James Sleigh Pd.

3 Orwells Vision, Now a Reality In George Orwells novel 1984, he creates a society that is tracked, monitored and repressed of emotion by a totalitarian government, similar to the National Surveillance Agency implemented by the US government. In the novel, citizens are audited by the use of telescreens, hidden microphones, and special agents to preserve order and maintain devotion towards the omnipotent leader, Big Brother. Today, the government claims that the NSA is preventing terrorist acts by collecting large quantities of data from people around the world. Both governments intrude on the privacy of their citizens to preserve order. In the novel, the Thought Police eliminate terrorist acts to the party, or thoughtcrime in newspeak, preserve order. This is shown in Goldsteins book, when it says in the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance. With the development of television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end. The thought police scrutinize every movement and action for hints that the member has elements of thoughtcrime, as does the NSA in the digital world today. In the article Our Surveillance Society: What Orwell and Kafka Might Say, the author interviews Michael Shelden, one of George Orwells autobiographers, saying that Orwell predicted that governments would use technology to monitor and preserve order amongst its people. Shelden goes on to say [Orwell] could see that war and defeating an enemy could be used as a reason for increasing political surveillance, you were fighting a never-ending war that gave you a never-ending excuse for looking into people's lives. The NSA, although not as

extreme or exaggerated as the thought police in 1984, is very similar to the philosophy of the thought police, that uses sweeping surveillance on its people to combat terrorism.