored and reprimanded when necessary. That is the situation that is faced by the characters in 1984, by George Orwell. Citizens of the nation are being watched by cameras in both private and public places to watch for the threat of a potential crime against other people and the government. Such a controlling supervision by the government is overdone in the novel but an intriguing idea if done correctly. Society would be a safer place if security cameras were placed in public areas to oversee peoples potentially illegal behavior.
In Winston’s society, signs are seen around the city in the form of double think. Some signs like “Big Brother is Watching You” controlled each citizen’s actions and thoughts. It isolates the citizens’ thoughts away from what is wrong and what is right in their society. It puts them in favor with the government and hatred upon the enemies even though the government is being immoral. So how do the propagandas do that?
However, there are also many ways to defend against them as well. In the book the Party may have controlled all the aspects of peoples lives, but nowadays we choose our government, and we can overthrow them as well if necessary. The Party did use torture machines to punish those who broke the rules. Those machines are considered a bad aspect of technology, and I would have to agree. That is just one way of many that technology could be used for evil.
George Orwell’s book 1984 written in 1949 is not only a great piece of literature, but it also serves as a warning to us. Orwell is warning us about the drastic effects science and technology can have on us if they get into power hungry hands. He wrote the book as a warning but it has become somewhat true in our society. Orwell warns us about the three vital things totalitarian government and our world uses to control people. The three things Big Brother’s government and our own government use are controlling people physically by watching them, controlling their emotions by redefining relationships and controlling them psychology by making them fearful.
Another limitation referring to the source could be the media becoming very hostile. They could portray the Prime Minister as a very weak and unworthy character which could affect his personal image, but also the image of the party they lead. 2b) With reference to the source, and your own knowledge, explain the Prime Minister’s prerogative powers (10). The prerogative powers that the Prime Minister enjoys are the extensive arbitrary powers that they enjoy. These powers were first exercised by the monarch but they are now exercised by the prime minister.