Though it was written in 1948, George Orwell’s (2011) 1984 is a chilling depiction of what society can be like if too few people are able to gain too much power over others, and if those others are willing to allow their ideas and thoughts to be controlled. The primary tool that the Party uses in 1984 to gain control over the populous is technology. Doublespeak would not be even a possibility if the Party did not have absolute control over the images, ideas and media that are shared with the public at large. Orwell hypothesizes technology that allows the Party to continually watch the larger population and to influence the way that people think, act, and even dream. In 1984, George Orwell scrutinizes the danger of the advancement in technology which may lead to dehumanization and the absence of individual freedom.
The place that technology holds in the novel is made clear by the fact that from the first time the reader meets Winston, he is aware of and attempting to avoid the telescreen by turning his back to it. Orwell writes: “The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard” (P. 2). From the very beginning of the novel, the reader is made aware that everything Winston does can and will be seen and heard. Throughout the novel, it is made clear that even those places that Winston thinks are safe from the prying eyes of the party are not. Big Brother is indeed always watching the people over whom the Party rule.
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"Technology in 1984".
It is also shown that the Party has developed technology which enables them to keep an eye on what people are dreaming. This is not stated outright, but O’Brien knows about Winston’s dreams, he knows about the rats that he cannot face in his dreams (P. 211). O’Brien can not only watch Winston’s dreams, however. He can also influence them. Seven years ago, Winston heard O’Brien’s voice saying that he would meet him in the place where there is no darkness, which O’Brien references in the Ministry of Love: “’I told you,’ said O’Brien, ‘that if we met again it would be here.’” (P. 183). Technology has allowed the Party to watch and control not only the waking world, but the sleeping on e as well.
The reason that the Party has developed these technologies is so that they can gain power. In order to gain control of the people, the party needed to control the past, and in order to do that they need control of the present. As Goldstein, or the Party as Goldstein writes: “since the Party is in full control of all records and in equally full control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the Party chooses to make it” (P. 159). The Party has developed technology which allows them to take away the freedom of the people by helping them to control the present, which controls the past.
Orwell’s novel is an examination of what can happen when the world relies too much on technology which can take away the freedom of individuals. A small number of people can gain control over a larger group by controlling the messages that are sent out through technology, and watching to make sure those messages are received. 70 years after 1984 was written, in a world where every pocket-sized device has a camera that can be used to observe as much as it is used to send information, the sentiment that there could be a big brother watching and influencing mass thought patterns is even more chilling that it was in Orwell’s day.
