The trouble with power

Brayden Michie - Year 12, The Catlins Area School

George Orwell's 1984 is about Winston Smith's rebellion within a world where everyone and everything is controlled by Ingsoc.

I didn't find it surprising that someone could imagine a world where the powers in charge can say they built the first aeroplane, and changed the history books to state this and the common people just accepted it as fact.

When Orwell wrote this book, it was at the end of World War 2 and the start of the Cold War.

During this time, there was a lot of uncertainty about the future of humanity and there was a lot of spying.

Monitoring individuals due to the possibility of another war, people were probably being very careful of what they said and did every day.

The book is similar to Game of Thrones in that both storylines have power and fear as a central theme.

The party in 1984, just an entity, has the power.

They make people believe whatever they want.

For example, they can say they are at war constantly with Eurasia or Eastasia.

Throughout the story, they switch allies and everyone believes that they have always been enemies with one side and they're allies with the other.

But then when Ingsoc ends up switching stories of who is the enemy, and because the history books are always being rewritten, the people believe what the party tells them to believe.

The party eradicates all evidence that contradicts the truth.

Something that intrigued me about this book was the idea of conspiracy theories.

I'm not completely sure if they are real.

Can the Government or hackers actually listen in on our devices?

Is someone watching me while I am typing this up?

What can the Government actually do?

Is technology that advanced?

What was it like back when Orwell wrote this anyway?

Movies like James Bond show us that there is technology that can spy on people.

One example in 1984 was the TV that couldn't be turned off, and cameras in every room.

The only place that didn't have cameras or sound recorders was in the area that the prols lived.

They weren't party members and considered not intelligent, so there was no need to spy on them.

According to Ingsoc, they were already fooled by what the party said, so they didn't need to be watched or policed.

It was the top two classes that had to be tricked and to do this, the party used the thought police to make them afraid of standing against the party.

This text raises a lot of interesting ideas.

The party could make a person more than disappear - they could make a person not exist.

It would be a little bit freaky if this sort of thing could actually happen in society.

To some extent, it does happen. It happens the other way around.

One article from New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs explains that it is people taking other people's identity - not that they were never there.

In the 21st century, with modern technology, I think it is harder to make someone disappear than it was before computers and the internet.

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