Big Brother is Watching! … His Facebook and Twitter Feeds Now

Currently (Re-) Reading: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

When my Uncle John came to visit while I was reading 1984, he commented that I might find it unsettling how close the state of our country is now to 1984’s dictatorship Oceania. However, I have to disagree with him for the most part.

I’m sure he’s right to a degree that there’s a whole seedy under belly to our government that I don’t know much about – although how he would know, I’m not really sure. It seems likely that the government, along with big commercial companies, monitors our actions and thoughts to an extent. It also seems likely that anyone exhibiting actions consistent with those of a terrorist are apprehended and dealt with probably in a manner that’s a little too similar to the way thought criminals are dealt with in Oceania.

He was also right that both societies lack a severe amount of privacy. However, I would argue that the reasons behind this lack of privacy are so vastly different from each other that it actually makes our society almost the polar opposite of Oceania.

Because instead of keeping our private lives and thoughts as closely guarded to the vest as we can, we revel in sharing everything. And I mean, everything. Between Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, and Twitter, it is almost possible to know literally every thought and bit of personal information about a person. Sometimes, I really wish I couldn’t. I mean, really, do we need to know every single move someone makes in a day? Most likely not.

Also, I recognize that I’m just as guilty as most of my generation and that I participate in this potential over-sharing. My guilt stems more from over documenting via pictures and, of course, via this blog.

But man! Can’t you imagine the Party just drooling at the thought of everyone having a Twitter?

The significant difference between our country and Oceania, though, is the choice to share every bit of privacy with the public. While George Orwell’s characters’ privacy is forcibly taken from them, we just give ours away. We don’t keep our thoughts secret; we share them with people who are often only acquaintances. In fact, our country prides itself on the freedom to speak one’s mind, even if one’s thoughts disparage the government. I point your attention to the most recent presidential election, as evidence. Anyone with a Facebook could see free speech exercised in all its wonderful, angry glory. Statuses like the ones I saw would certainly not fly in Oceania.

The thing is, however annoyed I was with the incessant candidate trashing or the play-by-play statuses, after reading 1984 I’ve come to appreciate it a bit more. There’s a reason this country covets its right to free speech. It’s because it’s so damn important. Without it, a society like Oceania would be possible; a society in which thoughts are not only monitored, but punished and then controlled to the point that a governing force can convince a person almost completely that 2 + 2 = 5, not 4.

On this topic of thought control, the concept of doublethink and the philosophical argument of the nature of reality were some of my favorite parts of the novel – and, in my opinion, the most terrifying. After taking a few sociology and psychology courses in high school and college, this flexibility of reality was actually something I started to wonder about. After all, doesn’t a large part of reality stem from consensual agreement that it is in fact true?

This became especially clear to me in high school when we began learning about the desire to conform in my sociology class and – weirdly – color blindness in my psych class. It dawned on me just how crazy a color blind person must feel until he realizes he’s color blind. I mean, in his reality, red is green or what have you. It’s only from the agreement of everyone around him that he comes to know that his perception of the world is distorted.

But what’s to say he’s wrong about the state of reality? Technically he isn’t, because it’s what’s real for him. Yet at the same time, he is wrong because it’s not the agreed upon reality.

What’s horrifying about this – and what Orwell taps into in this novel – is just how easy it is to change reality given that it apparently exists outside of a person. Think about it. If suddenly an entire school decided to gang up on one student for some sadistic reason and unilaterally decided that 2 + 2 = 5 or that yellow is purple, how long do you think that single student could hold on to his conviction that yellow is yellow or 2 + 2 = 4 before cracking under the social pressure or simply cracking?

Messes with your head, right?

I can’t even imagine how Orwell was able to dissect the topic long enough and clearly enough to write about doublethink and the pliability of reality. It makes me officially retract every negative comment I’ve ever made about him after over-studying Animal Farm. George Orwell, you are indeed impressive.