Today's Society example essay topic

War is Peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. These are the beliefs that the citizens of Oceania, in the novel titled 1984, written by George Orwell, live by. In this novel, Oceania, one of the three remaining world super powers, is a totalitarian, a society headed by "Big Brother" and his regime, known as the ministries of Truth, Love, and Peace. A totalitarian government is defined as a government characterized by a political authority which exercises absolute and centralized control, and in which the state regulates every realm of life.

This is the type of world that the citizens of Oceania must live in, ruled by fear and under force every day. The names of the different ministries for example, are quite ironic because the are actually the exact opposite of what they profess to be, the Ministry of Love torturing members of the party and so on. Historically, no such type of totalitarian society has ever been actually achieved. In the past, even though fascist and communist states have risen up and tried to achieve such a world, there has never been enough technology or a means by which a government could truly regulate every aspect of life, and thus there has been failure in every attempt at creating a truly totalitarian society.

However, in this modern day, new technologies of every kind have made the possibility of such a society to arise a pending reality. Through things such as censorship of the media, new advances in spy technology, and the disintegration of the family in our world today, the world described by Orwell seems ever more a possibility. There are factors that exist in this book that pertain not only to the totalitarian regime of 1984, but apply directly to the democratic republic society in which United States citizens live today. To begin with, the ability of governments to censor media in the world today is a primary factor in the ability of a totalitarian regime to arise. In the society of Oceania, all of the citizens' thoughts and beliefs are fed to them directly from the government.

All of the information about production figures, current wars, and other current events all are filtered and approved by the government. The people do not hear or know anything that the government does not want them to know. In addition, the citizens of Oceania take what they hear as absolute truth, never questioning its validity. In example, regarding the state of war that Oceania is in, "Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with East asia. In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines". Although throughout the story, the conditions of these wars were constantly changing, it made no difference to the masses, and the current "truth" was all that mattered.

"Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia" (Orwell, pg 35). The truth is whatever the government wants it to be, and the people accept it at face value, a concept cleverly worded as "reality control". (Orwell, pg. 36) Likewise in today's society, even though the people live under the rule of a democratic republic in the U.S., a large portion of the news that we receive is distorted and filtered, many times the truth is not what it appears to be. Being a democracy does not stop that from happening. Furthermore, like the citizens of Oceania, we as citizens often accept the information that we receive from the media as absolute truth, not questioning what we hear, even though we have the privilege of doing so. In the totalitarian society of 1984, the government alters history constantly and changes it to fit the predictions and needs of the party, so that they always come out ahead.

The Party destroys any evidence that the past has been altered, and asserts absolute correctness and truth. One might argue that it would be impossible to get rid of all past evidence in today's world, because of the ability to store and recover information and data, and recover it again with the technology possessed today. However, one might also argue that because of the way that information is stored today, in example much of it on computers, the possibility of hackers that are able to change data, or viruses that can wipe out data completely, shows the reality of a world where data is altered and destroyed today. The censorship of the media and the novel has a strong connection to the censorship of the media today, and the enabling power it would give for a totalitarian society to rise up. One might wonder for example if the mild flu season this year was a result of the government's failure to secure flu vaccine. To continue, the modern advances in technology today make the possibility of a society in which every aspect of life is monitored a reality.

In Big Brother's society, every moment of every citizen's life is constantly under surveillance by the haunting presence of tele screens. "The instrument could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely" (Orwell, pg. 2). Thought police are constantly watching over the party members to make sure that no crime is ever committed against the party, not even the crime of thinking badly about the party, which is termed thought crime. Although it seems that having an all watchful eye over society like it is depicted in the novel may seem a little far fetched to some, the new advances in technology today, like satellites, advanced computers and micro cameras, make such a thing very achievable.

The television conferences held in offices across the globe demonstrate the ability to achieve the very thing that the tele screen depicted in the book. Advanced communication mechanisms like the telephone would enable the thought police to carry out their job more efficiently in today's society than ever. The only thing that holds the government back from doing such a thing in our world today is the voice of the people via elections in our democratic republic society. However, if the masses did not stand up to the government, and did not stay mindful towards the actions of the government, they might allow their power to slip away, permitting the government to easily take over and invade the lives of its citizens, setting up a system where they could be monitored constantly. Some may argue that such an event is already beginning to take place with the development of such laws as the Patriot Act, which takes away many rights to privacy for the good of the public as a whole. In sum, the technology we enjoy in our world today very much enhances the ability of such a totalitarian regime to arise.

Finally, a major reason that would give rise to a totalitarian government both in the setting of 1984, and the world today is the disintegration of the family. In the society of Big Brother, the family unit is something that the Party is literally trying to destroy. The party realizes the strength, love, and emotional support that can come from a strong family unit. Since the goal of the party is total love and devotion to Big Brother and to no one else, happy family life just cannot be tolerated or permitted to happen. The Party tries to do this by the creation of groups like "The Spies", which literally teaches young children to turn against their parents, and report them to the Thought Police if they suspect that their parents are not being loyal and strictly devoted to the party. Also, a major goal of The Party is to eradicate the sex instinct, something that allows for a husband and wife to become intimately bonded and strengthens their emotional bond.

The goal of the party is to turn sex into a degrading and hated act, performed solely for the purpose of creating more party members. "Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema" (Orwell, pg. 65). They want sex to only be seen as their "Duty to the party". Like wise, in today's society, the disintegration of the family can be seen all around the world, even in the United States, a democratic republic society. The sad point is that in the world of Oceania, the party is the reason for family units crumbling to the ground, but in the world of today, it is also the actions of the citizens that cause failing families, not the just government.

Increasing teen pregnancies, divorces and things of such all contribute to an ever weakening family unit, and the governmental strength that comes along with it. One might argue that they way sex is exploited in society today as to give it no value other than just pleasure and harmless fun, with no commitment necessary as devaluing sex even more than the Party members devalued it in Oceania. Although there do remain many strong family units throughout the world today, the increasing rate at which family units are disintegrating, democratic society or not, could aid in giving rise to a totalitarian power. In sum, the possibility of a totalitarian regime, like the one of Big Brother in 1984, seems more possible today than it ever has before. Many factors add to the possibility of such a thing happening, such as the censorship of media, new technology, and the disintegration of the family unit. These factors abound in every society today, regardless of being a democracy.

The United States in particular, regardless of being one of the strongest powers in the world and a democratic republic, is not immune to these problems that would give rise to a totalitarian government. In the end, to prevent a totalitarian government from arising, it all comes down to the voice of the people, and that they need to be strong, and not let the government take over the powers that are rightfully theirs

Bibliography

1) Orwell, George. 1984.
Harcourt Brace Javonovich, Inc., 1949.