The Patriot Act and 1984 by George Orwell

Simply by saying there are no rules, individuals are free to reveal what they feel, and everybody has flexibility of speech doesn't make it real. The Patriot Act and 1984 by George Orwell prove that these statements are completely incorrect. People of a greater power may inform the population that new rules are for "security" and "absolutely nothing will harm them," but all of these assurances are lies. Sure, they make everyone "feel" better about what is going on, however residents need to hear the fact and have a voice in decisions that include them, as the law clearly specifies ("U.

S. Constitution vs. The Patriot Act").

Both the Patriot Act and 1984 usage monitoring for the wrong reasons; taking the population's liberty and security. After the disaster of 9/11, millions of Americans felt susceptible and distressed. Individuals wanted greater precaution and needed to know they were safe. This was the government's possibility to get more power, and they developed legislation known as the Patriot Act.

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The primary purposes of this law are to avoid and penalize terrorist acts in the United States and worldwide and to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools ("Costs Summary & & Status")

. After people become aware of this brand-new law, many were all for it till they heard what this act genuinely enables the federal government to do. The Patriot Act permits the violation of lives, which rejects residents their liberty. This brand-new law lets the federal government search anyone's home, tap into people's phone calls, and observe what the population is browsing on the internet all without a search warrant.

("Costs Summary & & Status") The Patriot Act might be represented as a brand-new mode of security, but actually, in the end, the federal government is just gaining a growing number of power each and every day.

This Act actually matches up to Orwell's unique, 1984. In the book, the population is governed by Huge Brother and the Celebration. Everyone's individualism is ripped away; no one can ever be alone, and somebody is always seeing their every move. is exhibited when the dystopian lead character, Winston Smith, exclaims "The telescreens might be dimmed, but there was no other way of shutting it off" (Orwell 2). This quotation discusses that in the novel, someone was always monitoring the citizens by using the telescreens.

The telescreens could watch all the citizens and even control them to wake up and do the exercises worked by the Physical Jerks. This relates to the Patriot Act today because people never know when the government or investigators are tapping into their phone calls or examining their internet usage (“What Is the USA Patriot Web”). So the population doesn’t even have the power to be able to ensure a private phone call, and what they research on the internet is no longer their own business (“US Constitution vs. The Patriot Act”).

The next quote from Orwell’s novel that shows the how the government uses surveillance in the wrong way is “There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment” (Orwell 6). In the book, every citizen is watched by so many forms of surveillance that they always have to be on guard. There are the Thought Police, telescreens, and the spies. No one is ever safe in Oceania. This relates to the Patriot Act also because any person in the United States of America has no idea if and when he is being watched and reported on (“Bill Summary & Status”).

This type of uncertainty just isn’t fair to citizens. Living in a country where you have to be watchful of yourself is scary. The population of the USA is being backstabbed by its country, just like the citizens of Oceania in 1984. People should have the freedom they were told they would have from the beginning (“US Constitution vs. The Patriot Act”). No one deserves to be afraid in their own home, never knowing when they will be watched or who could possibly barge in without notice.

In every government, there are new laws and announcements created or envisioned every day. No one can predict what might come next. Those against the Patriot Act feel that it brought down the amount of freedom we had, and what’s coming next will not be pretty. They believe that the government will always be craving more authority and control and will do anything to get it. In this view, soon enough all of the citizen’s freedom will be gone as we know it, and the lives of many will represent the life of Winston Smith in 1984.