NCEA 3.7 – Significant Connections – Dystopia

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” This image is seen in George Orwell’s dystopia Nineteen Eighty-Four and represents a future of control, destruction, and suppression of individuality. This idea of control is a common thread that ties together various dystopian texts. Through their works, these authors warn us to pay attention to how others aim to control us, in order to safeguard our right to making our own individual decisions without being restricted or manipulated by the state. Four key dystopian texts that each portray this warning are George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the film Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg, the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, and a selection of song lyrics crafted by Radiohead. These four texts are united by how they warn the audience of how their future could be if they passively allow increasing levels of control to be imposed upon them. Through seeing the effects of language manipulation, surveillance, and restriction of individual moral decisions, the authors warn us to wake up and defend our rights in the face of increasing levels of control from those in power.

Language is a powerful tool. In the words of George Orwell, the language we use can influence our thought processes and even “corrupt thought” if we are not consciously aware of how language is used around us. The modification of language to maintain control over individuals is a key theme presented in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The language ‘Newspeak’ in his society of Oceania is an invented language which serves as a way for the government, namely the ‘Inner Party’, to “narrow the range of thought” and thus control the actions of the citizens. Orwell writes that “In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it,” with ‘thoughtcrime’ meaning any deviation in thought from the principles of the Inner Party. By “cutting the language down to the bone,” and changing the way people communicate, the government can influence the thoughts of the people over time and ultimately use this for their own purposes. Through demonstrating the extent to which our thoughts can be controlled and corrupted by the language that we use, Orwell warns us to pay attention to how this occurs in our own lives so that we can protect ourselves from being influenced in this way. Additionally, despite Orwell’s novel being written over 70 years ago, it is still very relevant to our lives today in this warning that it portrays. With the rise in ‘alternative facts’ and the extension of propaganda through social media, it is more important than ever that we are aware of how language is used to control us in our present society. We must be aware, so we can better protect ourselves against being manipulated by the language we use.

A further extension of Orwell’s warning is demonstrated through the government surveillance presented in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Through the Orwellian technology such as the telescreen, which “received and transmitted simultaneously” and meant all citizens could be watched “at any moment” by the Inner Party, a huge invasion of personal privacy could be maintained. In Orwell’s words, “the smallest thing could give you away,” so individuals are forced to constantly monitor their actions and ensure no deviation from ‘orthodoxy’ is seen. This demonstrates how technology and surveillance can be used to restrict individual choice and action if, as a society, we allow it to reach that point. This idea is similarly shown in the film Minority Report. In this film, advanced technologies are used to predict and locate future murder crimes. These murders are then prevented by the government’s PreCrime Division, by capturing the perpetrator before they can commit the murder. Because of how this process eliminates all possibility of choosing last minute whether to actually carry out the murder, and instead prosecutes an individual before they do anything wrong, Spielberg warns us of how controlled our lives and actions could become if we allow the developing technology in our lives to be used for this purpose. As well as this, a further link between technology as used for surveillance in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Minority Report is seen through how publicly known this surveillance is made to be. The posters of ‘Big Brother’ plastered around residential areas in Orwell’s society are eerily similar to the flickering eyes on the digital billboards in Minority Report, with the eye being used as a symbol of surveillance throughout the film. Both serve as a constant reminder to the citizens that not only are they being watched, but any deviation from the government’s expectations will have a dire consequence. Orwell writes that “Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed—no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.” This surveillance and invasion of privacy are similarly true in Minority Report, shown through the use of the ‘birds-eye view’ camera angle; this is used to allow the audience to encroach on private aspects of the lives of the people. As a result, both texts demonstrate how technology and surveillance can be used for control, to the extent where individual actions may be influenced by the state and personal autonomy manipulated as a result. This is similar to the idea of language manipulation; surveillance as used to control is also becoming more crucial to recognise as the technology in our society develops. Both Nineteen Eighty-Four and Minority Report warn the audience to pay attention to this development and not passively allow invasive surveillance to become normalised in our society. If we don’t pay attention to the control mechanisms in our own society, our lives could eventuate in this same level of manipulation that we see in dystopian literature.

“Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?” This question is proposed by Anthony Burgess in his novel A Clockwork Orange, which investigates a third form of control that can be used to manipulate individual choices. Both A Clockwork Orange and Minority Report deal with the idea of whether the restriction of choice is a moral way of improving society, or if it is more damaging to humanity than the consequences of ‘bad’ actions. In both texts, the state aims to reduce crime by removing a person’s ability to choose between good and evil, through forcing them into a course of action that is considered ‘good’ by the state. In both texts, this also results in an undesired consequence. In Minority Report, the process of preventing a murder means convicting the criminal before the crime can be committed. As the film progresses, we are introduced to the ‘precog’ Agatha, who has the ability to see a future murder occur. After the anti-hero John has his own future murder revealed to him, Agatha tells John “You know your own future which means you can change it if you want to. You still have a choice.” This is proven to be true. John chooses not to carry out the predetermined murder, and his defiance of the PreCrime system demonstrates Spielberg’s warning of restricting personal choice in this way. By removing the ability to choose, innocent people could be locked up for a crime they may have chosen not to commit—a very unfortunate side effect of the ‘perfect’ PreCrime system. Anthony Burgess portrays a similar idea in A Clockwork Orange, by how the juvenile criminal Alex has his ability to make moral choices removed by the state. As he undergoes the torturous “Ludovico Technique,” this process removes his ability to think of or carry out any violent actions. He becomes a “piece of clockwork,” or a mechanical object incapable of choosing anything that doesn’t align with acceptable behaviour as determined by the state. Burgess states through the novel that “Evil has to exist along with good, in order that moral choice may operate,” and that “Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.” However, the government has manipulated Alex to the point where he can only do good. He therefore no longer has any real choice or autonomy over his actions, and so is incapable of moral choices; the state has therefore removed what makes him fundamentally human. The governments in Minority Report and A Clockwork Orange both try to improve their society by removing the option to commit a bad act, but this results in a world where a person is unable to choose good and make moral judgements. What this communicates is not just a warning of government control, but that even if there are good intentions, control and restriction of individual choice is just as immoral as the same action with bad intentions. Through this control, the authors communicate this overarching warning that connects dystopian literature. We must protect our right to make individual choices without interference or restriction by the government, as it is our right to be more than just a pawn of the state.

Nineteen Eighty-Four, Minority Report and A Clockwork Orange all clearly warn the audience of what the future could look like if we don’t take action against increasing levels of control in our lives. The Radiohead lyrics also encompass this key idea. In the Radiohead song “2 + 2 = 5”, the lyrics run “Two and two always makes a five… It is too late now, because you have not been payin’ attention.” In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell writes that “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it,” warning us again of the powerful control that a government could have if we allow it. As this slogan also features in the Radiohead lyrics, it communicates how aspects of these popular dystopias have become so well known that they have entered into our culture today. However, despite the fact that we know these texts so well as a society, we are not “paying attention” nor actually listening to the warnings presented in the texts. To ensure we realise this, Radiohead also writes that “we’re not scaremongering, this is really happening,” with scaremongering meaning ‘to spread frightening or ominous reports or rumours’. There are legitimate aspects of our society that are following exactly what these dystopian authors have predicted, like the use of advanced technology for increased surveillance. It is no longer just a warning of the future. Radiohead clearly warns us that “this is really happening,” and we are now living in predicted times. The level of control and surveillance in our society is increasing and we aren’t nearly as conscious of protecting our rights as the creators of these famous dystopias have warned us to be. These Radiohead lyrics act as a final plea to act on what we have learned from these dystopian texts; we need to pay attention to the control mechanisms in our lives today, and actively protect ourselves against them.

From analysing the mechanisms of control presented in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Minority Report, A Clockwork Orange and the Radiohead lyrics, it is clear that these dystopian predictions are not as far from our own lives today as we would like to think. Each of these texts warn us of how we could be manipulated and controlled if we allow it, and how our individuality and personal autonomy could become more and more restricted as a result. We need to wake up to these warnings that Orwell, Spielberg, Burgess and Radiohead so clearly present us with, before it is too late.