My Research Paper

[ragestreet]

I'm currently in my last semester of high school and I'm doing my research paper. Since you guys appear to be intellectuals, well-read, and all that jazz I was hoping to get some of your thoughts on this. I'm doing it on government surveillance/control (I hope I spelled that right) and, since it's a relatively short paper, I'm sticking to the patriot act and US propaganda during the war in Iraq. My thesis is that if the US govt continues unchecked we could have a poential 1984 on our hands.
Your thoughts?

Edit: Just in case I wasn't clear enough i meant 1984 the book. Not the year with shoulderpads as fashion accessories.

 

[APPCRASH]

As bad as this propaganda that you speak of is, I've yet to hear word of us removing the Bill of Rights in the near future.

 

[Gitsnik]

I'm currently in my last semester of high school and I'm doing my research paper. Since you guys appear to be intellectuals, well-read, and all that jazz I was hoping to get some of your thoughts on this. I'm doing it on government surveillance/control (I hope I spelled that right) and, since it's a relatively short paper, I'm sticking to the patriot act and US propaganda during the war in Iraq. My thesis is that if the US govt continues unchecked we could have a poential 1984 on our hands.
Your thoughts?

That you have been on that path for far longer than the recent patriot act. That it is the governments job to monitor you and "keep you safe". That even the news people will hype something over the top for you. That people are dumb (sheep) and are bringing this on to themselves - calling it "unchecked" is not accurate because people are checking it and are consciously saying "Sure, let's pass this bill" - they are just letting fear rule them.

But I'm in .au and some dick has tried to put a great firewall in here. I'll be ready when the time comes.

 

[Citrus]

I doubt that would happen. People are a lot more knowledgeable and outspoken about what goes on with the government than they have been in the past. If the US started turning into something out of George Orwell, there would be a lot of resistance.

 

[Cliff_m85]

I'm currently in my last semester of high school and I'm doing my research paper. Since you guys appear to be intellectuals, well-read, and all that jazz I was hoping to get some of your thoughts on this. I'm doing it on government surveillance/control (I hope I spelled that right) and, since it's a relatively short paper, I'm sticking to the patriot act and US propaganda during the war in Iraq. My thesis is that if the US govt continues unchecked we could have a poential 1984 on our hands.
Your thoughts?

Edit: Just in case I wasn't clear enough i meant 1984 the book. Not the year with shoulderpads as fashion accessories.

I think claiming that we could have a 1984 situation is going a tad bit too far.

 

[Pseudonym2]

I think you need to reed some Foucault. Actually monitoring everyone would be impossible someone has to look at the tapes and store them. If someone has the knowledge that they might be spied on they usually start behaving differently which is presumably why the Party has so many cameras. The other question that has to be answered is how much the citizens submit to the authority and how much rebellion is part of the power system. (Think "free speech" zones.)

 

[ragestreet]

I'm currently in my last semester of high school and I'm doing my research paper. Since you guys appear to be intellectuals, well-read, and all that jazz I was hoping to get some of your thoughts on this. I'm doing it on government surveillance/control (I hope I spelled that right) and, since it's a relatively short paper, I'm sticking to the patriot act and US propaganda during the war in Iraq. My thesis is that if the US govt continues unchecked we could have a poential 1984 on our hands.
Your thoughts?

Edit: Just in case I wasn't clear enough i meant 1984 the book. Not the year with shoulderpads as fashion accessories.

I think claiming that we could have a 1984 situation is going a tad bit too far.

I was thinking that but I had to relate this to british literature in some way. This seemed the best way to me.
Edit: Plus my english teacher's been annoying me about the book for awhile now. I trust her so I figured I'd give it a read. It has not disappointed.

 

[RapidCrash]

I think a good (albeit tricky) way might be to use the cold war as a piece. Do remember that during Vietnam, our government had absolute power. If done right, you could use that as a standpoint of "This is how close our government has come the last time", pull in something along the lines of "Our people have seen this kind of power and control used before, therefore they take a blind eye to the events happing now" and finally outline key differences between then and now which could point out differences to very-well worry about. I've seen it effectively used before in an essay and it scores well, but sometimes it isn't too easy to pull off.

 

[Leorex]

the natzi's where voted into power, it could be like that.

 

[Cliff_m85]

I'm currently in my last semester of high school and I'm doing my research paper. Since you guys appear to be intellectuals, well-read, and all that jazz I was hoping to get some of your thoughts on this. I'm doing it on government surveillance/control (I hope I spelled that right) and, since it's a relatively short paper, I'm sticking to the patriot act and US propaganda during the war in Iraq. My thesis is that if the US govt continues unchecked we could have a poential 1984 on our hands.
Your thoughts?

Edit: Just in case I wasn't clear enough i meant 1984 the book. Not the year with shoulderpads as fashion accessories.

I think claiming that we could have a 1984 situation is going a tad bit too far.

I was thinking that but I had to relate this to british literature in some way. This seemed the best way to me.
Edit: Plus my english teacher's been annoying me about the book for awhile now. I trust her so I figured I'd give it a read. It has not disappointed.

Understood. I'd just go light on the hysteria. As long as skeptical people exist there will never be a 1984 in America.

 

[ragestreet]

@Cliff: Got it. I hadn't planned on making anyone soil themselves. Maybe a goose bump on their arm or something but that's about it.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Ah yes. George Orwell's classic. I do feel that the US is coming a tad too close to the future predicted in that book. Sure, in all reality, it's still a good ways away from that, but as far as I'm concerned, not enough of a good ways away.

 

[supermaster1337]

1984 is a little extreme. Sure over the past decade we have lost many of our rights, especially our 1st amendment ones, but not that far. We do need to get those rights back, im not saying that we lost our right to speech, but we are limited. But we will get those rights back if we stay motivated as a country

We are not communist, and will never will be and definately not now even though people say under Obama we will be. no not true. Socialistic yes, but US is one of the few capitalistic countries left anyway.

 

[Pimppeter2]

I know this is kind of Off topic


but I'm reading this great book about Caesar, it explains how he wasn't that great, or even sane. Hmm I can't recall the name but if anyone is interested then just tell me

Okay on topic

I'm currently in my last semester of high school and I'm doing my research paper. Since you guys appear to be intellectuals, well-read, and all that jazz I was hoping to get some of your thoughts on this. I'm doing it on government surveillance/control (I hope I spelled that right) and, since it's a relatively short paper, I'm sticking to the patriot act and US propaganda during the war in Iraq. My thesis is that if the US govt continues unchecked we could have a poential 1984 on our hands.
Your thoughts?

Edit: Just in case I wasn't clear enough i meant 1984 the book. Not the year with shoulderpads as fashion accessories.

You can use that game about Iraq that was cancelled, maybe because it didnt make it look good?

 

[ccdistancerunner]

Link Iraq to Vietnam and bingo! All out raging governmental control of the destiny despite public reaction to the contratry.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I'm currently in my last semester of high school and I'm doing my research paper. Since you guys appear to be intellectuals, well-read, and all that jazz I was hoping to get some of your thoughts on this. I'm doing it on government surveillance/control (I hope I spelled that right) and, since it's a relatively short paper, I'm sticking to the patriot act and US propaganda during the war in Iraq. My thesis is that if the US govt continues unchecked we could have a poential 1984 on our hands.
Your thoughts?

Edit: Just in case I wasn't clear enough i meant 1984 the book. Not the year with shoulderpads as fashion accessories.

I think claiming that we could have a 1984 situation is going a tad bit too far.

I was thinking that but I had to relate this to british literature in some way. This seemed the best way to me.
Edit: Plus my english teacher's been annoying me about the book for awhile now. I trust her so I figured I'd give it a read. It has not disappointed.

Understood. I'd just go light on the hysteria. As long as skeptical people exist there will never be a 1984 in America.

I'm not paranoid if they really are out to get me, right?

 

[sheic99]

I think you need to reed some Foucault. Actually monitoring everyone would be impossible someone has to look at the tapes and store them. If someone has the knowledge that they might be spied on they usually start behaving differently which is presumably why the Party has so many cameras. The other question that has to be answered is how much the citizens submit to the authority and how much rebellion is part of the power system. (Think "free speech" zones.)

On that note, because of how well the Patriot Act is, there is approximately six months worth of backlogged chatter for Intelligence agencies to sift through. Or, so their was several months ago.

 

[Glerken]

When you're done with it, you can send it to me and I'll look over it for you if you'd like.

Wow... I just realized how bored I really am.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Sounds interesting. It's been done before though(actually a kid in my high school wrote a similar research paper as a senior). You'll need some good facts to back it up. I suggest drawing direct comparisons between the book and current civil rights and freedom infringements.

 

[Good morning blues]

You're going to want to relate the book directly to real-world events since 9/11. State your thesis clearly. Some good examples would be wiretapping (which you can relate to those screen devices they had in Party member apartments), the Islamic fundamentalist boogeyman (which you can relate to the two other countries), and government doublespeak regarding prisoner abuse and torture (which can be related both to the section where Smith is captured by the Ministry of Love and the constant examples of newspeak throughout the book).