AOW#5:Are We Living '1984'?
First Response Post (Due Thursday, midnight)
A solid blog response includes a well-formed opinion that references the text and your own experiences. It shouldn’t repeat a previous comment BUT extend the thinking beyond what’s already posted.
· Grammar, spelling, and mechanics count
· Self-check your post for clarity of thought
· Keep in 3rd person
· Avoid repeating the same information
Select another student’s post and begin with whether or not you agree or disagree with their side. Extend the discussion with a new idea; don’t just repeat or summarize what the other person already posted.
Question - In the afterword, the commentator describes 1984 as a "warning." Indeed, throughout the text, Orwell plants both subtle and overt warnings to the reader. What do you think are some of the larger issues at hand here? How can we protect our society from the horrors of 1984?
I think some of the larger issues at hand in our day in age are government overreach, loss of regard for language, and mass conformity for “doubleplus ungood.” The amount that we allow the government into our lives, and the amount that we do not is unbelievable. Seemingly, anywhere we go, any call we receive, any purchase we make, and any text we send can be accessed by the government. It is all said to be for our protection, but at some point the individual needs to be able to stand up for themselves. To protect our society from the horrors of 1984, some of which we are experiencing currently, is by making sure people understand the importance of language and literature, as well as science, history, and culture. Stepping away from such a digital and self-centered society will encourage people to be themselves and to develop real relationship instead of artificial relationships made through texting, snapchat, or social media in general. Like Wilson thought, “[...] in the mind he had surrendered, but he had hoped to keep the inner heart inviolate” (280). The government cannot truly control your whole heart, if you are on guard.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say that we have to build real relationships with others in person. Talking to someone in real life is completely different over text - which is yet another things the government can monitor. But because our society is centered around social media, it would be hard to limit that.
DeleteI agree with you. We voluntarily give out our information the to world and barely attempt too conceal anything. This just gives the government free access to everyones everyday lives. I think we also need to be more educated with science and culture as you said to prevent 1984 from happening. We need to understand logical things like the laws of natures to prevent people filing our heads with lies.
DeleteI agree that we need to know the importance of language and literature. In the book 1984 these things were taken away from the people, forcing them to forget the past and believed everything the government tells them. They also were not able to think or say whatever they wanted, and for us that is one of our constitutional rights. To avoid the horrors of our society we need to protect that right with everything we have because if we don't we can easily start to turn into a society like 1984.
DeleteI completely agree that literature and language is very important to a society. In the book anything that required thought was ripped away from them, making it hard for them to think for themselves.
DeleteI agree with you that in order to have the most influence it would be through language and literature. The government does not have control over knowledge and with more people getting educated about 1984 the better we as a society can protect ourselves from this actually happening. I believe that this generation is capable of overthrowing the government if the government and soceity got to the exagerrated point of what Orwell predicts in 1984.
DeleteSome of the larger issues at hand are the lack of care for governmental spying on the people. Many people tend to disregard the fact that the government has tools and programs such as PRISM that can be used to collect data on the people at any given time. In the article “So Are We Living in 1984?” by Ian Crouch it becomes evident that people tend to have full faith in the government when it comes to maintaining the privacy of the people. However, as Crouch states “That seems like a safe operating assumption about emails, texts, or telephone calls even if a person is not saying anything interesting or controversial, and even if no one is actually monitoring our communication, the notion that one’s personal digital messages would remain inviolably private forever, or that they would not be saved or stored, as probably naïve,” (Crouch para 5). This is significant because the government does have access to data that people believe they don't have because big phone carrier companies such as Verizon do supply them with data and the NSA does have the capability to tap into people's private affairs via emails, text messages, social media accounts etc. Therefore the belief that the government is not keeping tabs on the people, reviewing their messages, or storing their conversations for a later use, is not plausible. People can protect society from the horrors of 1984 by becoming more self aware of what the government is capable of and understanding that everything can be monitored. Also people should not hold complete faith in government actions and understand that their reasons for spying could just be an alias for a more domineering action. Knowing and understanding these key details people should protect themselves from being possibly controlled by the government by any means possible.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree on the self awareness to the government. A lot of people are blind when it comes to government regulation and monitoring and can be very clueless when being watched. But I don't think that the it would lead to being controlled by the government. Unlike the totalitarian state that 1984 presents, we are a democracy built on the foundation of key principles and freedom.
DeleteI agree that the people need to always be conscious of the government’s actions so people’s privacy are not being interfered with. People should never believe that the government is always on the side of the people because they can easily lie about their intentions and actions to save themselves. If people will always be monitored by the government then our society might lean towards and totalitarian form of government because the government will monitor people for any kind of disloyal behavior.
DeleteThere are plenty of issues throughout the world that concur alongside the problems listed in 1984. As previously stated, government dominance is already a large issue by itself, but government accountability, transparency, and corruption extend this issue further. Other things like poverty, safety, and security of our well-being are also massive issues connected to the government. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years, it’s that the government is very corrupt - turning the blame from itself to someone or something else. Working in secrecy and lying to the public about certain topics makes them seem all the more suspicious since, “the leaders are aware of the fact that they themselves have only one aim, and that is power” (Orwell 321). The government controls just about everything, including the people. They have information about us that we might not have even displayed. So to protect ourselves from the ‘horrors of 1984’ we must sway away from the digital world at times. We have to do things for ourselves, think for ourselves, and educate ourselves instead of relying on technology all the time. This includes live interactions with other people.
ReplyDeleteI think you brought up a really good point about how the government is largely at fault for this. Their power and dominance can be seen as running too deep, but I do think there is more we can do to change besides just "swaying away" from technology at times. I don't think that will have much influence at all or change anything, nor will it help future generations in this issue. We need to think bigger.
DeleteI agree with you when you say in order to stay protected we need to stay away from social media at times because that is where a lot of the controlling of the government and lies occur. Nowadays, we rely so much on technology and media to educate us on things. If we do as little as learn something new everyday on our own without the help of social media, we could be one step further from the society Orwell warns us of.
DeleteI agree that we need to stay away from technology sometimes, because like you said we need to do things for ourselves. We don't always have to rely on technology. I think that if we at least follow this we won't recreate 1984.
DeleteI agree that we need to cut back on our use of technology, and we also need to think for ourselves. We shouldn’t have to be so dependent on technology, that is how our society can become like 1984.
DeleteI agree with how you said the government is always lying or hiding things from us, even if it is to protect us we should be allowed to the know the truth of whats going on behind closed doors. If they are spying on us and we, even if we are innocent people, having our privcy invaded; why don't we get to know whats going on and invade in the governments privacy.
DeleteI agree that the government has to be truthful with the people more because if they are not then the people with lose faith in the government. Technology can become the downfall of our society because it can make people less intellectual due to many people believing everything they see on the internet whether it is true or not. Our society is building itself on top of technology which opens many people to be vulnerable to government monitoring.
DeleteI agree with this statement completely, the government knows too much about us without us being educated on them at all. There is a large disconnect from technology and the real world, small breaks from technology at times is not a bad idea at all.
DeleteI agree that there is a great amount of corruption going on within the government. They say that they are helping us, aiding our citizens in need, and fighting the war on terror when in reality they just want control. With the assets that we have as a nation we could solve a grand majority of our issues but we would rather spend them on government funded projects or aiding political campaigns.
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ReplyDeleteI think that one of the big issues is how blind we are from our own actions. It has been proven that government is spying on us, that companies that we trust give them personal information, but we don't do anything about it. We continue to use the same pages where they take information from us, we don’t make any change. In order for us to not fall into the hands of something like 1984 is to put aside technology for a moment. We are capable of doing things without technology, we can talk to others without technology. We need to stop depending on technology like we do today or else we are going to turn out like 1984, Also we need to understand the importance of history and language. Because without words to express what we think and feel, we have abolished thought. It is not the same to express ourselves through words, than through emojis o shorter words. 1984 is possible to prevent, because we are the ones who decide if we want to live in 1984.
ReplyDeleteI mostly agree with you because I also think we need to recognize our actions and do something about the government having access to our lives. Although I don't think something close to 1984 is entirely possible to prevent because if everyone is not aware of the possible outcome then it could happen. We need to educated ourselves in literature and history as you said to make it not as likely.
DeleteI agree with you when you said it has been proven that the government spies on us because I believe the idea behind telemarketers tell it all. Everyday, my family gets dozens of calls from telemarketers, and everytime, my mom tell them to take us off their call list. For the amount of times she asks this of them, we still get a lot of calls. This is because companies sell our information to other companies, so nothing of ours personal information is ever private. In order to stop this, we have be careful where and who we give our information away to.
DeleteI also agree with you because we sometimes act oblivious as to what the government actually does. In order to prevent something like 1984 We should always question the actions of our government. We should not conform to the actions that the government officials always do.
DeleteI agree, because people has made it norm that we are being watched and no one really cares for it. The government has made it seem like, if you’re not doing any harm, then you’re not the target. Yet, harm or not, everyone is being watched. Even though technology has increasingly became better, it does not mean we are close to 1984. Technology is optional in our lives, and most choose to have it with us. You are not forced to purchase any device you have, unlike 1984.
DeleteI agree we completely disregard the fact that the government spies on us. We do little to nothing about lack of privacy the government gives us and we are better off not relying on the internet and our cellphones as a whole. I do think it will be hard to stop becoming dependent on the technology provided to us because we have grown so accustomed to it. Many would reject the idea of relying on it less simply because people are to lazy to do things the “old fashioned way”.
DeleteI agree that as a whole society we need to take a step back from technology, especially since not many people have a deep understanding for how much they are being watched. A 1984-like society is completely preventable as long as people maintain a desire to be informed. Like we are taught in the book, ignorance is strength, strength for the government to control the people.
DeleteA large issue that Orwell points out repeatedly is the corruption of language. Without language, we are not as intelligent because we have a limited language making thought not as clear. Without words that contradict the party, the citizens in 1984 could never think in a negative way about those who are in power. Then those that do, are punished because of thinking/saying so. We need to protect our freedom of speech to prevent the horrors of 1984 from taking place, because without it, we will not be able to stand up to people who make our society worse. Another big issue Orwell shows us is the power of technology. The telescreens would constantly watch over anyone whether they were innocent or not, making them never any have privacy. We cannot protect our society from this because it may already be happening since we do not know the full surveillance power of the government. Even though we haven’t accepted it like the citizens in 1984, there are surveillance cameras all around us, and tracking devices in our pockets recording our every move. There are already many similarities between 1984 and today, although we must protect the remaining differences by speaking up for we feel what is right. We must stay as individuals and not get brainwashed into one body of people who all think the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI agree because our freedom of speech is very important to all citizens. Like you stated before it is what helps us as a society and gets our voices heard when we need a change.
DeleteThe larger issues at hand from the book, 1984, becoming a reality are letting the government control the way you think. This is one of the larger issues because society has come such a long way with their vocabulary that people do not even believe the government controlling what they think is possible. According to Orwell, however, is it possible. In 1984, it was so easy for the government to change the way people think with a tool called doublethink. Another larger issue at hand is the possibility that the government could make it known they are watching over its people, like the use of telescreens, rather than trying to keep their snooping on the downlow. The society can be protected if they are smart with the information provided by the government and not allowing them to get away with everything.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that one of the biggest issues is that the government can make it known that they are watching us. I think that it has already started to happen through the media so people are becoming more aware of the situation.
DeleteI totally agree with you. We should broaden our language in order to prevent us form becoming totally oblivious. We should not always conform to put government we as citizens should always question it. In short we need to to be aware at all times of what is going around us.
DeleteI completely agree, it is so easy for the government to control the way people think, and it happens all the time. People are constantly being convinced through news headlines and other medias that might not always be 100% truthful, but have the purpose of swaying people’s opinion to one certain viewpoint. If people continue to be oblivious to when their opinions are being controlled, our society will eventually become 1984.
DeleteI agree the government does often control the way people think, and it’s crazy how often it actually happens. We all often just believe what we hear on the news or on social media, little do we know what we could be watching and reading are complete lies. Our society will become like 1984 if we remain this naive.
DeleteAmong the many, I think the issues we need to focus on in the book are what aspects of our lives we allow to be controlled by the government, as well as conformity in society. I think these issues go hand in hand, which is how why our society is being monitored so much and is okay with it, which if you look at it from an outside perspective, makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteWe allow ourselves to be monitored on a daily basis, from the locations on our phones and the ability to use the information we put on some websites, which is told in the terms and conditions we chose not to read. iPhones and specifically Snapchat are a great example of this. Both have become so popular, yet both come with risks and attributes that should be seen as invading, from Apple Pay, the need for a location to be put into your phone and the app, and so on. These things have become the norm, partially because of conformity and I think the issue is overlooked. This is why it is important to read 1984, because in the novel Winston faces the same thing, such as in the two-minutes of hate, but when he finally branches out and goes against norms, such as defying the Anti-Sex League when having sex with Julia, we are able to see how much his mind changes. I think by paying attention to these issues and trying to change our relation to them will help society tremendously in the future.
I do agree with what you have to say. It is a bit odd everywhere we go, our location is being tracked. But, people are not being forced to carry around cellphones, and have laptops and such. As you said, we do get a warning about it and yet we tend to avoid reading it due to the lengthy paragraphs. Everyone knows that we’re being watched, yet no one cares ‘cause it’s not doing harm. And, it has stopped future attacks from occuring. The people are aware of the situation, and as long as it doesn’t gets out of hand (like 1984), no harm is being done.
DeleteI believe the most important issues at hand definitely have to do with technology. In the book 1984 the main source of technology is a tele screen. Now-a-days this society still has tele screens, but they are more advanced and people also have other devices that people tend to keep on themselves at all times. Technology seems to be the biggest issue from the book to where today’s society is at, because people are not just watched through the tele screen as Orwell described, people are watched through computer cameras, iphones, and apple watches. To be honest I do not think we can protect our society from these horrors because they have already began and people are buying into them day after day.
ReplyDeleteI agree the use of new and better technology definitely plays a role of the government spying. It's been proven that big cell phone companies give away our information to the government so it is nearly impossible to believe that the use of new technology such as cellphones do not aid in government spying. We are too far in the technology advancing age to protect us from government spying due to the fact that people like to disregard the truth therefore continue succumb to government spying.
DeleteTelescreens are basically webcams and iPhone cameras nowadays. The government will always be watching and that is very scary to think about at times. Even though it is not as serious as the novel "1984" where you did if you do something wrong, it is still very scary that our privacy is being taken away.
DeleteThe things we should really pay attention is to how technology works. The problem is that there is little knowledge as to how surveillance and hacking works. This is a growing worrying topic because as Crounch states "The technological possibilities of surveillance and data collection collection and storage surely surpass what Orwell imagined". One should really question as to what is really happening behind the scenes of certain government actions. For example the leaked Pentagon papers no one knew what the government was doing behind the scenes. If one does not pay attention then something very horrible will happen and it might not have any remedies. Others might think “that we are far from the crushing, violent, single-party totalitarian regime of Orwell’s imagination”(Crounch 7). One would be coy as to think that the government does not do anything that would neglect their citizens lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it would be naive of someone to think that the government is doing everything right and there is nothing to worry about. However, I feel that it would also be naive of people to think that the public will always know everything the government is doing. It’s pretty obvious that most government information is classified and it has always been that way, so there usually isn’t a way for people to know what the government does behind the scenes.
DeleteI agree, I think that one of our biggest problems is that people do not truly understand the extent of what our government is doing. I think that if more people really understood what the government is doing, then we would be able to stop it. The more people you have, the stronger you are, and we need more people to understand what is going on in order to stop it.
DeleteI agree that we do need to watch out for how technology works and the impact it has on our lives, because it has a huge effect upon our actions. Also i agree that we do need to be more informed of what happens around us. If we have these things cleared we could stop ourselves from living in 1984.
DeleteI agree that technology is a big problem and we have to be more careful with how much we depend on it. If we take care of this variable then we won’t become anything like 1984.
DeleteI totally agree with you on how we need to watch how powerful technology gets. iPhones and tablets are taking over which is a good thing but also has some negative affects. People will start to shorten their words and vocabulary because they use it so much on their phones. This kind of relates to newspeak in "1984". The government is watching us and technology is a huge reason why they are watching us. We just need to be more aware of what is going on and everything will be fine.
DeleteI think one of the larger issues Orwell was trying to “warn” readers about is abuse of power by authorities. The article describes aspects of 1984: “the Police Patrol snoops in people’s windows, and Thought Police, with more insidious power, linger elsewhere” (Crouch 2). The 1984 police can relate to our police when it comes to the occasional cop taking advantage of their power, otherwise known as “bad cops.” If any US police snoops in people’s windows in today’s society, they would be abusing their power. However, in every field there are people who take advantage and don’t do their job right, it happens, but we shouldn’t let those select few ruin the reputation of all cops. This doesn’t make all cops bad, which is why our police are very different from 1984 police because ultimately, our police are here to protect us, as opposed to the 1984 police who have the wrong intentions. To protect our society from ever turning into 1984, we should always keep an eye out for every move the government makes and stay aware of the path our society is going down. As it says in the novel: “a ‘boot stamping on a human face--forever,’ is not the reality of our age” (Crouch 7). 1984 is not our age as of today, there is always the possibility it could be our future, which is why we must stay aware and alert.
ReplyDeleteOrwell had warned us about the technology at hand, and although we are being watched, the chance of becoming like 1984 is really rare. here are a few coincidences with 1984 and with the world today, but nothing as close as the book and how Orwell predicted the future: “In one of the more chilling passages in the novel, the evil Party hack O’Brien explains, ‘“We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about”’(Crouch 5) Unlike the book, the government does care about the actions people do, and the only reason why they started to watch through our devices is to stop terrorists attack, and other crime base attacks. It did started after 9/11, and in 1984, it started when Big Brother had taken over without real reason to watch their people. The people today are aware about being watched, and it can be stopped if the government tries pulling something illegal and unethical at their people.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I do not think that we will get to the point that the society of 1984 is at. We have much more freedom in deciding the extent of technology used in our everyday lives. Though, what the government is currently doing is already illegal and unethical, and yet we continue to let them do it. What I think that we need to do to stop the government from gaining unnecessary access to our personal information is to spread the word. I think that people know that the government watches them, but I do not believe that people truly understand the extent to what the government is doing. We need to make our society truly understand what the government is doing and the extent of what they are doing in order to put a stop to it.
DeleteI agree with you we should have a say if we should be watched even if it is for security purposes.
DeleteI think that the biggest issue at hand is technology and the extent of the role that we let it play in our lives. In 1984, the citizens do not really have a choice about whether or not they have a telescreen in their home. The government watches them constantly and there is nothing that they can do rather than to let it happen. We have the choice in our society, as to how much we involve technology in our lives. Our lives revolve around technology so much, that we do not care that the government spies on us, so long as we have our technology. This is mentality is what we need to change. We need to stop being okay with the government knowing every single aspect of our lives. We will need to sacrifice the amount of technology we use and what we use it for, but being safe and secure in our private matters is worth it. I do not think that we will get to the point that the society of 1984 is at, but if we do not change something soon, we will only continue to head down that path.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest issue is how little we care about the fact that our government is consistently watching us. Also a big problem is technology and the role it plays in our lives. While the society is 1984 is way worse and have eyes on them from the telescreens at all times and we are only watched from time to time through our phones or computers, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a problem. Our society has a choice, and most of us choose to be watched. The citizens in 1984 had no choice they had to be watched at all times, we say that that’s horrible but we ignore the fact that we are watched consistently as well. Our constant need to be on our phone and how dependent we are on technology needs to change. I don’t think that we will become like the society in 1984, but if something doesn’t change then I could be wrong.
ReplyDelete1984 warned us about how quickly technology can advance, and how it can be what ends the society we worked so hard for today. While I agree that we are being watched, the chances of our society becoming like 1984 is not likely. The government only started watching us because of 9/11 and terrorist attacks, while it doesn’t make the watching us right, it makes it understandable. They just don’t watch a repeat of one of the most tragic things to happen to this country, while watching all of us even the innocent without us being completely informed isn’t right, it’s understandable. In the book the government didn’t care about the people, they just wanted to control them. So our society is not going to be anything like the society in 1984.
ReplyDeleteThe larger issues at hand currently is the overall ruling power of the government and the way it claims they're are not trying to manipulate us. They obviously are watching and observing us but they claim for good reasons, such as to stop major crimes and to protect the people of the United States. A way to "protect" the people is by letting them be aware, promote the book and explain what Orwell was trying to say. By the other warnings and leaking of the government.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that the government really does have too much power. Besides the fact that it does keep a society in place, the amount of watching and manipulation they do is unconstitutional and morally wrong.
DeleteI think the larger issues at hand are letting the government have so much control like how big brother was in 1984. The only way of protecting our society and not letting that happen is getting educated about it so we do not allow it to happen to this society. I think the next genertion is very smart and has the power to over throw the government and make real and right changes. Another large issue is being dumbed down and being lied to by the government and to protect that from getting worse is to know when it is not okay for them to keep certain things from the people and we would demand our right to know since our privacy is being invaded as well.
ReplyDeleteOrwell does not want society to become a government run dictatorship over all of the people. He also does not want society to depend on technology because of the information that the government can obtain through it. Our society has to keep everyone educated about the potential harm that the government can cause if they decide to monitor people during their daily lives and never to fully trust what the government says. People in society have to work with each other in order to complete any hardship. Our society must keep the future generations from becoming less intelligent and open to government control.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Orwell is trying to show how much technology can play a role in our private lives. People need to understand what the government does to watch us and from there we can try to come up with some solution. The technology that is available in today's society gives the government much more power than it has had in previous years.
DeleteThe issues at hand find many ways to weave through our society. One of the bigger issues is the lack of empathy that our society and “1984” possesses, nobody cares until it involves them. If a homeless person is on the side of the road, 9/10 people would not do or say anything about it. It’s just the way our society has formed. Also, another way we learn is through people's mistakes. Winston does not have to be a genius to see that the people being hung did something “wrong”, when he sees that it makes him afraid. If the government can find a way to make our society afraid like in the novel “1984”, then this will happen. But, a way too never let this happen is to show our allegiance towards each other and to understand that numbers can make more of a difference than power.
ReplyDeleteOrwell highlights the issue of government control through the use of technology. In modern society, we are surrounded by different things that closely relate to what the government does in the book. It is a warning of letting the government have too much power over everyone and eliminating individuals in society. At this point, in order to protect ourselves we must be educated in the different processes that is being used to monitor us. Furthermore, we must expose the government to the people and make the truly understand the various ways that the government suppresses individuals.
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