In 1984, Big Brother watches over everyone making sure that their following the rules of their society; hense the reason such as the main character, Winston, gave up his freedoms for security. I am not too far into the book though, however I have noticed already from Part 1 that Winston has stepped out of his own boundaries in order to take control of himself in terms of self-expression and personal freedom by purchasing a diary to write in. On page 7 Winston quotes, "It was curious that he seemed not merely to have lost the power of expressing himself, but even to have forgotten what it was that he had originally intended to say." I like this quote due to the fact that he had alot bottled up for quite some time and knew what he wanted to express; however, when given the opportunity to let his thoughts pour out on paper, he couldn't seem to do it. Did he just blank out, or was it that his mind has been taught that freedom is basically not allowed and that he is going against Big Brother.
In terms of our own personal privacy, I believe privacy does exist to some degree today, but their are definetly ways that we have let our society interfere. A couple examples that come to mind for me are things like facebook, government, and the entire use of technology as a whole. I think that facebook has taken over peoples personal issues without them realizing it. As we talked about in class, one can't really delete a facebook once it has been created. Those personal items, information, and contact info. could be anywhere on the entire world wide web. I'm not a huge fan of politics or government and I don't really know much about it, but one thing I do feel is that our government knows alot more about us then we do. The government and law agencies can pretty much spot someone whenever they want too, whether its tapping into internet chat, wire taps, and so on. Leading into technology, online chatting sites and any kind of site where you put in personal info. is probably going to be there forever. Whether you know it or like it, once something is on the Web is out there and technically there is no way to delete it.
I would never give up my freedoms for security. The reason or country is recognized so greatly is the fact that it was found and based on freedom. I would never want security to interfere with what I do or what others do for that matter.
Like I've said to previous people, it's not so much the government we need to worry about unless we are doing something illegal, it's more other people that may take advantage of us. I'm more concerned with a stalker finding out where I live and killing me than the government tapping into my phone and listening to me chat about random things to my best friend. It is true that the government can find us anytime that they want, but they usually don't have a reason to.
ReplyDeleteI know you said that you would never give up your freedom for security but you do it everyday. When you go on a plane or enter some buildings, the first thing they do is check your bag. I'm pretty sure you comply to that. If you never gave up some of your freedoms here and there I doubt you would be doing much. Your phone has a GPS that they can track you on and while it may seem like a bad thing, it can easily be used to find you if you go missing or are abducted. Little things like this we do everyday. Now I agree that I would never completely give up my freedoms like they did in 1984, but I feel that sometimes you have to give a little to get a little.
I agree that I am not necessarily worried about the Government finding me or listening to my conversations its more the information that they withhold from us. I personally believe that our Government knows far more things than we ever will and technically they can feed us any info they want to make us feel a certain way. Distorted history or facts to make us agree to their alternative agendas. Just my opinion.
ReplyDelete"Did he just blank out, or was it that his mind has been taught that freedom is basically not allowed and that he is going against Big Brother."
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting quote from the book. I think it depicts how Winston is not allowed to think on his own. The government has not been letting him do this, so he doesn't know how to. Here's a quick example of how I am finding this to be relevant to me: Throughout high school and even in college I have been sooo trained to write a 5 paragraph essays and research papers. However, when it comes to any creative writing I am totally lost. I have not been able to experience writing in a non-structured way...
Relating this back to the text, Winston hasn't been able to think (specifically via writing) so he "blanked." If you are not allowed to experience something, how would you be able to know what to do?
Also, in terms of the government having control over us... isn't it a little scary that our government has the power to tap into our conversations, find us with satellite, etc.? Could our government ever use this to control us, in a similar manner as is seen in 1984?