I wake up at 7:45am to my alarm beeping in ear. 1 Hour later my
teacher pushes a button on her computer to tell the school I am
present. 15 minutes later another teacher recordes my presence. By
9:15 three people in the school know I am present and by 9:30 four
of my schoolmates have seen a snapchat of me in my classes. This
right here shows that people take notice of my presence everyday
and can see my whereabouts and doings every minute of every day.
Between 8:45 and 9:30am from Monday to Friday I have no privacy.
Winston Smith, Offred and John Anderton from the texts ‘Nineteen
Eighty-Four’, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘Minority Report’ shows us
the struggle of surveillance and the effects it has on them and
their society as well as a few RadioHead lyrics which shows us what
has happened after not listening to the warnings in these
texts.
The dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ follows the life of the
protagonist Winston Smith who lives in a shaken up version of
London, that was previously struck by a nuclear war, in which they
call Oceania. Oceania is under constant surveillance of the
totalitarian state The Party for which the show figure of the party
is a character called Big Brother. We see in the novel how this
harsh surveillance affects Oceania when we read “Winston kept his
back turned to the telescreen. It was safer; though, as he well
knew, even a back can be revealing.” This scene takes place inside
Winston’s house which is important to us as knowing this we see
just how little privacy the people of Oceania have. Having a device
in the houses of these people that can not only see everything a
person does but that can also hear everything a person says means
that no one has any privacy. We also see from this that Winston
cannot show his front to the telescreen in fear of showing some
form of individuality and thoughts of his own that he also fears
that even his back can show. This means he is to keep all thoughts
and feelings to himself every second of everyday never showing
expression of these feelings and forever believing and doing
everything Big Brother (The Party) says and does. The
importance of this is high as we can see how the intense
surveillance in this society affects the citizens in every which
way, they have no sense of self and no sense of individuality in
which to express themselves, they have been brainwashed through
surveillance.
“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your
skull.” The idea of this quote stays not only in George Orwell’s
fiction but also in real life society today. With technology
advancing so fast around us we have less access to privacy
everyday. We have microphones listening to our every word, cameras
watching our every move and the worst part about this all, we chose
this life. When we choose to purchase smartphones or laptops we
effectively agree to have phone and laptop companies listen and
watch us constantly. We put all our details online and pour our
life out in posting photos and videos with personal captions that
the whole world can access. Orwell not only predicted this would
happen but believed it would get so bad to the point where media
takes away ALL of our privacy entirely and we are left with only a
“few cubic centimetres inside our skull” which now in 2019 bodes
true. The outcome of Orwell’s prediction was that soon the
government, whoever it may be, will be able to control us through
the media and use it to surveil every move and every word and then
use that against us to brainwash us.
Even now, writing this piece of writing I am posting it onto a blog
that can been seen by the entire world and will later be read and
marked by my teacher. He will go through the whole piece looking at
exactly what I have written and when I wrote it to see if it has
been written within the time deadline as he can see that through
the use of technology and my computer surveilling me. A scary
thought? Yes.
Like in George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ we see a similar
theme of surveillance in Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s
Tale’. ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is a dystopian novel that
follows the life, present and past, of the protagonist Offred.
Offred lives in the Republic of Gilead where she lives under her
commander Fred and is under constant surveillance in the house of
Commander Fred, Commander Fred’s wife (Serena Joy), the Marthas and
the Angles. But it doesn’t stop there, whenever Offred is to leave
the house she is still under surveillance from The Eyes who walk
the streets listening and watching, just waiting for someone to do
or say something illegal. “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere,
as long as it stays inside the maze.” In this situation Offred and
the other handmaids are much like the rat where yes they are
allowed out of the house to go walking, to pick up the groceries
and to go to outside events occasionally, however they are still
stuck in Gilead where they have to abide by every rule, talk in the
terms they have been told to use and show no emotion or feeling
they haven’t been told to feel, they are still
trapped.
“Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once
hoarded money. I save it, so I will have enough when the time
comes.” Offred shows us in this sentence just how hard it is having
people constantly telling you what to say, what to think and what
to do. When people start controlling you you lose all sense of self
and sanity, she talks about saving her sanity for “when the time
comes.” We know this is because she is hopeful she might get out of
Gilead one day and when that day comes she needs to have some of
her sanity left so she can leave because the alternative is staying
in Gilead and being completely brainwashed. All of this leads back
to surveillance and how having people watching and listening to
your every move can affect you. Gloriavale is a small community on
the west coast of New Zealand that mirrors Gilead perfectly. They
are a small amish community in which they have members who wander
around making sure people are doing as they have been told to do,
speaking to each other as they have been told to and are abiding by
a strict set of rules the community has been set. On top of this it
has been known that Gloriavale sets family members apart from their
families as to keep the rest of the family there as well as having
annual reproduction times. Margaret Atwood warned us that something
similar to Gilead may come around however I’m unsure how precise
she thought her warning would be and I wonder if she even thought a
place as intense as Gloriavale could occur.
The 2002 film ‘Minority Report’ directed by Steven Speilberg
connects back to Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ through
the theme of surveillance as well. ‘Minority Report’ is a dystopian
film that follows the protagonist John Anderton as he works to stop
crime before it happens, something that is called precrime. The
people that live in this society live under constant surveillance.
They live with the Precogs who see all and hear all. They see all
who are about to commit crimes and make it a job for people like
John Anderton to stop them before they commit the crime. This may
seem all well and good as it now means there is no crime in the
world, however it also means there is no privacy in this community
as they are now all under constant surveillance from the government
through the Precogs. There is a scene in the film where the
Director Lamar Burgess says to John Anderton “You can’t run John”
to which he replies “everybody runs.” We see here that John has
worked so long in the precrime business that when he is finally
involved in the crimes he knows just how the surveillance system
works and how although he’ll never get away with his crime he will
still try and run like everyone before him. He knows the system so
well and knows how no one can escape as they are trapped within the
surveillance of this society.
“In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.” Here we see
just how surveillance has upset this community. Gideon who says
this, is lucky to have one eye as it means he can only see certain
things which keeps him safe from the government. As the government
is constantly surveilling people he knows that it is safer to not
see anything than to see it all. He enlightens John with this
statement in a dark alley as to show John that he is safer than
him. When John is later on involved in crime he needs to take out
his eyeballs and replace them with another person’s eyes, although
this may not be a direct point to Gideon it seems only fair that
the symbol of eyes in the film ‘Minority Report’ relates back to
the theme of surveillance as in the film they are the people in the
society’s one true identity and that is also how they are seen,
through the Precogs eyes. We see this back in today’s society too
through technology like security cameras. Cameras can be placed to
catch people committing crimes as well as just to see what people
are doing and why. This is a big invasion of privacy that ‘Minority
Report’ not only predicted but also showed the entirety of the
outcome which would be stopping crime BEFORE it happens. This may
not be far from the future and could happen soon enough which is
not only scary to see but also frightening to believe that it had
previously been predicted.
The final text relating to this theme of surveillance and its
effects on society would be a collection of RadioHead lyrics. One
of RadioHead’s songs is called ‘2+2=5’, there is a lyric in this
song which portrays the naivety of society and how we have ignored
every warning from every text we have ever been shown and have
decided to continue what we have been doing without taking these
warnings into account. “You have not been paying attention and 2+2
does now equal 5” is a line in the RadioHead song ‘2+2=5’. In this
line we see how although we have been warned time and time again we
have not learnt to listen to these warnings and we have continued
to be naive in our advance of technology and now we are subject to
what the government around us believe and can easily be brainwashed
into thinking what others think.
Another lyric that shows our ignorance is from the song ‘Fake
Plastic Trees’ by RadioHead again.
“She bought from a rubber man in a town full of rubber plans.” We
see from this that because we never listened to the warnings in
previous texts we now have to create a facade to pretend we are
plastic with no feelings as to not show our real selves to people
around us and the government. RadioHead is telling us that it no
longer is a warning and it is now real life. We are past being
warned and now we have to pretend. We have to put up a fake persona
in a fake town with fake feelings because we are now past the point
of no return. We have done this to ourselves and chosen this life
on our own by buying smartphones, putting our lives onto the
internet and letting everyone in the world see who we are through
all of our personal information being posted online. We have now
succumb to what we have been warned about and there is no going
back.
In 2013 I bought my first cellphone. In 2015 I bought my first smartphone. In 2017 I bought my first laptop. It was only one month ago when I found out I now have no privacy against the world. It was only one month ago that I found out the entire world has access to everything I put online. I did not listen to the warnings I was given through authors and directors of my favourite novels and films and now I have given up my life for the world to see. I now understand that because I have not paid attention, 2+2 does now equal 5.
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