MR

Interesting title, I know.

I'm having to write a research paper (due tomorrow) on comparisons between 1984 and contemporary culture (not necessarily the United States). One of the biggest comparisons between the novel and the world in which we live is the current state of domestic surveillance. Orwell makes reference to telescreens and Thought Police monitoring its citizenry and everyone knows that the Patriot Act gives the US latitude to conduct unauthorized wire taps and so forth. I've found some particularly juicy facts about Britain and domestic surveillance, but I was wondering if you conspiracy theorists and political masterminds (TNC, FF, ect.) could lend a hand in producing some relevant information about surveillance in the US.

Hey! You bastards, I'm on limited time. Quit thinking about Journey and more on helping your fellow man.

I live in a building where security knows the moment I go out my door into the hallway 'cause there's two cameras in the hallway. There's a camera in the lobby to see when I go to my mailbox and if I chose to go into the rec room to get a snack from the vending machine...well, that's another camera. Add to that the pictures I've seen of myself from camera phones and the photo flash I saw from someone taking a picture while I was walking to the drugstore. And, etc.,etc.

Well, I think that's too many damn cameras myself.

Red light cameras at traffic signals are a form of Big Brotherism that my kids particularly hate.

LOL (in a sarcastic manner) I just thought of another camera.

I couldn't even go to the top of a mountain to get away from it 'cause of the "eye in the sky" satellite that plenty of TV shows use to solve a crime or in spy shows. Can they really see such detail?

walkslikealady wrote:LOL (in a sarcastic manner) I just thought of another camera.

I couldn't even go to the top of a mountain to get away from it 'cause of the "eye in the sky" satellite that plenty of TV shows use to solve a crime or in spy shows. Can they really see such detail?

Look your house up on Google Earth ...

DrFU wrote:
Look your house up on Google Earth ...

i googled my house, it showed the photos and even the neighbors... it was awesome...
i googled my friends'... wow, i found them...

i googled my name, it even showed my age... now, i'm mad!!!

Orwell's 1984 is rife with parallels to today.
From Osama being the moden day incarnation of Emmaneul Goldstein, to the shifting targets of Eurasia/Eastasia being like Bush's own Afghanistan/Iraq switcheroo.
PBS's Frontline did a great documentary on our domestic surveillance programs (the breadth and depth of which remains largely unknown).
You might want to start there for a primer.
Should be called "Spying on the Home Front.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/

Also, PBS's Nova had a great piece called "The Spy Factory."
Which may be more current than the Frontline one.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spyfactory/

Start there.
If I think of anything more, I'll include it.

Thanks.

This paper was a real bitch and I'm going to have to go into school a little early tomorrow to finish up.

...everyone knows that the Patriot Act gives the US latitude to conduct unauthorized wire taps and so forth.

I don't know that everyone knows this, and I don't believe that absolute power is true. I think that if I were writing your paper, I might lean more toward philosophical debate of how to define it all than I would in '1984 vs today's realism'. I mean, you can spin this a number of ways. In fact, you could sow in a bit of Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World', and claim that being an Alpha, Beta, Gamma, or Delta is social Big Brother-ism. Controlling the social classes by worker bees, means that controlling wealth & politics. And does that type of control exist without surveillance?

Figure out how China has existed...and Russia too.

Define surveillance. Define control. Define the social classes, and then manage them by thought police, etc. Might even bring in a little Hollywood with a ref to Cruise's 'Minority Report'. Wasn't it all about arresting people before they commit crimes? And how did the authorities know a crime was committed???

Does 1984 really exist today? Or, did it exist long ago - in different flavours - and we've risen above it? A lot of people want to say that things today are worse than before. I disagree. Things are better...because of our sins of the past. Just ask Joe McCarthy.


later~

I bookended my paper with the conclusion that the differences far outweigh the similarities, and that we live in a relatively free society. Still, the similarities are there in contemporary culture.

Besides, it was the topic I was given.

Technology has created a modern day 1984. Most was /is used for good, but governments are using it for all kinds of reasons including revenue enhancement. I was glad to see Chicago revolt against parking meters. I can't wait for human chipping.