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Blog Post 6:

Winston in 1984 is an interesting character by nature of the fact that he is completely ordinary. There is nothing particularly special or remarkable about winston, and that is why Orwell choose him as the narrator. The thoughts and desires for freedom come to the ordinary, it's the simple people who band together that produce change . Winston is easily relatable, or at least he is meant to be easily relatable.

Dystopian Lit Blog 7

Part 2: Should you resist the feed or embrace the feed? How so?

Anderson takes the idea of our technology saturated society and use of social networking, and bows it way out of proportion. The book is a satire ,so this was his intent, but he comes across more as a condescending jerk and a Luddite than a concerned individual. His commentary and very apparent views on the teenagers of today make one wonder why he would ever write young adult fiction if he so obviously has no respect for his audience.

The extent to which the feed influences the characters of the book such as Titus and friends is very obviously bad and tells us that we should resist the feed, but at this point in time we do not have the internet integrated into our brain. What we do have is social networking sites. Should we resist these and the general pull of mobile technology? Yes and No, it’s a balance. Technology is not bad. The overuse of some technology is bad, but all of the devices we use today were created to help people. Smart phones are an easy example  of something that Anderson would criticize, they allow the internet to be with us at virtually all times, we can search anything and be in constant contact with anyone. The overuse and dependence on such a device is bad. Being able to disconnect and be away from other people for a period of time is important, everyone needs to learn the value of their own company and the ability to think for themselves, but to so blatantly condemn all of these things refuses to acknowledge the validity of other people’s narratives. Social media and texting is very good at allowing people who are geographically separated to connect! I moved from Texas to Illinois at the end of of my freshman year, I am still in contact with my best friend because I can text her, I can still wish my friends in Texas a happy birthday because of facebook. Social media was designed to connect people and when used wisely that is what it does.

Another thing Anderson has a problem with  is the way students can simply look up anything and think that passes for knowledge in school and life. He has somewhat of a point with this, if you just look something up be never remember it that doesn't count as learning. But the ability to look up things easily is very useful! Anderson references a number of historical events and even some fictional books. I was able to look these up easily because I have access to the internet, but if I did not I would have to go search through my US history book which I won’t do because I don’t care enough. easy access to information is a blessing not a curse.

The feed, or at least it’s equivalent in today’s society is only as bad as we make it. Overuse of anything is bad. These technologies were created to help humans connect, they were well intended and what we do with them is up to us. If we overuse that it’s our fault, but you shouldn't throw away a very useful piece of technology because it is being overused by some.

Dystopian lit blog 5

Discuss the issues presented in both 1984 and The Truman Show. What do these two stories have in common?

Both stories are about the abuse of power of the people in charge as they control and deceive the lives of the common people. In the truman show the people who abuse their power is a corporation as truman is the first “corporately owned human” and his life is put on show for the entertainment of others. For winston the government is the one in power and their plot is on a rather larger scale as they control all of the people rather than just one. As characters Winston and Truman are similar in the fact that they are just normal people. There is nothing initially special about Winston and Truman has nothing to make him remarkable if it were not for the fact that he was bought as a baby by a corporation. They are both adult males of about average intelligence with comfortable but not overly important jobs.  

Once Truman begins to realize what is happening he, like many characters in 1984, are deeply distrustful of those around them as everyone is not being genuine. This leads to feelings of isolation.

Another similarity between the book and movie is the way in which the people in power keep their subjects controlled, both the government and christoff keep the people distracted. The proles are given gross movies and cheap novels to keep their attention off of anything real. Truman is kept distracted b his wife and best friend, when he attempts to leave his way is blocked, and once he becomes suspicious they reintroduce his dad to take his mind off of his suspicions. Also watching truman’s life serves to distract all the other people outside of the TV set. Keeping the people entertained and distracted is what keeps them from rising up and noticing problems with their life and society.

Dystopian Lit Blog 4

While you are reading 1984, choose an issue/passage/character in the novel/film and find an article that demonstrate its relevance in today’s society.

Samsung’s warning: Our Smart TV’s record your living room chatter

http://www.cnet.com/news/samsungs-warning-our-smart-tvs-record-your-living-room-chatter/

In 1984 Winston is constantly watched by the telescreens that both record his words and monitor his actions, even allow the people on TV to reprimand him by name when he is not working out hard enough. Now Samsung has come out with a TV that is remarkably similar to these telescreens as their voice recognition system allows them to not only capture your conversations, but also transmit them to a third party. This is of course all done in the name of product improvement so that they can gather data to improve the voice recognition system, but it bears a hauntingly similar feel to the world Orwell envisioned for the future that may not be as far off as we had hoped.  

The company assures that they take customer privacy seriously, a spokeswoman is quoted saying "Samsung takes consumer privacy very seriously. In all of our Smart TVs we employ industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers' personal information and prevent unauthorized collection or use." But this is not so reassuring when the question of who is authorizing any of it and why.

Dystopian Lit Blog 3

Is it ever necessary to give up your civil rights for the greater good? Find an article on a current event and discuss the issue in terms of your opinion on civil rights.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/07/balancing-act-national-security-and-civil-liberties-in-post-911-era/

Quotes from article:

Most recently, in 2010, 47% said they were more concerned that government policies “have not gone far enough to adequately protect the country,” while 32% said they were more concerned that “they have gone too far in restricting the average person’s civil liberties.”

In the 9/11 anniversary survey, just 29% favored “the U.S. government monitoring personal telephone calls and emails” in order to curb terrorism.

Giving up civil rights is something no one really wants to do, and as american citizens our expectation of our rights and expectations of privacy are higher than in almost every country. I am no more fond of the idea that the government records my phone conversations or reads my text messages anymore than anyone else, but i do recognize that as an american our expectation of privacy is significantly higher than what is considered reasonable in other countries. Great Britain, specifically London, has put up an extensive network of cameras throughout the city, and these cameras are monitored at all times. It is impossible to cross the city without being recorded by the cameras. They even have tv show contests in which people try go from one place to another without being detected and the person who is recognizable on the fewest number of cameras wins prize money. To us in America this sounds absurd and like a gross invasion of privacy, but in Britain the people will even say that they like it as it helps protect them. Because the cameras are monitored when people who appears to be engaging in suspicious activity are spotted on camera the police are notified and can arrive at the scene within minutes. This has cut down on the number of violent crimes. the loss of civil liberties such as privacy in favor of security is a very complicated moral issue and it is one that I don’t feel qualified to make an educated decision on just yet.

The info about the cameras in London came from an article we read and discussed in Constitutional Law, but it is in my con law binder which I did not bring to school and is a few years old from the newspaper so I couldn’t find it to link it.

Dystopian Lit blog two

Are there any benefits to propaganda? When and why?

The obvious answer to this question is “no, there are not any benefits to propaganda because it obscures the truth and allows the government or other groups in power to hide the truth from the people”, but I think the answer is a little bit more complicated. The frequency with which propaganda is used today is excessive, and tells more lies than truth, but there are times in history in which propaganda has helped a nation. Now, when we are at peace, a government should not have to lie to its people, but at times of war deception can be necessary.

WWII is a prime example of when propaganda was used. Foods were no longer just whatever they were, they were victory foods. People ate victory cabbage grown in their victory gardens. The ever present posters proclaimed things like “Uncle Sam wants you!” or featured Rosie the riveter with the ever encouraging “we can do it!”, in reality if you were still at home it was probably because Uncle Sam didn’t want you and while Rosie gave a much needed boost to the women’s rights movement no one was sure that we actually could do it. While these things didn’t quite tell the truth they brought the nation together in a difficult time when unity was a necessity for survival.

Nobody likes feeling manipulated or lied to, but at times propaganda can work for the good of the nation, the trick is to only use it in times of crisis and only when necessary. That is a bit of a blurred line, but finding people who you can trust to do what is right is the central aim of democracy. Propaganda is very powerful, and while not pleasant it can be necessary, the difficulty is in finding people trustworthy who won’t abuse the power.