Technology and media, the two main components in 1984’s dystopian society that are used by the government to effectively take control of the masses. Our current socio-political climate has shown strong links between the forewarnings of 1984’s totalitarian society and our own. Revelations from soldiers, like Chelsea Manning, or 3rd party contractors, such as the notorious, Edward Snowden are the tip of what has been going on behind closed doors from the likes of the government. The media’s, fair or unfair, coverage of the events that have happened and that are taking place is another indicator of what people should be worried about in the coming times. Corporations being given rights as citizens to deny them to others with the addition of back
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Totalitarian societies never happen overnight, they come in small waves with the stripping of rights and silencing of our watch dogs. U.S. Private Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning before revealing her new identity, and current fugitive Edward Snowden are the two ill-famed “Whistleblowers” who revealed the many wrong doings of the US government. The true on goings of the Iraq war was exposed when Chelsea Manning dumped over 700,000 files worth of data to WikiLeaks where reporters quickly divulged the information to the public. This is similar to part of 1984’s governmental slogan introduced to us in the first chapter, “War is Peace” we see how our government used the fear of war to distract us from their own personal interests. American citizens before the outing of this information were briefed to the war through distorted tales of bravery of the soldiers who were protecting us from terroristic threats. That is not to say that these soldiers tales were false but were finely polished to distract the average person from any transgressions that were occurring outside the realm of public knowledge. In many of the articles that quickly came …show more content…
In the current political times we are seeing an almost criminalization of groups such as Black Lives Matter as a distraction against what can be seen as “real issues”. Ousted political commentator Bill O'Reilly, and many others from far Right news sources, such as The Blaze's Tomi Lahren, had a dead aim on these groups to mark them as hate groups against their viewer’s life style norms. They compare them to other hate groups, Such as the KKK as mentioned during the Daily Shoes interview with Tomi, when the Ferguson riots that ensued after what the protesters saw as unlawful killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. These absurd comparisons of the BLM protestors to hate groups, like the KKK, are ridiculous at best but have a sinister undertone to them which can be seen as a repressive framework against those who are oppressed. They undermine the organization's goals of bringing to light the unfair treatment of minorities by enforcers of the law, who have statistically profiled minorities far more often than their white counterparts according to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). This is akin to the “thought crimes” which punished those who had any thoughts that opposed the current state of affairs in Oceania. BLM and other protest groups and marches that have been occurring can be
Totalitarian societies never happen overnight, they come in small waves with the stripping of rights and silencing of our watch dogs. U.S. Private Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning before revealing her new identity, and current fugitive Edward Snowden are the two ill-famed “Whistleblowers” who revealed the many wrong doings of the US government. The true on goings of the Iraq war was exposed when Chelsea Manning dumped over 700,000 files worth of data to WikiLeaks where reporters quickly divulged the information to the public. This is similar to part of 1984’s governmental slogan introduced to us in the first chapter, “War is Peace” we see how our government used the fear of war to distract us from their own personal interests. American citizens before the outing of this information were briefed to the war through distorted tales of bravery of the soldiers who were protecting us from terroristic threats. That is not to say that these soldiers tales were false but were finely polished to distract the average person from any transgressions that were occurring outside the realm of public knowledge. In many of the articles that quickly came …show more content…
In the current political times we are seeing an almost criminalization of groups such as Black Lives Matter as a distraction against what can be seen as “real issues”. Ousted political commentator Bill O'Reilly, and many others from far Right news sources, such as The Blaze's Tomi Lahren, had a dead aim on these groups to mark them as hate groups against their viewer’s life style norms. They compare them to other hate groups, Such as the KKK as mentioned during the Daily Shoes interview with Tomi, when the Ferguson riots that ensued after what the protesters saw as unlawful killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. These absurd comparisons of the BLM protestors to hate groups, like the KKK, are ridiculous at best but have a sinister undertone to them which can be seen as a repressive framework against those who are oppressed. They undermine the organization's goals of bringing to light the unfair treatment of minorities by enforcers of the law, who have statistically profiled minorities far more often than their white counterparts according to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). This is akin to the “thought crimes” which punished those who had any thoughts that opposed the current state of affairs in Oceania. BLM and other protest groups and marches that have been occurring can be