Shepard

 **1984 Wiki**

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Oceania has many characteristics of varying modern societies, which I will cover in the table below.


 * America || Other countries ||
 * 1)Media Control || 1) North Korea social system ||
 * 2)Using fear to control || 2) North Korea's propaganda ||
 * 3)Banned books || 3) Sex ed ||
 * 4) Phone tapping || 4) Using Children ||
 * 5) Guantanamo bay || 5)Rationing ||
 * 6) History is written by the victors || 6) Sweat shops ||
 * 7) Never ending war || 7) censorship ||
 * 8) Google || 8)North korean torture ||
 * 9) Undercover police || 9) forced labor camps ||
 * 10) Pledge of allegiance ||  ||



**1)Media Control-** 6 companies alone control 90% of all media. These companies are Disney, Viacom, GE, News-corp, Time Warner, and CBS. What this means is that all the information fed to us is for the benefit of these companies. They tell us lies to get us to buy their products and think how they want us to think so that we make them billions. They tell us what's in style, what movies to watch, what people/countries to hate, and how to act. The companies can literally bend our minds to their whim without us ever having a clue it is going one, which is exactly what Big Brother does to it's citizens. Even the news is owned by these companies, and is filtered before ever being aired, therefore the news your being told could be altered drastically or even completely fabricated and you would never know. Ingsoc brain washes their people just the same as we do with the constant airing of propoganda from the telescreens. []

**2) Using Fear to Control-** The United states government has been exploiting the fear of the people to accomplish selfish goals for a very long time now. By using fear, they can perform immoral acts without any negative feed back from the American people. The war on terror is a perfect example. The government made a "threat level" to keep the people in fear after 9/11, when realistically, only 26 people are killed a year in America from terrorist attacks. Almost quadruple that many are killed from vending machines. By keeping us in fear, they can terrorize the Iraqi and Afghan people and milk out their oil with the support of the American people by claiming it is "revenge for 9/11". Oceania uses the same tactics, with the constant threat of Eurasia/East Asia over running their country, and the bombs that are dropped from the sky onto the proles. These keep people angry and distracted from the truth about Big Brother.

**3) Banned Books-**There have been countless books banned over the years in America, whether it being at a national leve l, a local level, or just at a certain school. These books are banned because they don't like the message it will give kids usually, which is the definition of eliminating free thinking. It's alright to have your own thoughts, as long as they are approved of by one's authority figures. They also sometimes alter the words they don't approve of rather than banning it. The Inner Party changes all their records and destroyed or altered every book that they didn't like the message of. That is just a larger scale version of what our government does.

**4) Phone Tapping-** The Patriot Act was passed after 9/11 to "protect the American people" by allowing the FBI to tap any phone or read any email that it dubbed as slightly suspicious. The name "Patriot Act" is a good example of doublethink to begin with due to the fact that our nation is based of freedom and privacy yet the act violates our privacy completely. This means you could be under constant surveillance and everything you've ever texted or said on the phone could potentially be on record. George Orwell would turn in his grave if he knew this. Oceania also kept people under watch at all times if they were considered a "dangerous person". The only difference is that the Inner Party used spies, thought po lice, and telescreens, whereas we use cell phones. Big Brother and Uncle Sam are starting to seem more and more related.

sition, in extreme temperatures, for 18 hours. Everyone in America knows that this goes on there, but we just act like nothing is going on because it is beneficial for us to ignore it and we can't prove anything anyway. The interrogators exploit the prisoner's phobias to get break them. Guantanamo Bay is the room 101 of this universe. Big Brother and Our government both use the exact same tactics to break so
 * 5) Guantanamo Bay- ** This is everyone's worst fear; a hell hole where the US laws and constitution no longer apply and anything goes.The torture that goes on here to human beings is just sickening. There have been reports of people being shackled to the ground in the fetal po

meones mind.

**6) History is written by the victors-** The winners get to decide history. They get to write the history books and decide who the good guys and bad guys are. Think about it. If Nazi Germany would have succeeded in world domination, do you think their history books would say they are the evil in the world and America was good? No, it doesn't work like that. Germany would be considered saints and every Allied power would be the evil that tried preventing them from helping the world. However, we are the winners. Everything we learn points to how we are t he heroes and everyone we have fought is the villains . Big Brother does the same thing. They write the history books and decide what the youth of their nation learns, which is that the Inner Party are good, omniscient beings that seek the well-being of the people, and Eurasia, Goldstein, an d traitors are "evil" that they are trying to vanquish.

**7) Never ending wars-** America has been a country since 1776, and since then, has only spent 21 years at peace. The remaining 214 years we have been in some type of war with varying countries. Right when we began pulling troops out of the war in Iraq, we suddenly get in conflict with North Korea. This pattern will never end. Oceania fights a never ending war also, switching between Eurasia and East Asia, and also with its citizens. Big Brother use the war as a distraction from their own evils, whereas America uses the wars for the profiteering of big businesses.



**8) Google-** Google knows more about you than you know about yourself. It has kept track of everything you have ever searched since you first start using your computer. It knows you so well, that the ads that appear are ones that Google has selected based of your searches knowing you will be interested. For instance, if you are big into health, advertisements about working out and losing fat will pop up m ost of the time. This is like Oceania because Big Brother is always watching. He knows everything about you, down to your very thoughts.

**9) Undercover Police-** Police are every in America, from the parking lot trying to catch speeders to roaming the streets of your neighborhood. For the most part, police are a good thing, so that's non-Orwellian, however, undercover police are a whole other story. They dress like average joes and lure people into committing crimes. An example is influencing a prostitute, then busting her for doing what he said. This is just like 1984's thought police. You never know when your being watched and who is a police officer underc over, so the slightest violation could be penalized no matter where you are.

**10) Pledge of Allegiance-** Since we have started school, we have said the pledge an insane amount of times. It has been drilled into our head through repetition without us ever even realizing it. We are vowing to stand under God and follow whatever decisions are made for the good of America without even thinking twice about it. It is almost like brain washing our children since they start at such a young age when children are impressionable and their minds are easy to mold. This is precisely what Big Brother does with the spies. They fill children with utmost patriotism for their country; so much so that they would turn in their own parents for the greater good.

**11) North Korea social system-** North Korea's people are divided up into three groups, called castes. These castes are determined by their parents, so they are born into a certain group. They can be classified as "loyal", "wavering", or "hostile". The "hostile" makes up the biggest portion, and are basically little more than slave labor. The "loyal" group is treated very well, while the "wavering" gets some privileges but is still constantly watched and on thin ice. This is just like Oceania's caste system, with the Proles making up the largest group (hostile), then the outer party(wavering) and finally the inner party with all the liberties(loyal).

**12) North Korea's propaganda-** North Korea probably has the most similarities to Big Brother of any government in history. They spew propaganda into the minds of their people that their low living conditions are due to Americans doing evil things, and that they are currently destroying us in the war that hasn't even happened yet. The Korean people believe that the white house has been destroyed even. Instead of telling the people about problems in the country, the government just feeds them lies about how awesome their leader is and how he has made the country a better place using fictional information. Big Brother did the exact same thing using the Ministry of Truth. If their ration of chocolate actually went down 5 grams, they would say on the telescreens how it has went up 5. They also broadcast constantly about how evil Eurasia is and how the war is going with them, when in reality, the war isn't even real.

**13) Sex Education-** In third world countries, many cultures cut the clitoris off of a woman early in her life. It is estimated that 97% of every a dult woman in Egypt has had this done to her. They do this to take the pleasure out of sex so that it is only used as a means of reproduction and nothing more. Shockingly, this is more brutal than the universe of 1984, where they just frown on sex and seek to eradicate it with "artsem". They still both have the same end goal though, to take the humanity and enjoyment from intercourse.

**14) Using children-**In some undeveloped countries like Africa, children make up a large part of the armies. They use children because they are so easy to brain wash, will do whatever you tell them, and there is an endless supply. The rebel armies get them addicted to drugs and then give them orders to do the warlords dirty work in order to get more drugs. Oceania also using children due to their malleable minds. The inner party floods their minds with pride and patriotism to the point where Big Brother is much more important than their families and they can now use the kids to spy.

**15) Rationing-** Many of the countries that are totalitarian or communistic use some sort of rationing of goods. Cuba and North Korea both have strict food rations, and survive with the bare minimum amount of food. Free trade is non-existent in North Korea so everything must be purchased using the ration coupons, so there is no way to get more food after you run out. As bad as that sounds, it is actual helpful to the people too poor to afford food to begin with, so it's a double-edged blade. In Oceania everyone is at the bare minimum standard of living also. There is food rations, chocolate ratio ns, and clothing rations. Nobody lives comfortably.

**16) Sweat Shops-** In countries like China and Malaysia, working in a sweat shop at a very young age is all to common. Sometimes they can work up to 16 hours a day, and only make a dollar in that time. Big businesses like Nike and Adidas have millions of foreigners doing slave labor to co mplete their products. This relates to Oceania because it doesn't say once that Winston is even paid at all for his job. Slave labor isn't a shocking concept in that universe so it would make sense. They basically work to survive.

**17) China Censorship**- In China, the entire internet is censored and monitored at all times. Anything you say online could result in imprisonment or worse. Besides the constant surveillance, much as the internet is blocked. Google, Youtube, and most chat rooms are restricted in the entire country. This is very Big Brother like because they block these sites so that they don't get access to see what the outside world is like and see that they are living poorly. The people won't be able to hear ideas opposing China's government's words without freedom like chat rooms.



**18) North Korean Torture-** In North Korea, instead of being sentenced to jail time for your crimes, you are tortured brutally. They do not discriminate between men, women, and children. Everyone is tortured equally. There is also a political prison in North Korea that is very comparable t o the Ministry of Love. This is like Oceania because anyone that goes against the government is tortured until they love Big Brother.

**19) Forced Labor Camps-** In China, if you commit a crime, you may be sent to forced labor camp where you do hard labor until your sentence is done. You are not paid at all and you work in horrible conditions. This is just like Oceania because the same thing happens in their society. Politic al prisoners are sentenced to labor camps until death.

SOURCES: www. **cdc **.gov/ www.youtube.com

www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005180

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world.../geos/kn.html

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