I agree that Orwell probably meant that BB is the controlling force. After all, it's very impractical to have a dictator, at least one who have absolute power. However, my personal belief is that it is YOU who are BB. That it's everyone in the society who by themselves eventually will make the society become what he predicted. That we "want" to be controlled.
I feel as if we have most definitely lost our privacy in today's world. I feel we have lost our privacy because our government snoops into every little thing we do. In class the other day we discussed a question that involved should our county have cameras in public areas so we can keep our country safe. The only thing that concerns me about this is that we basically already have cameras in most public places and it's starting to become overwhelming. This is an example of how we are losing our privacy. Google maps is another example of how we can lose our privacy. Any person in the world can find another by just typing in an address or name to find where they live, their phone number, etc. I just think that's ridiculous to a point where it's unsafe and terrifying.
Yes, privacy does still exist in some parts of our lives. As long as we are careful and don't do anything STUPID than we shouldn't have to worry about some of those things. Privacy is a virtue and we can't take advantage of that.
We are never really going to be truly safe no matter what freedoms we lose. Their is always ways to get passed those things. The war in Iraq is a great example. There are all those soldiers over there fighting for our freedom that are mostly willing to go over when the Taliban is full of kids under the age of 15 who have full independence with a weapon on their choice to KILL us. To me that is completely ridiculous and utterly terrifying because kids don't have the thought process fully developed yet.
Chris you make some interesting points, especially "That it's everyone in the society who by themselves eventually will make the society become what he predicted. That we "want" to be controlled." I never even thought about BB in that way before. So what you're saying is that people follow the Party rules, which then led to the Orwellian society? That's an interesting viewpoint. I also agree that we have given up freedoms, but in my opinion the freedoms we have given up in public DO protect us for the most part. However, it is true that we will not ever be "truly safe." It is nearly impossible in today's society.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that you believe that Big Brother is us and that really "we want to be controlled". I never thought of it that way but maybe it is true. People want to be safe so they do want cameras around in public places and they do want to be safe when they travel on an airplane, so I guess it is true that we kinda are bb. I guess it is up to us then to find out the boundaries of privacy before we have none at all. Very interesting thought!
ReplyDeleteI agree that we will never be truly safe but I believe that with some of our privacy invaded it does protect us to an extent. I think that if the people in 1984 weren't so brainwashed they could overcome the Party, but they are so scared and controlled that they will not even consider it for the most part. They have strength in numbers but they just need to suck it up and join together to defeat the Party.
ReplyDeleteI like that you bring up the fact that there are already cameras everywhere and that we are still not totally safe. I totally agree. A good example of this is the car bomber in NYC that they found with street cameras. It took them awhile to figure out that the car was suspicious, and if it wasn't for the fact that his bomb was bad, it probably would have caused a lot of problems. So, cameras are not the total answer, but hopefully we can become safer in the future without giving up more privacy.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that so many cameras are everywhere and we are not completely safe is a good point. The cameras may malfunction and not work and people can still not get caught. Many criminals know how to get around security cameras, so they are not always the greatest help.
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