Rationale:

The book 1984 by George Orwell raises some important questions that we as a society should address. As I read the book it slowly dawned on me that, in reality, our various governments are close to becoming The Party. Countless cases of possible government conspiracies have arisen in the past. All the techniques used in 1984 by The Party are not uncommon to those used by even our governments. This article is meant to explore and expose the various discrepancies in our governments and the similarities between them and The Party. Our very own Goldsteins have been created and misused by governments to fulfill their own agendas. There is no avoiding the constant propaganda spewing from some place or the other. Every politician in their career talks about bringing peace and sustainability, yet there has been none so far who have achieved such claims. This article recalls past issues, current events and uses them to illustrate just how similar 1984 is to the present, Orwells worst nightmare. Orwells own experiences of censorship of news, past conspiracies, etc. present internal unreliability of our governments. There are characteristics of The Party that correlate with our own governments. Such similarities have given this article shape and form. This feature article is aimed towards the younger audience, who are ready to make a difference. Although 1984 was written years ago, its relevance to todays society cannot go unnoticed. Using 1984 as an example, I wish to highlight some of the dangers we are and could be facing in the future.

Are We Living 1984? Maybe...

In a world where freedom of knowledge and the thinning of privacy is on the rise, it is becoming more apparent that we may already be living within the realms a 1984 dystopia.

Many of the predictions made by George Orwell in his book 1984 in relation to "Big Brother" surveillance, corruption of language and control of history have already come about to a great extent in Communist countries and to some extent in the West. Homeland Security in Western countries have often extended their powers to intercept mail and tap phones. Many government departments keep computerized covert surveillance information on citizens. We have very little knowledge of wheater this knowledge is being misused or not. People are so reluctant to share information on social networking sites but we freely give our information away to the government because theyre an official body.
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. -- O'Brien in 1984

Orwells experience in the Spanish civil war with the medias manipulation of the reports of the conflict, Orwell developed a great skepticism about the ability of even a well intentioned and honest writer to get to the truth. He was also generally skeptical of stories that rambled on about the atrocities in the world; he felt them to be a hyperbole of the true event. Orwell found that "no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain for the first time I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts." Orwells beliefs on the control of the past is largely derived from his experience, such as the Spanish civil war. Before one has any doubts it should be noted that Orwell worked for the BBC for a time. He does have first hand experience with the media as well and the Ministry of Truth in 1984 is modeled after BBC to some extent. Orwell discovered that the BBC broadcasted false hate propaganda during World War II, and controlled history by censoring news about the genocidal saturation bombings of German cities by the Allies.
Indifference to objective truth is encouraged by the sealing off of one part of the world from another, which makes it harder and harder to discover what is actually happening. There can often be doubt about the most enormous events... .The calamities that are constantly being reported -- battles, massacres, famines, revolutions -- tend to inspire in the average person a feeling of unreality. One has no way of verifying the facts, one is not even fully certain that they have happened, and one is always presented with totally different interpretations from different sources. Probably the truth is undiscoverable but the facts will be so dishonestly set forth in that the ordinary reader can be forgiven either for swallowing lies or for failing to form an opinion -- George Orwell

It appears that doublethink is no longer confined to the pages of Orwell's prophetic novel but is becoming a prevalent part of our language.The manipulation of words to create propaganda is evident in both the Double-speak in 1984 and the media today.

There are countless books that explore the effect that this kind of manipulation of the English language has on the public. The good guys and the bad guys can often both be guilty for distorting, blurring and falsifying reports to the public, in order to receive support and a sense of legitimacy. The truth is subject to perspective and language, another key theme in 1984. There are so many forms of double-think that we fail to understand in our everyday lives: Fighting for Peace: If one fights it immediately negates the idea of peace. Peace Keeping Forces: The need for the military to enforce a regime is not in the interest of keeping the peace. Holy War - All major religions preach a message of peace and have some variation of the 'Love thy neighbour' commandment. No religion promotes violence or killing, so it seems that for a war to be considered 'holy' is a contradiction in terms. There is a distinct similarity between the changing alliances between Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia and the changing alliances between the U.S.A, Russia and China. The state of perpetual war between these nations described by Orwell is also reflected in the three hundred wars since 1945. Orwells dystopian creation was a culmination of his worst nightmare, and the similarity is not small.
"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Some common techniques used to create propaganda and quite similar to the techniques used by Oceania in 1984: Using selective stories that come over as wide-covering and objective. Partial facts, or historical context Reinforcing reasons and motivations to act due to threats on the security of the individual. Narrow sources of experts to provide insights in to the situation. Demonizing the enemy who does not fit the picture of what is right. Using a narrow range of discourse, whereby thought is directed and thereby limited to certain topics or ideas. Right now these techniques could look oddly familiar. They are being used today as we speak and information is always being distorted and presented for somebody's purpose.

This day and age presents us with easy-to-access information but at the price of susceptibility to a third partys influence. Facts can and usually are obscured to serve some agenda. These revelations have shocked me and I believe that the illusion of a trusted government should be undone before it escalates to a 1984 scenario. Politics has become a dirty word because of the innuendo the politicians use, they are not far off from resembling The Party. The tricks within tricks within tricks tirelessly work to keep the public as ignorant as a dog being taken to the vet.