Several issues occur in a society that may be related to government actions. The government can take actions or steps that are unethical to the moral standards of society. For example, the novel “George Orwell 1984” discusses Orwell’s society in 1984. The novel discusses the political and social situation in the nation of Oceania. The protagonists in the novel are Julia, Winston, and O’Brien. The nation of Oceania has the ruling Party, often referred to in the text as ‘The Party’ or Big Brother. The opposing Party, which is more of a movement, is the Brotherhood. The two opposing parties have different perspectives, views, and political ideologies about ruling the citizens of Oceania. This novel is more of a vision of the political world that would happen several years after 1984. Orwell tried to warn the world of a totalitarian government and leadership in the novel by pointing out the unethical in society. Many situations or conditions in Orwell’s vision have come true- wholly or partly. Others are to become a reality soon. This paper’s primary purpose is to compare and contrast through analysis of the ethical concepts revealed in the society described in “1984” with our society today.
Comparison
Many ethical situations or conditions in Orwell’s vision have come true- wholly or partly. Others may become a reality soon. One of the ethical conditions in Orwell’s vision is the use of propaganda to control people and make them have specific political ideologies. According to Orwell in “1984,” the Party controls every source of information in the nation of Oceania. It manages and rewrites the content of all newspapers and histories for its benefit, to remain absolute, endless, and with limitless power. The Party does not allow individuals to keep records of their past. This also includes keeping diaries, photographs, or any documentation of activities because they will help them remember past occurrences. The resultant effects of such rules on individuals are devastating, whereby their memories become fuzzy and unreliable. Later on, citizens become willing to believe whatever the Party tells them. The Party can manipulate the past, thus controlling the present. In this case, the Party controls the past to justify its actions in the present. This situation in Orwell’s vision is unethical and has come true in American society. In the United States, political parties use news and television to spread fake news to American citizens. For example, Lyman (2021), in the Daily Caller, lists down eight kinds of fake news the former United States President Donald Trump told the public. According to Lyman (2021), these news were to sway the public to support the conservative political ideologies that Trump supported. Trump error was accused of spreading fake news about different events in the country to create fear and develop specific perceptions in public (Lyman, 2021). In this case, the Trump administration used this technique to persuade American citizens to view his political Party (The Republican Party) as the best Party for the nation. Media can pursue people’s opinions; if enough, it can change their minds entirely. This has become true to the current American society.
The second ethical issue in Orwell’s vision that has come partly true is the use of torture as a form of interrogation. Torture is unethical in any society because it deprives people of their rights. It is also done inhumanely, leading to severe psychological, emotional, and physical damage to the person being interrogated. For example, in the text, Winston undergoes several prolonged torture sessions, which O’Brien oversees. These kinds of torture include being left in a room that barely gets enough light. Winston is manipulated and forced to be loyal to the Party. O’Brien even forces Winston to look in the mirror, whereby Winston realizes that he has completely deteriorated. This implies that the torture Winston experienced was crucial and life-threatening until his health deteriorated. Later on, in Room 101, O’Brien uses rats to force Winston to change his love and feelings for Julia. This can be well seen when O’Brien uses Winston’s fear to change his perceptions about the Party finally. In Room 101, O’Brien straps Winston to a chair and clamps Winston’s head to prevent him from moving. He tells Winston that Room 101 contains “the worst thing in the world” (p.357). O’Brien reminds Winston of his worst nightmare (the dream of being in a dark place and something terrible on the other side of the wall). O’Brien picks up a cage full of enormous, squirming rats and places it near Winston. Winston fears rats. O’Brien says that when he presses a lever, the door will slide up, and the rats will leap into Winston’s face and eat it. Winston starts to scream and begs O’Brien to subject Julia to that torture. In this case, Winston finally gave up on Julia, a win for the Party. All these occurrences in the example above are unethical in society.
The use of torture as part of interrogation is a technique that has partly come true. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used these techniques during the cold war. They were inhumane and led to fatalities among the victims. However, the CIA still uses such interrogation techniques. According to The New York Times (2023) report, the CIA used different torture techniques on its prisoners after 9/11. The latest testimony from Dr. Crosby indicated that ” …at Guantanamo Bay in 2013, Nashiri confided that, years earlier, CIA personnel grabbed him from his cell, stripped him naked, shackled him at the wrists and ankles, bent him over a chair and administered the liquid” (New York Times, 2023). The CIA uses such techniques to ensure it gains the vital information it intends. This kind of torture of prisoners is similar to what was experienced in Orwell’s society.
Moreover, the third situation in Orwell’s vision that has come true in the current American society is controlling social behavior using unethical laws. The implementation of unethical laws to ensure that citizens conform to some impunity in society has been evident in Orwell’s vision, which can be seen in the current American society. An excellent example in the text is when O’Brien uses different unethical techniques to force Winston to believe in specific political ideologies. O’Brien tells Winston that the Party has perfected the techniques used by the Inquisition, the Nazis, and the Soviets. The Party has perfected how to eliminate its enemies without making martyrs of them. According to O’Brien, the Party converts its enemies and ensures that they cease to exist in the eyes of the people. Slowly, Winston starts to accept O’Brien’s ways of thinking. Winston starts to practice doublethink (rejecting to believe the memories he previously knew were true). This made Winston feel as if “though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster; he was dead and the future was unimaginable” (p.34). This is evident when O’Brien offers to answer Winston’s questions. When Winston asks about Julia, O’Brien answers that Julia betrayed him immediately. When Winston asks if Big Brother exists the same way he does, O’Brien answers that Winston does not exist. The Party uses unethical rules to ensure its citizens conform to requirements.
This example can be reflected in the current American society, where political parties use government resources like law enforcement agencies to force people to conform to some rules. Some police rules and policies in the U.S. facilitate impunities like racism. Politicians have created and implemented strict laws and policies that view other races and religions as threats. Some policies about terrorism view Muslims as threats to national security, which can be seen at border control stations like airports. For example, “three Muslim Americans filed a lawsuit in 2020 alleging that U.S. border officers questioned them about their religious beliefs in violation of their constitutional rights when they returned from international travel” (Yang, 2022). In this case, the U.S. border officers asked them personal questions like how often they prayed. The three men from Minnesota, Texas, and Arizona indicated this was common for them and other Muslims who traveled from international places. Questioning people based on their religion and placing suspicions on them is an unethical policy the U.S. border officers use with the rationality that they value national security. In this case, they simply mean that being a Muslim is associated with threats to American national security. Therefore, Orwell’s vision of using unethical laws and policies to control citizens has come true in American society.
The other situation or condition in Orwell’s vision that has come true in the current society is mass surveillance in people’s lives. In this context, mass surveillance is the government monitoring its citizens without their knowledge or consent. Surveilling people without their knowledge or consent is unethical because it deprives them of their rights to privacy and other things. For example, Winston is in a cell with four telescreens monitoring him. The telescreens record every action he does and the words he speaks. The same occurs to other Party members, whereby the Party hides telescreens and microphones across the city to monitor them all the time. This unethical use of surveillance is currently practiced in the United States of American society. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the CIA use different forms of surveillance on American citizens without their consent. For example, Forbes news in 2020 indicated that The Patriot Act, devised and enacted a few weeks after 9/11, has become a “huge symbol of government surveillance in the U.S.” (Beens, 2020). According to Beens (2020), “years later, in 2013, Edward Snowden’s release of National Security Agency (NSA) material was the first major revelation that the government could illegally and possibly unconstitutionally seize the private records of millions of individuals who had not been suspected of any wrongdoing, and had been hiding all of this from its citizens for 12 years.” The Guardian also states that the NSA can collect anyone’s “personal data via cell phones, laptops, search history, Facebook, Skype, and chatrooms” (Beens, 2020). This kind of mass surveillance is similar to what was happening in Orwell’s society. The FBI and CIA use satellites to view every occurrence and change of situations and events in American society. They use different intelligence features through technology like CCTV cameras, plugged earphones, recordings, and contact tracing of different citizens without their knowledge or consent. The U.S. government uses this technique to control and manage American political ideology. These actions deprive Americans right to privacy. Therefore, Orwell’s vision of the government spying on its citizen is currently happening in American society.
Contrast
One ethical issue in the society described in “1984” has not yet happened in the current society but is likely to happen. This is the issue of using language as mind control. Orwell’s society is controlled by the Party, which has introduced a new language, Newspeak, to replace English. The Party has a special ministry tasked to eliminate words that may lead to any form of rebellion and forces citizens of Oceania to speak them. This is unethical because people do not need to be forced to speak a specific language. This unethical occurrence in Orwell’s society has not yet been seen in the current American society. The reason is that Americans have the freedom to speak any language. The United States of America contains people from different countries with different religions, cultural backgrounds, and languages. Therefore, American citizens have the freedom to communicate in any language they feel free to use.
What May Becoming a Reality and the Way to Stop It
The use of language as mind control may become a reality in American society. However, there is a way I can stop it from happening. In Orwell’s society, the Party introduced the language of Newspeak to replace English. This was because no one could conceptualize anything that might question the Party’s power. This may become a reality in American society because; there are many indigenous languages in America. However, slowly with time, the American government primarily considers main languages like English and Spanish. Other languages are rarely used in the United States of America, though it is not illegal. The dominance of English in American society is worrying, and it is a concern to fear the introduction of one language to control people’s minds.
However, I can alter, inhibit, or prevent this from becoming a reality in my and my children’s futures by advocating diversity and multilingualism in the American government. In this case, I can advocate for the recognition of all languages by the U.S. constitution and government to ensure that there is no dominance of one language which can be used as mind control on Americans. The American government should encourage a diverse society where people learn and use different languages. Using different languages will not only stop the use of one language as mind control but will also encourage creativity among Americans.
Conclusion
Orwell describes different conditions and situations in “1984,” whereby some are true in the current American society while others are not. The conditions that have come true in the current society include the use of propaganda to control citizens, the use of torture as a means of interrogation, mass surveillance of people without their knowledge or consent, and the use of unethical laws to control people to adhere to some rules and regulations. In contrast, the use of language as mind control was present in the society described by Orwell but is not true in the current American society. Using language as mind control may become a reality, but I can stop it from occurring in my or my children’s futures. I can stop it by advocating for diversity and multilingualism in American society. Orwell’s vision is worthy of concern for the safety and freedom of American society.
References
Beens, F. E. G. (2020). The State of Mass Surveillance. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/09/25/the-state-of-mass-surveillance/?sh=32798c3ab62d
Lyman, B. (2021). Eight Anti-Trump Narratives The Media Finally Had To Admit Were False Along. Daily Caller. https://dailycaller.com/2021/06/10/anti-trump-corporate-media-lafayette-square-mlk-bust-wiretapped-nice-people-white-supremacy-fake-news/
New York Times. (2023). CIA Used Rectal Feeding on Its Prisoners: NYT. DAWN. https://www.dawn.com/news/1739170/cia-used-rectal-feeding-on-its-prisoners-nyt
Orwell, G. 1984.
Yang, M. (2022). Muslim Americans Sue Over U.S. border Officer’s ‘Invasive’ Questions on Religion. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/26/muslim-americans-lawsuit-los-angeles-border-officers
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