The Cost of Freedom
As Americans continue to heavily rely on digital means of media and communication, surveillance over the population becomes easier than ever for the government to carry out. One of the main institutions created in the United States to gather intelligence is the National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA monitors the phone calls, emails, text messages, contacts, photos, video calls, and many other aspects of digital communication utilized in today’s world as a means to protect America from terrorist attacks or criminal activity (Lizza). The problem with this mass collection of private data is that it is collected from every U.S. citizen regardless of who they are. The surveillance carried out by the NSA on Americans is almost …show more content…
Even though the NSA was created as a tool to help protect the United States from foreign countries, it has transformed to an organization that collects mass amounts of data from American citizens. The data collected by the NSA could then be stored for an indefinite amount of time in the NSA’s massive data center in Utah, leaving private information at risk to hackers, terrorists, or even future government changes (Gibson). Recent terrorist attacks in Paris could also bolster new legislation in favor of more surveillance and data collection on people all over the world. The use of telescreens and the Thought Police are very similar to tools the NSA uses to keep records on American citizens. Although there are many similarities between the methods used to monitor the people of both worlds, American society is still far from the totalitarian dystopia created by Orwell in 1984. However, the novel 1984 serves as a warning as to what could happen if Americans are not vigilant in their watch over the government. The entire foundation of the United States government was to create a system where the government serves the people, and not the other way around. If Americans forget this fact and become too distracted with fear for their own safety, the possibility of Orwellian society is
As Americans continue to heavily rely on digital means of media and communication, surveillance over the population becomes easier than ever for the government to carry out. One of the main institutions created in the United States to gather intelligence is the National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA monitors the phone calls, emails, text messages, contacts, photos, video calls, and many other aspects of digital communication utilized in today’s world as a means to protect America from terrorist attacks or criminal activity (Lizza). The problem with this mass collection of private data is that it is collected from every U.S. citizen regardless of who they are. The surveillance carried out by the NSA on Americans is almost …show more content…
Even though the NSA was created as a tool to help protect the United States from foreign countries, it has transformed to an organization that collects mass amounts of data from American citizens. The data collected by the NSA could then be stored for an indefinite amount of time in the NSA’s massive data center in Utah, leaving private information at risk to hackers, terrorists, or even future government changes (Gibson). Recent terrorist attacks in Paris could also bolster new legislation in favor of more surveillance and data collection on people all over the world. The use of telescreens and the Thought Police are very similar to tools the NSA uses to keep records on American citizens. Although there are many similarities between the methods used to monitor the people of both worlds, American society is still far from the totalitarian dystopia created by Orwell in 1984. However, the novel 1984 serves as a warning as to what could happen if Americans are not vigilant in their watch over the government. The entire foundation of the United States government was to create a system where the government serves the people, and not the other way around. If Americans forget this fact and become too distracted with fear for their own safety, the possibility of Orwellian society is