Rachel  Kozin

Professor Wexler

English 312

May 17, 2008

Dystopia

            In nearly every developed society in history control has been a necessity to maintain order and government power. For Guy Montag in Fahrenheit 451, firefighters are the law enforcers that maintain civil discourse by controlling the flow of information to the public through burning books. Similarly, the thought of people like Winston in 1984 are controlled by the Party which monitors its citizens even in the most private moments. It is quickly becoming apparent that 21^st century life has become much like these dystopian societies. With camera’s guarding nearly every street corner and severe paranoia about fellow citizens, countries like the United States have become the oppressive worlds that Orwell and Bradbury feared.  

            In George Orwell’s 1984, Winston and his fellow Oceania citizens are constantly being monitored by telescreens which reside in every private and public domain. Orwell’s cautionary tale of a dystopia where privacy was nonexistent has become a reality, in many ways, during the twenty-first century. Perhaps what is most similar to Oceania’s telescreens are the electronic Big Brother’s that have come to monitor everything from phone conversations to grocery shopping. In 2001, the Bush administration passed a law that allowed government agencies to freely monitor its citizens without any judicial ruling. This meant that an individual’s daily movements could legally be monitored by the government. Many American citizens have been easily convinced of the law’s validity since its passing but in a sense it has started a revolution of technological surveillance whose repercussions have not fully been felt. Nearly a month after the September 11^th attacks in New York and Pennsylvania, the Patriot Act was passed to “future terror attacks” (Dept Justice par. 1). This means that if the government suspects a person of having treasonous ties with terrorists, their activities can be monitored. Just as the telescreens in 1984 watch the every day lives of Oceania’s citizens so too can the Patriot Act of the United States. Phone conversations, postal mail, electronic activities can be monitored without a search warrant being issued (Dept Justice par. 5). Winston is forced to write in his journal in the far corner of his room where the telescreen could not see him; this is what the twenty-first century has begun to look like (Orwell 25). Finally, in Pierre Boulle’s, Planet of the Apes, humanity is overtaken by a population of apes because of the lack of motivation at the end of the twentieth century.

The modern problems of society are also echoed in 1984 with the Party’s observation of the public. Since his first day in office, the Bush administration has instituted a series of oppressive and invasive policies which inspire one to only think of the Orwellian warnings from the early twentieth century. According the United States Department of Justice, laws such as the USA Patriot Act which was passed in October 2001 allows for law enforcement to, “Investigate some, but not all, of the crimes that terrorists often commit. The Act enabled investigators to gather information when looking into the full range of terrorism-related crimes, including: chemical-weapons offenses, the use of weapons of mass destruction, killing Americans abroad, and terrorism financing” (Dept. Justice par. 2). In 1984 the Party argues that in order to protect the population from Goldstein’s influence, they must be constantly observed through the telescreen (Orwell). This is why war propaganda was created by the Party, to make the population fearful of the “other” or outsiders. “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength,” were propaganda to help dissociate Oceania’s people from realizing that they were being controlled (Orwell 25).

 Furthermore, Oceania is ruled by the fear of war and outsiders. This is similar to the tactics of fear implemented in the early twenty-first century. The war in Iraq has become a guise to further the goals of the administration in power as well as the corporations who influence them. The total cost, to this date, of the Iraq war numbers between $1 trillion and $3 trillion (BBC par. 1). Corporations quickly invaded Iraq to “secure its oil interests” as well as capitalize on the growing demand for Western goods that had not before been permitted (Rosemann 84). Private security firms have also made massive profits as a result of the war effort. Interrogating civilians or perceived “enemy combatants” is the duty of private security personnel in Iraq. “An investigation by The Guardian newspaper estimates that private contractors are the second largest contingent of armed forces in Iraq. Other sources estimate that private military and security contractors are contributing as much as 20 percent of the total U.S.-led occupation force,” which means that each day that these heavily armed mercenaries are on the ground in Iraq, they are being a paid a substantial amount of money in addition to the cost of having the largest military presence in the region (Rosemann 81).

It comes as no surprise then that the media has also played a large role in reaching vast numbers of Americans when spreading propaganda for the government. Currently, the argument for patriotism is often made to defend the expectation of a unified national opinion on the political policies of the government. In Fahrenheit 451, Beatty believes that existence of multiple perspectives in literature make for an unequal population. He says to Guy Montag, “we must all be alike. Not everyone is born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind,” by burning books all people are able to have an equal opportunity to view the world from the perspective of the government through television (Bradbury 101). The American government is similarly threatened by the multiple viewpoints in the media. On national “news” channels, pundits argue that those who are not in support of the policies of the American government are being “unpatriotic in a time of war” (Bill O’Reilly). These political commentators serve to guilt the American public into agreeing to the policies of the government rather than giving them a multiplicity of opinion and allowing people to decide for themselves.

            Guy Montag also makes an important point about the value of books and an understanding of history. He says, “the sun burnt every day. It burnt Time . . . Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt,” therefore if there is no examination of the past than it may as well not exist (Bradbury 120). Without an understanding of history’s pitfalls and the shortcomings of people who proceeded than we are bound to make the same mistakes. In the twenty-first century the books of Fahrenheit 451 represent the historical factors that give a better understanding of the outcome of the war effort. For Iraq it is a close look at the Vietnam War that would give both the American government and public a better understanding of the consequences of a long, drawn-out, civilian war. When the similarities are taken into account it is clear that the mass devastation of both land and lives will not end soon. Perhaps it is only when Guy Montag is able to read banned books that he understands the government’s motivations as well as the actions of those around him.

            It is not only the government propaganda that has resulted in the distraction of the mass public but also the technological advances of the past three hundred years which has inhibited human’s ability to continue intellectual progress. In Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes, Ulysse lands on a mysterious planet but soon discovers that he was on a future version of earth. It is the sad realization that humanity has taken for granted, all of the technological improvements in favor of leisure which stilted human development allowing for the rise of another dominant population (Boulle). The message in Planet of the Apes is that humanity should not seek to make their own lives “easier” rather to progress thought and intelligence to create a more prosperous social environment. However, Boulle’s fear of technology is quickly being realized in the twenty-first century. The twenty-first century has seen an increase in obesity, human disconnection and intellectual stagnation. Unlike the great thinkers of the enlightenment, the twenty-first century lacks really intellectual innovation. Instead, society relies on technology to create progress and Boulle’s fantasy may soon be realized if it is not acted upon.

            Government and political authority have become the very caricatures that authors such as Boulle and Orwell feared. Control and domination have undermined intellectual progress. Boulle feared that laziness among the general would lead to a loss of position in the natural hierarchy of species. Similarly, fears of a mentally stilted society were shown in Fahrenheit 451 with the burning of all literature. Orwell believed that the increasing monitoring of the population would also inhibit thought. As these works have shown, American society is not far from these dystopic views. It is essential that humanity regain control of their own intellectual and political destinies otherwise, society is doomed for the dystopia’s of Orwell, Boulle and Bradbury.

Works Cited

Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. 1968. Del Rey Press. 2001.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Del Ray Press. 1987. 

Orwell, George. 1984. New York, NY: Signet Classic.1961.

Schifferes, Steve. “The Iraq War; Counting the Costs.” BBC NEWS: Business. 19        March  2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7304300.stm.

Rosemann, Nils. “The Privatization of Human Rights.” 2005. 77- 100. http://sobek.

colorado.edu/~lewiso/Private%20Corporations%20and%20Human%20Rights.pdf.