1984
Allow yourself to paint a colorful daydream in your mind in which the government controls every aspect of your life. Those colors that you’re seeing are probably various shades of grey and dark blue; it’s the perfect rainy palette an artist would use to describe a very sad image. No one has the right to tell others how they should live and certainly no one has the right to regulate if you’re actually doing as they’ve told you. But this is exactly what was predicted to be in the future by George Orwell in the well-known classic novel 1984. His book described a sordid futuristic world in which every aspect of life is being monitored by the supremacy of The Party, regulating its citizens of everything from sexual partners to the things they are allowed to think. In fact, the main character Winston Smith, is actually arrested for thought-crime. Fortunately, however, this totalitarian tale was set in the bleak, fictional streets of London, Oceania; the United States has quite a stable constitution in place to protect and prevent any aggressive attack from government to manage its people in the way that those leading Orwell’s dystopia had. Under the United States Constitution, the commonwealth is guaranteed quite the list of protected rights. When the country declared its independence and formed its own administration, America’s forefathers were not out to seek power for themselves. They envisioned a free world where all people could live as they desired, thought as they liked, and shared their opinions as often as they wished. These ideas are explicitly covered in the finalization of the First Amendment, securing the rights of speech, press, petition, and assembly for all people. However, totalitarianism is thorough when it comes to making sure no one has any power to disagree with the administration. The people of Oceania are brainwashed to love Big Brother and do as the Party commands, though it is only able to achieve this through a mass violation of
Cited: Enteen, George M. "George Orwell and the Theory of Totalitarianism: A 1984 Retrospective." Journal of General Education 36.3 (n.d.): 206-15. Print. Orwell, George. 1984. New York, NY: Published by Signet Classic, 1977. Print. Sedlack, Rudy. "Orwell On Totalitarianism." Orwell On Totalitarianism. N.p., 14 Dec. 1996. Web. 18 Apr. 2013. Turner, Charles C. Introduction to American Government. Redding, CA: BVT, 2011. Print. The Absence of the First Amendment in 1984 Zakary Jobe Political Science P101 Professor Keele April 19, 2013