Big Brother's Surveillance Agency

There is a high probability that most people have heard of the saying, “Big Brother is watching you.” The saying comes from George Orwell’s book, 1984. A story which depicts a nightmarish view of society. Big Brother plays a key role throughout the novel for his surveillance state. Surveillance functions consistently in the dystopia, affecting the way individuals view themselves by their present day technology.

In 1873 Mark Twain coined the phrase “The Gilded Age” to describe the period of time where living in excess was widely accepted. When something is gilded, gold covers a base metal, creating a facade. More than fifty years later F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby where he criticized the lives of the idol rich in the Jazz Age. His imagery offers insight that words could not. As Mark Twain used a gilded facade to describe his age, Fitzgerald used the same ideas in Gatsby.

A big question that many people are asking is if the government is watching us illegally. In the book 1984 by George Orwell he talks about Big Brother which are the people that are watching everyone, this quote explains what is written everywhere. “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran” (1984; pg 2) . Society today believe that the government is putting unnecessary cameras in cities and also watching over our phones. The advances in technology that we have might or might not be getting us closer to the world of Big Brother.

The main version of this surveillance is through the telescreen that is stationed in every room constantly watching the people. There is always propaganda across the screen supporting Big Brother and the endeavors of Ingsoc. The telescreen combined with the thought police is the ultimate tool for destroying individual thought, "The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself-anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide" (Orwell). This non-stop flow of information stimulates everyone to join in with the demands of Big Brother even when they do not want to. Even the telescreens and Thought Police are not enough because the people are faced with the omnipresent signs reading "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU," that are constantly scrutinizing them.

Big Brother knows everything everyone is doing. George Orwell wrote this book as his prediction as what he thought the world would become and he may have been right. The more technology advances the more your actions are being monitored. From reading Nineteen Eighty-Four to reading articles about surveillance, I’ve realized our society is becoming more and more similar to the dystopian society that is Oceania. Part II:

In George Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother uses surveillance to spy on everything from people’s everyday actions to thoughts in their mind’s privacy. The government controls much of the citizens, and this book has left a horrifying image to its readers for the future of government surveillance. As much as it sounds extreme, this could be the near future of Americans if surveillance programs continue to grow. Due to the many findings of Edward Snowden on the flaws of surveillance programs, changes must be made to the NSA Domestic Surveillance Programs.

The government in both today’s society and that of 1984’s use surveillance to constantly watch over the citizens. In the novel, The Party’s figure of authority was referred to as Big Brother. Throughout Oceania there were posters of Big Brother which stated, “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” (Orwell 2). This referred to the fact that the Party was constantly monitoring the citizens on telescreens. The point of the telescreens was to control the people, enter their persona, manipulate them into changing their actions, and essentially

Government surveillance has been with us ever since the start of groups, dynasties, government and more. Back then, in the medieval ages like in the sixteenth century. Surveillance was hardly surveillance at all. Regular people paid by the enemy, or nation diplomats, or just amateur people looking for easy money, all mostly did it. As the timeline grows closer to the present. There are factors that have made up the system that now controversially exists in America as Government Surveillance. The Timeline starts in 1791, when the 13 colonies still existed. But are now rebelling against the British where in that year congress passed down the Bill of Rights and the fourth Amendment saying that it “protects every and any citizen of America the right to not be searched in house or work in unreasonable cases.”

We are all still being watched. Privacy is just a theory. Big Brother: who is big brother? Big brother in 1984 “is the head of the totalitarian regime. Everyone in this society is under surveillance by the authorities, which reminds people of an endless catchphrase “Big Brother is watching You,” showing a dictator’s mindset of a Big Brother.

In the novel it says, “Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death” (Orwell 27). People in Oceania do not express their thoughts against the government because of their fear of getting punished. This is similar to today’s society where people are afraid to voice their opinions because they do not want to be criticized by others. Additionally, the novel also mentions that no one has ever escaped the Thought Police and were essentially waiting to die (Orwell 65). The instillment of fear by the government and the idea that their crimes were inescapable can be compared to the hold that the media has on people today.

In the novel 1984, George Orwell sets up a world whose citizens are forever under surveillance by the party. This forever surveillance and policy is illustrated through the concept of “Big Brother”, and the phrase “Big Brother is watching you”, which is continuous throughout the novel. This expression is advertized inside and out of Oceania as a remembrance to the citizens that they are being scrutinized. The Citizens of Oceania give into being observed out of fear of the party. In the real word, people are giving up their personal freedoms, and privacy allowing government surveillance to grow. The real word does not see this as a fear, but as a benefit. People are so consumed with the benefits and the convenience that technology has provided,

Words like surveillance, Big Brother, and control all used in the same sentence may stir up a few--- actually a lot of concerns because everyone knows that Big Brother is bad news and that he is watching you at all times and if you dare defy him, you will be held accountable for the consequences. Present day 2015, who is Big Brother in our society? Of course many may think, “What a preposterous question! We do not live in an Orwellian lifestyle”. But we do. GPS trackers on cellphones, smart telescreens or televisions, new computer chipped credit cards, and social media sites all clearly point out the undeniable fact that we have self-inflicted Big Brother’s world upon our modern-day society and we are so blinded everyday through these new shiny gismos and gadgets that we fail to see the reality of our Orwellian situation.

Those that approve of mass surveillance argue in favor of prioritizing safety over individual rights in times of imminent threat, as they believe it a necessary measure to protect those rights. To support their arguments, they point out successes in crime rate reduction by surveillance. One case that is referenced quite often is Chicago’s first pilot program for Police Observation Devices in 2003. The data analysis after the installation of cameras in Humboldt Park, one of the

In the society that Orwell describes, every citizen is under constant surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens (with the exception of the Proles). The people are constantly reminded of this by the slogan "Big Brother is watching you": a maxim which is ubiquitously on display. In modern culture the term "Big Brother" has entered the lexicon as a synonym for abuse of government power, particularly in respect to civil liberties, often specifically related to

The use of Telescreens in 1984 and Surveillance Cameras in real life have many positive and negative effects. There are many contrasting arguments connected to this subject, the most popular being their accuracy versus their invasiveness. These types of cameras help to lower crime