Today’s date: 1984?
George Orwell wrote his most famous novel, “1984,” as a cautionary tale about the dangers of totalitarianism. Orwell gained his perspective by living through formative global events; he witnessed the rise of both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Today, the dangers of these two regimes feel distant. The Soviet Union collapsed thirty years ago, and Nazi Germany was defeated over forty-five years before that. So, is “1984” now a mere relic of times gone by?
Absolutely not. Largely because of the capabilities of modern technology, the danger of powerful entities invading peoples’ privacy and influencing their behavior is more threatening than ever.
In “1984”, The Party is the all-controlling regime of Oceania, the state in which the novel takes place. The Party utilizes mass surveillance to sustain itself. Surveillance enforces subordination, as non-compliance with the regime’s expectations is always recorded and punished. This phenomenon is not exclusive to the world of literature.
China’s Social Credit System is a government program that rates Chinese citizens based on their behavior and affords privileges to them — or punishes them — based on their score. The Chinese government uses a network of security cameras equipped with facial recognition software as one method to monitor the citizens and judge their conduct. The BBC estimated that, as of 2020, there are over 550 million cameras in the network.
A variety of punishments for poor social credit exist, like travel bans and loss of employment and educational opportunities. On the other hand, should a Chinese citizen find themselves in the government’s good graces, they may receive discounted energy bills and expedited travel applications, among other things.
Admittedly, enforcing rules is nothing new, and this system could theoretically improve people’s behavior. However, “1984”’s terrifyingly bleak depiction of a world in which a totalitarian government has a stranglehold on people’s autonomy demonstrates the danger in pervasive micromanagement of the masses by authority.
In “1984,” “telescreens” are televisions that broadcast propaganda and cannot be turned off. The telescreens also simultaneously record audio and video, spying constantly.
The precision of Orwell’s foresight in imagining such a device is eerie. China’s surveillance program brings part of this vision to life, but there is no need to look further than the supposed bastion of individual freedom, the United States, to find comparable disregard for privacy.
To be fair, the United States has not compromised ethical standards to the degree that China has. The Chinese Communist Party has publicly denounced the idea of constitutionalism and criticizing the government can dock one’s social credit score. While the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to free expression, America certainly does not have a spotless record.
In the aftermath of 9/11, President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law. The Patriot Act aimed to fortify national security, a noble cause, but invaded the privacy of the American people in the process. The Patriot Act expanded the authority of the federal government to tap phones, monitor internet activities like email, and surveil banking and credit history.
Cracking down on terrorism came at the cost of large-scale data collection of millions of innocent citizens. In addition to the consequences of the Patriot Act, there are other concerning US government data collection programs.
The National Security Agency (NSA) began the PRISM program in 2007 after the passage of the Protect America Act (PAA), which abolished the warrant requirement for some targets of government surveillance. The constitutionality of the PAA was heavily questioned by constitutional lawyers and civil liberties experts, but the PRISM program is still responsible for storing massive amounts of communications data demanded from private companies such as Google, Apple, and Verizon.
The NSA is also responsible for the XKeyscore computer system which, according to Edward Snowden, enables the NSA to “read anyone’s email in the world, anybody [they]’ve got an email address for. Any website: [they] can watch traffic to and from it. Any computer that an individual sits at: [they] can watch it.”
The Chinese government is not alone in judging and restricting the social conduct of citizens either. Some places in the United States are beginning to dabble in that arena as well.
New York City has begun requiring “vaccine passports,” or proof of vaccination against COVID-19, to access indoor dining, fitness clubs, movie theaters, and more. Hawaii has implemented a similar “Smart Health Card” system.
Thankfully, many states have prohibited state-operated vaccine passport programs, and the Biden administration reportedly has no plans to implement a federal vaccine passport system.
For over seventy years, readers of Orwell’s “1984” have come away with increased gratitude for the freedoms that are the foundation of a just society. As time marches ever onward, technology evolves and the political landscape shifts, but the lessons learned from history hold true. As a people, a collective consciousness needs to take hold; it needs to be understood that power will continuously try to overstep its bounds and that the people are rightfully the ultimate authority in matters of government.
As Abraham Lincoln said, “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” and it is the peoples’ responsibility to prevent a government from governing for its own sake.
~ Johnathon McCartney `25
