1984 and Usa Patriot Act

Stephanie Montenegro

Professor Bauer

Comp. & Lit. 2

January 2012

1984 to the USA PATRIOT Act

The novel 1984, written by George Orwell, takes place in a totalitarian world. The totalitarian world in which it takes place in is a world where there is no freedom, no right to privacy, and where the government has made the society weak and afraid thanks to their brainwashing propaganda. Living in the United States of America we believe of ourselves to be lucky not to deal with such authority, but are we as lucky as we think? The United States Government has enacted laws such as the USA PATRIOT Act in which certain titles of it take our civil liberties and privacy rights away, similar to the world depicted in 1984. This paper will serve to prove that Orwell is correct in showing the public; the manner in which an individual’s right to privacy is manipulated by the government.

George Orwell published the novel 1984 in the year 1949, and his appalling views of the future are heartrending but are also true to some extent. The people of Oceania live under the rigid regime of Big Brother. The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, has his every move followed through telescreens which are placed throughout the area in which he lives. The amount of surveillance these individuals undergo is a reminder of the many ways America has changed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. After these horrid terrorist attacks the United States government brought into effect The USA PATRIOT Act, which is also known as the Patriot Act. The USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym which stands for, “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism” (wikipedia). With this act the government takes control of people’s lives and is able to search thoroughly through personal information and to tap into private conversations, similar to the manner in which the lives of the people of Oceania were intercepted.

From the very beginning of the novel, Orwell reveals to the reader the state in which the individuals in Oceania live. Winston Smith, the main character, is under surveillance in his apartment, his office and even on the streets. There are telescreens everywhere telling him what to do at all times (Orwell 13). Winston feels unhappy with the totalitarian party and as well as uncomfortable because he is being watched constantly. This description is similar to that of some individuals attacked by the American government’s USA PATRIOT Act. According to the article “Patriot Act Complaints Reviewed” by the Associated Press, “The FBI was accused of illegally searching an Arab-American's apartment, vandalizing it and seizing property, later to return ‘to plant drugs in the complainant's home,’ the report says” (wired). Although some may find this example to be far fetched, the fact of the matter is that little by little our American civil rights are being revoked and I wouldn’t be surprised if one hundred years from now Orwell’s depiction becomes a complete reality.

In addition to what I have previously mentioned, within the novel 1984 the Party is trying to implement a new made up language, Newspeak, for the people of Oceania (Orwell 51-52). The purpose of the new language of Newspeak is to effectively avert political rebellion by making it nearly verbally impossible (Orwell 306). Just the thought of rebellion against the Party is to be considered an illegal activity. An example is that Winston Smith took the liberty to write the words “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” (Orwell 18) within a diary stating his hate for such tyranny. “He had committed…the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it” (Orwell 19). This happens to be very reminiscent of many of the issues with the USA PATRIOT Act. People who may just have thoughts of terrorism or those who may state negative unpatriotic thoughts of the United States can be condemned to being searched and alienated, without actually having performed any action. In the article “Judge Rules Part of Patriot Act Unconstitutional” on the msnbc.com website, it states that “U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the USA PATRIOT Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment." Therefore, the government no longer needs a substantial reason to check us. We can post something unbinding on any social network and be searched the next day due to unpatriotic ways, as has occurred in many cases. It is clear that the line between 1984 and our own world in America today is a lot thinner then we had anticipated.

In the novel it is clearly stated that there is no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. The Thought Police could “plug in” on any person at their convenience (Orwell 3). The book clearly states that the Party could plug in your wire and have surveillance on you at any given moment. This can be directly correlated to Title II: Surveillance Procedures of the USA PATRIOT Act, which “covers all aspects of surveillance of suspected terrorists, those suspected of engaging in computer fraud, abuse, and agents of a foreign power who are engaged in clandestine activities” (wikipedia). Although The USA PATRIOT Act was created to protect the United States of America from terror activities, many people believe that some of the provisions of this act violate the right to privacy in many ways. The manner in which government controls individuals can be said to come from the novel 1984. The American government seems to be taking surveillance to another level by taking many of the ideas from this novel and implementing them in the USA PATRIOT Act as well as implementing the USA PATRIOT Act itself.

As the story in the novel unravels it becomes more apparent thus more comprehensible that the Party uses people such as Goldstein, a rebel, to make Winston adore Big Brother. The Party manipulates Winston by using an informant called O’Brien to make him commit acts of rebellion against the Party. After being manipulated and betraying his covert affair, Julia, (Orwell 286) he then comes to adore Big Brother and begins to see him as a protector in addition to seeing him as Godly (Orwell 15, 298). In this, particularly, we can see the manner in which the government makes people think and do certain things, much like in the society of present day. Today we are mainstreamed to think about certain groups of people in certain