The government in Fifteen Million Merits is not oppressive in the stereotypical dictatorial regime. Instead, the government controls people by manipulating morality and society, which is made possible by the complete lack of privacy. Privacy is one of the many things these people do not have the luxury of. Everywhere people go, someone is watching them -- be it the advertisers/government, your fellow bikers, or even the whole world when you audition for a "channel." This invasion of privacy gives the leadership a very unique capability of designing how people think.
Human beings are social creatures by nature, and are easily influenced by others. A modern example of this is social media. People who spend a lot of time on social media have warped standards of beauty and social norms. [1] For that exact reason, their government makes their form of social media more compulsory than voluntary. All of their money and possessions are stored online, and almost all of their interactions are as well. Though these interactions are not even on par with modern interactions, they are more like a virtual audience that cheers from the distance.
Furthermore, people are compelled to share everything they do online. In our modern culture, some people believe that without posting an event online, it is as if it never happened. Every moment has to be shared with the world and people are not upset about it. Instead it is sometime a worthwhile trade. Convenience is a very powerful motivator that gets people to give up their privacy [2]. When the characters go to the bathroom, they have to pay for their own soap, but they don't use a credit card or cash, instead the soap dispensers just knows who they are through some form of facial recognition technology.
While I don't have direct evidence for this, I believe there is a good chance that people would gladly allow for facial recognition tracking if it allowed for great conveniences, like paying for a store just by walking out with the items in your cart. Maybe it would start as a special line like EZ pass, where people would just walk through and get the payment sent based on facial recognition.
In a world without privacy, the danger to dissenters extends beyond just catching people who disagree. It provides the ample opportunity to destroy those beliefs through social pressure and manipulation.
[1] Melissa Laughter al et., Psychology of aesthetics: Beauty, social media, and body dysmorphic disorder (03/05/2023) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clindermatol.2023.03.002 (10/10/2023)
[2] Alex Hernandez, The problem of convenience: Why consumers always choose convenience over privacy (08/11/2023), https://techaeris.com/2023/08/11/the-problem-of-convenience-why-consumers-always-choose-convenience-over-privacy/ (10/10/2023)
Privacy and the Government - notes while watching
Advertisements cannot be ignored, at best you can pay to skip them. Advertisements are both their own nuisance and a special type of government propaganda in their society.
Government literally knows everything you look at, especially in your own home -- completely goes against wiretapping laws.
Everywhere a person goes, they are tracked. Even in the bathroom, facial recognition is used to charge people for soap, and also watch their whereabouts.
Seeing nature is a luxury - and you absolutely cannot go somewhere where you are not seen by cameras
People on stage don't have to look at just the judges, everyone in their whole world can make a statement from the comfort of their homes, and the government uses that to put pressure