Thursday, May 31, 2007

Dystopia Essay Part 2

Last blog I talked a little bit about the different warnings that Orwell was making notice to in his novel and I talked a little bit about the parallels between the world of the novel and our world. I spoke a little bit about The Patriot Act, Electoral College and how the government can strip us of our rights. Right now I’m going to talk a little more about how our country’s government can put on an act and make us feel that we have rights in our government. It is very true that our government is one of the best in the world and that they do give us rights as people of the United States. In 1984, Orwell shows the people in his society without any rights. There aren’t any laws but a lot is against the law. In today’s society we have laws, but we don’t know some of them. We can break a law sometimes and not even realize it. So in our case it almost seems like our society is similar because we can’t completely realize what’s wrong and right. In the novel people won’t ever speak out against the government so much because of the fear that they have towards what may happen to them. In our world today, at least in the United States, we feel that we are allowed to speak out against our government. Many people do so, it could be in a speech or even a song, but none the less we do speak out against our government if we don’t agree with how they work. In other areas of the world people can’t do that. Just like in 1984 they fear what their government can do to them. Recently in the news people in Venezuela were protesting peacefully and the leader of the country told the riot police to open fire on them with rubber bullets and tear gas. Orwell, I think, was warning us of this, not so much where the United States stands. He showed us what will happen if governments take too much control or power. People who get extreme amounts of power will not give it back and so far many countries in the world suffer because of this.

1 comment:

Miller said...

Shane you make an interesting point about criticizing the government, and you are right, we have the Constitution and other laws to protect our speech. Think about this, however. The laws might protect us, but what about things outside the law, such as calling people who criticize war as traitors? In our past, we have passed laws during wartime limiting free speech so people couldn't criticize the government's war efforts. How is that like 1984?

I agree that Orwell's portrait is especially bleak and exaggerated, but I believe he is truly trying to help us see ourselves when we fall into these traps and do not keep an eye on what the government does.