Compare And Contrast Winston And Snowden

Although they both worked in different aspects of the government, both Winston and Snowden struggled with the material and information they obtained during their job with the government. However, both differed in one aspect as well. Winston was never able to transfer the information he obtained out to the public because he constantly believed that the government will always exist with complete control over the the masses and their is no practical way to alter this fact. He had given up and admitted that their was no hope. The majority of the rules that Winston broke stemmed from personal want, while in his mind he yearned to be a part of something bigger that he knew could not exist, such as the Brotherhood. Snowden on the other hand did not …show more content…
This gave way to a type of surveillance similar to the one seen in Orwell’s dystopia. The American government is able to spy on people through cameras on their digital devices, similar to the surveillance through telescreens in Winston’s society. There are multiple mirroring aspects between both the totalitarian society of Winston and modern day society, however, the predominantly interesting similarity is that it goes on unimpeded by the public in both societies. No one went against the ideas of telescreens in Oceania, and the people of America are already forgetting the idea that they are constantly being watched and are rapidly becoming ignorant about topics such as these. The ignorance is driven by social media and by introducing new laws or regulations that distract from the topic at hand. There is an understanding in both the dystopia and modern time that in order to force public docility, there needs to be some sort of opiate for the masses. In Winston’s world, things like occassional pornogrpahy, the idea of winning the lottery, and the ability to drink alcohol unhindered allowed for the proles to be satisfied. However, in modern day America, the opiate becomes things such as social media and its content, which constantly distracts and influences the masses away from important topics. One specific example would be the interruption of the topic of surveillance for the news story that a celebrity was being locked up. An important topic was pushed to the back burner because another topic, which was much less important, appealed to the masses much better than their own privacy. Numerous aspects factor into why the masses are as docile as they are today; rationalization and a form of opiates for the masses play big roles in the