The book 1984 was written by George Orwell and published on
June the 8th, 1949. The basic premise of this book is that the party
that controls the government sees everything that everybody does. The look in
through telescreens and all the people can see is the leader, known as Big
Brother. If you were to go back in time to when this books was written and tell
someone that something eerily similar to this would eventually become a
terrifying reality, they would look at you as if you were crazy. Sadly, the
premise of this book is slowly starting to become a reality.
Less than a week ago, the Senate and House of Representatives
passed a bill that would make it so that private corporations could sell your
private information and internet browser history to the highest bidder without
your knowledge or consent. The only thing that stands between this bill
becoming law is our president Donald Trump. If he signs it, the bill becomes a
law. If, for whatever reason, President Trump decides to not sign it, it will
go back to the Senate and House of Representatives. Sadly, President Trump has
already stated that he plans on signing this bill.
Why did the Senate and House of Representatives decide to
pass a bill that was obviously bad for the American people? The answer is
simple. Money. An article written by Kevin Collier for Vocativ.com says that “they
(the internet providers) gave a total of at least $1,726,288 to those 22
senators — an average of more than half a million dollars per election cycle.”
It is sad that we live in a time where the people that we elect to represent
our best interest are willing to sell us out for an average of $78,467 per
senator that was paid.
The only reason this bill was passed by both the Senate and
House of Representatives is because of lobbying. Lobbying done by private
companies is almost always done to pass bills that hurt, not help, the American
people. I believe that a bill should be passed that would make lobbying illegal
for private companies.
It is absolutely insane that George Orwell was able to write
a story over half a century ago that is now becoming fact. The fact that he
took what at the time was probably thought of as an outlandish and scary idea
of a dystopian future and have it turn out to be kind of true is crazy. I
wonder if George Orwell saw the technologies that were being developed at the
time and knew that they would eventually be used for an invasion of privacy.
Back in January, the book had a huge resurgence in popularity
after the new president took office. It rose to the top of the best-sellers
list to the surprise of many. Companies started ordering as many copies as they
could get their hands on and the publisher even considered doing another
reprint. It is almost as if everybody knew that the new people in power would
make the book a reality.
In conclusion, the book 1984 was written at a time where the
story was looked at as an impossible dystopian future. Now however, with the
scary new bill being passed in both the Senate and House of Representatives,
the dystopian future is starting to look like a dystopian present.
Sources
Collier, Kevin. “Senators Fighting
Online Privacy Rules Take Money From Industry.” Vocative.com, 22 Mar. 2017,
http://www.vocativ.com/411479/senators-online-privacy- money/.
"I wonder if George Orwell saw the technologies that were being developed at the time and knew that they would eventually be used for an invasion of privacy." Probably not. But he did see authoritarian humans lusting greedily for money and power, exploiting the primitive technologies of the time. It was a prescient but not implausible projection. Now we have to figure out how to use technology to preserve, not hinder freedom. It starts at the ballot box.
ReplyDelete