The relevance of Nineteen Eight-Four Novel in Today’s World
George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eight-Four” has long been considered as one of the most potent and impactful pieces of contemporary literature. Its influence on the political discussion can be felt up to date, as even those who have not gone through the book are faced continuously with phrases such as “Memory hole,” “Orwellian” and “Doublethink” all of which emanated from Orwell’s portrayal of an authoritarian dystopia in the text. Moreover, the text’s impact can be felt many distinct philosophies and causes by several people. The primary concern of this paper is to explore that impact all through the more than sixty years since the publication of the piece in 1949. Although Orwell himself died long before he could see significant historical occurrences such as the September 11 extremist attack, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and also the Cuban Missile Crisis, his last literature has been perceived by many scholars, writers, and readers through the lens of those occurrences. A pertinent question therefore develops, what connection is there between contemporary events and the understanding of the “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by following groups of scholars and readers.
In some instances, the real world is well-informed to look like Oceania that it has been at any given time in the past. However, it still looks like something very distinct. Baker observes that the surveillance technology exploited by National Security Administration is somehow as effective as the telescreen technology used by the Oceanian thought police while at the same time outlining that Orwell’s imaginary is not our reality. Fishman(2018) on the other hand observes that the different information is an indicator of newspeak and Yeo(2010) claims that the literary society and the reading public, in general, is a decisive moment to dystopian literature just like the “Nineteen Eighty-Four” exactly because think that the democratic and independent institutions are under siege. Precisely, all these articles demonstrate that “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is still crucial as always. Besides, these authors are progressively the reason why the text remains relevant in our culture and a pillar in our comprehension of dystopia and politics.
The novel documents the story of Winston Smith, a wretched middle-aged bureaucrat who dwells in Oceania, where he is controlled by continuous surveillance. Although there are no regulations, there is a police force known as “Thought Police,” and the constant notices on pictures, that “Big Brothers Is Watching You.” Smith is an employee at The Ministry of Truth, and his responsibility is redrafting the reports on the news bulletin of the past to be in congruency with the present reality. Smith lives in a continuous state of doubt; he is not sure that the year is 1984 (Orwell 113).
Though the official history is that Oceania has continuously conflicted with Eurasia, Smith is very sure he recalls that just a few years back, they had conflicted with Eastasia, who has now been declared their continuous and loyal friend. The society depicted in 1984, is one which is characterized by social control through deception and surveillance. As a student who has some knowledge of television and screen culture, I would state that the approaches and technologies explored in the text are very much relevant and similar in contemporary’s society.
One of the leading technologies of surveillance in the book is the telescreen, which is a gadget that has a resemblance to our television. The key characteristic of this device is that it features one channel of news, publicity and health program design. It is distinct from our ordinary television in two crucial aspects: it is not possible to switch it off and the screen watches its audiences. The telescreen constitutes the surveillance camera and television in one. In the book, the main protagonist Smith is never certain if he is being monitored continiously by the telescreen. Orwell’s telescreen was founded on the innovations of a television established before WWII and could be scarcely be taken as science literature. In the 1930s Germany had an operating videophone infrastructure in place, and television episodes were already being aired in in parts of France, Great Britain, and United States.
In 1949, when the book was authored, Americans watched on maximum four and half hours on television daily; but in 2009, the number almost doubled that. In 2017, the number of viewers slightly declined, to just eight hours more time than that committed in sleep. In the United States, the information conveyed through television screens came to comprise a common part of people’s psychological and social lives.
Most viewers obey by evaluating themselves against what they observe on television, for instance, behavior, dress code, and relationships. In Yeo’s sentiments, television had set values of characteristic self-evaluation. The type of suspicious anxiety exhibited by Smith is the book that any uninformed decision or false belief will bring the idea police rather than displays in television audiences that Yeo defines as a passive watchfulness. In other words, watchers see themselves to make sure they obey just like those they watch on the screen.
This passive watchfulness can be evident since television enables viewers to see aliens without being seen. Researcher Joshua Meyrowitz has demonstrated that the types of programming which is common in the U.S television, dramas, sitcoms and news, have regularized looking into private lifestyle of others (Meyrowitz 1-7).
Besides the continuous increase of reality television, starting in the 1960s, with an American Family, Candid Camera, The Real World, Cops and also the Real People, television has also played a significant role in the reception of some sort of video surveillance. For instance, it might appear just crafty advertisement that one of the longest-running and most common reality television programs in the world is labelled the “Big Brother” the program’s affirmation to the book stimulates the form of caring surveillance that “Big Brother” was designed to suggest: “ We are watching you and we are taking control of you.”
However, the Big Brother, as a reality program, is also a demonstration in monitoring and changing behavior. By asking members to put their individual lifestyle on display, features such Big Brother inspire self-evaluation and behaving in line with the perceived social standards or roles that test those seen standards. The challenge of presenting 24/7 on Big Brother has forced the program to hire a group of psychologists.
Anna McCarthy a television researcher and others have demonstrated that the roots of reality television can be tracked back to behavioral and psychological trials post the WWII, which was meant to better monitor people (McCarthy360). For instance, Stanley Milgram, Yale University psychologist was impacted by Candid Camera. In the Candid Camera, demonstrates that cameras were hidden in locations where they could picture people in unfamiliar circumstances. Milgram was captivated with Candid Camera and he used the same model for his trials, his participants were not conscious that they were being filmed or that it was part of the trial. Just like many others post WWII, Milgram was captivated in what could force a large population to adhere to and follow directives and members in genocidal behaviors. His obedience trials established that authority figure to affect another individual, even if unwillingly. Although modern reality television programs do not direct members to directly damage each other, they are always configured as a small-scale social trial that always entails vigorous competition or even cruelty.
And just as portrayed in the text, pervasive video surveillance is already here with us. Closed-circuit TV exist in nearly every region of American lifestyle, from transportation centers and networks, to learning institutions, public walkways, hospices and supermarkets, including police officers and their transportation. Surveillance film from these cameras is reused as the primary source of raw material of TV, largely in the news and also in programs such as “Right This Minute,” “America’s Most Wanted,” among others. Most viewers undeniably take in this practice as authentic.
Reality television is the responsive face of surveillance. It enables viewers believe that surveillance takes place to only those who decide to use it or to those who are offenders. Actually, it is part of a culture of a common television application, what has contributed to what Hill (2018) considered as viewers society in which the majority watches the view. Therefore, in line with Meyrowitz, the viewer society is simply the other part of the surveillance society defined so appropriately in Orwell’s text where a few watches the majority.
In our 1984, Big Brothers will not capture the world. But Orwell’s warnings are more relevant than ever. Eustacia, Eurasia and Oceania are not in existence and the Big Brother did not manage in manipulating individual thought. But, in a large section of the world, he did not manage, in seriously incapacitating man’s capability to think independently. Even in an independent world, majority keep, have made inroads: business interests try to manipulate the news and at times succeed, elected representatives are curious to distort the facts, government institutions try to and at times do attack the privacy of the people, and military leaders feel coerced to conceal some of their activities.
It is the watchfulness of the population that has barred Big Brother from initiating his supremacy in the free world. This watchfulness, Orwell would observe today that may not concede if independence is to be spared. Orwell’s fantasy countries are not in existence; however, the world of 1984 has some resemblance in various ways to the world of 1984. Actually, there are two main superpowers in the world with a third one emerging. They appear to split the world into three areas of influence.
The Eastern dictatorial countries control their population and their satellites with dictatorship; administrations and people must please their leaders in everything that they undertake, write and think aloud. The existence of these governments they think rests on the unquestionable obedience of the population. The Western block also known as the free world, thrives on the shadows of the military and the economic strength of the United States. It does not like Oceania in which Winston survived. Regimes and citizens of the Western world are free to be in conflict, to criticize and behave autonomously. However, the free states understand clearly that, ultimately, restrictions are imposed on their independence. Their independence and success depend largely on their loyalty to the world superpowers of the West. Why, actually, would European states accept to have nuclear weapons placed on their land, with a clear understanding that the Soviet Union would hit back; why would Japan as well agree willingly decreases in exports and liberalization of its import laws, understanding that these steps would affect their individual economy?
The association between the leading super powers as well has its Orwellian part. Power balance between the world leaders is still regarded as the effective deterrence against conflict. Lately, it has been observed that more and sophisticated weapons imply a more secure world peace. China is trying all it can to catch up with other world superpowers by gaining nuclear ability. The United States put arsenals in Europe to react to the nuclear missiles in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe nations with an intensification of weapons across the world. Shifting coalition have often been the diplomatic tactic that countries use across the world, always to support defeat, at times to reinforce their battlements. Currently, the countries all over the world continue with that tactic: partnership with China helps to counter the individualistic ideas of a former partner.
In the actual 1984, world superpowers do not dominate the world, there prudently developed world order is spoiled by the inconsistent character of many developing countries that pride themselves on not being considered as non-aligned. Most of them have been able to change the matrix of the international plans of the world superpowers or to jeopardize the economic wellbeing of the industrialized countries. Some of these nations are so unstable that they not only pose risk in their area but also the fragile peace between the great superpowers. Their unpredictability could be a greater danger to the world harmony that the cold war that fields the excessive force against each other.
Works Cited
Baker, Lauren. “Dr. Cedillo 12/13/11 Engl 3543 Utopic Dystopia: Similarities in Utopia and Nineteen Eight-four.”
Fishman, Mark. Entertaining crime: Television reality programs. Routledge, 2018.
Hill, Annette. Media experiences: Engaging with drama and reality television. Routledge, 2018.
McCarthy, Anna. “From Screen to Site: Television’s Material Culture, and Its Place.” The Screen Media Reader: Culture, Theory, Practice (2017): 389.
Meyrowitz, Joshua. “Medium theory.” The International Encyclopedia of Media Literacy (2019): 1-7.
Orwell, George. Nineteen eighty-four. Everyman’s Library, 2009.
Yeo, Michael. “Propaganda and Surveillance in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: Two Sides of the Same Coin.” Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition 3.2 (2010).