Orwellian Features of Modern Society

Social developments in our society that could be identified as Orwellian, are the financial standing that distinguishes everyone in different stages from rich to poor giving supremacy to those higher, the social hierarchy in society which also relates to how much freedom and privacy you have dependent on your place in the pyramid, and the control that companies have on their workforces.

To begin, a social development that is Orwellian separates people into different categories is the economic standing of a person, just like how in the 1984 novel people are set into different categories such as inner party, outer party, and paroles. People who are richer rank higher on the social hierarchy as they can relate with other people of their class and often people lower look up to those with more power (Note: Power in this sentence is meant to be more than just influence it is also talking about other qualities that attract other people such as popularity and other assets) as it is natural in society, we can also connect this to the book because the inner party members are the 2% of people that have more power just like how in real life there is small percentage of people that are rich and influential giving importance to those who score higher on the ladder. People who are higher on the hierarchy have more of an influence and depending on the person this can also lead to negative consequences.

Next, we all have been in a social hierarchy no matter who we are, and some of us do not even realize it, and this causes us to either gain freedom or lose privacy depending on where one’s place on the social hierarchy is. For instance there are always the kids who are outgoing at the top of the group followed by their friends, these kids have fewer restrictions because they always have features that befit someone who appears to be free as this becomes part of their personality and they often even have more privacy as being the center of attention allows them to have control over others, this connects to the book as Big Brother and the inner party are the center of attention and this allows him to have the most freedom while no one can breech his privacy.

The largest population of people in society belong to the middle class where everyone is treated equally just like how we see in the text that all outer party members treat each other equally along with refer to each other as “comrades”, this relationship is dominant in paroles as well as they treat each other equally. Leading to the people who spend most of their time alone are often working towards something of a cause which we see in the Brotherhood as they in the book are isolated in order to survive, this limits all their freedom and rights, and we can also see this in Winston’s journey.

Finally, in the workplace we see that everyone has a manager who is constantly evaluating them in the workplace and the employees do not even know how their performance is being evaluated, how unlike in school we have rubrics telling us exactly what the teacher is looking for and we see in the text that Big Brother is constantly watching its citizens to see if they express any form of thought, in a way this is a test that not a lot of people believe exist (as they have been brainwashed), thus, this creates an examination where if they express thought they fail leading them to be caught by the thought police. The fact that people in the workplace need to prove their skills which is a positive outcome for the company as they will have better employees rather than wasting time on people who are not result oriented leading in a negative outcome for them employees.

In our society, there are rare acts of “Orwellianism” that have taken place such as two-way telescreen which Big Brother uses to spy on all of its citizens, and an example of data breaching which gives the hacker access to all of your information which is similar to how the inner party members have information on every person in Oceania. Firstly, the two-way telescreen which is constantly bringing major concerns with privacy is the hacking of webcams of a computer which gives access to a hacker allowing the hacker to spy on you which is a huge breech of privacy and can lead to major problems for the victim, this is not easy to achieve but when done it allows for the user of the computer to do their daily things on the computer, and a hacker spying on them similar to how we read in the text of 1984 that all the paroles and the outer party members are being watched by the thought police at all times to see if they express any form of thought.

The second example is when there is a data breech of all your important information such as bank details and passwords are all in the hands of a hacker, giving them all the power to take anything from you leaving you powerless, belongings such as money or even social media accounts can be used against you. This is similar to the book because against Big Brother everyone is powerless, and anyone can be vaporized as he has control over all your information.

To begin, in our society the previous are examples of “Orwellianism” such as two-way telescreen which Big Brother uses to spy on all of its citizens, and an example of data breaching giving the hacker access to all of your information which the inner party members have on every person. Firstly, hackers can hack into your webcams giving them access to it resulting in a breach of Privacy. In my life I have seen countless examples of people who had to get new computers over the fact that their systems had been breached, in the book we see that some people know that the telescreens are a form of surveillance, and in real life people are afraid of identity theft. Furthermore, data breaching is a growing problem in our society due to the increase in hackers around the globe.

In my life I have known people who have lost their social media accounts due to the fact that it was hacked, in the text people fear being abolished which is a major concern, and we see acts of fear from Winston, and in the world, people are constantly becoming victims of hackers while these hackers continue to roam freely.