Little+Brother+and+1984+Essay

__**The New Technology of the Government is Taking Away from Individual Security**__ By: Brooke G

Society is ever changing in the United States and in the world, the quote “‘Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards,’” (Huxley) fits exactly how our security and individual rights are being breached by the government. Throughout the readings of // “Little Brother” // by Cory Doctorow and //“1984”// by George Orwell many aspects of our society have been brought to attention. n “Little Brother” a young man named Marcus, code named M1k3y, is targeted by the government after he and his friends were found near a site that a bomb had just gone off in San Francisco. He soon finds himself on Treasure Island, a small island a short boat ride away from his home, in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security. After being tortured for his passwords and “disobedience” he is released back into his world that is now turned completely upside down; his best friend Darryl hasn’t returned from Treasure Island and Marcus begins to think that he and his friends and family will never see Darryl again. Through his new found system of communication, the Xnet, he gains thousands of followers and finds new ways to talk to people that many, including him, never could have even dreamed of in such large numbers. Along the way he finds and meets a girl named Ange who becomes one of his partners in crime as he goes against the DHS. After a long hard run, Marcus is put back into the hands of the DHS, and Ange finds her way into their hands as well. While in “//1984//” a normal man named Winston begins to have ideas of going against his over powering government that is constantly watching everyone, everything, at all times, no person is allowed to speak his or her mind, and it is considered weird to have a personal relationship with any other person. At his work place he notices a young brown haired girl named Julia, as well as another man that works at the same place who is named O’Brien. Winston and Julia eventually find themselves in a sexual relationship that they see as a rebellion against the government since they are not allowed to have sex for pleasure but instead only for the government and keep human kind alive. One day when Julia and Winston are relaxing in the home away from their homes, a group of malicious men come into the room and take them away to the Ministry of Love to have them “cured.” After being put through Room 101, the worst thing in the world for each individual person, Winston breaks and begins to give in and mindlessly love the government along with the rest of his society. Throughout both books the idea of the government taking away personal security is prominent. Security has really turned into spying. Many think that individual security and lives are being saved by technology, but from these books I’ve learned differently, instead of being more protected, we are actually more vulnerable through this surveillance with the way that the world is spying on us instead of protecting us with the new technology, with this surveillance where are we headed and what can we do about it?

A person’s picture is taken over 100 times a day. Everywhere anyone goes, there is a camera watching what they are doing, or when they got there and when they have left. The security of the nation and the world is being taken away from person, and often, it is looked at as okay. At airports an individual’s security is being completely broken into because of those ridiculous x-ray machines that look at a person almost completely naked to make sure that they are not carrying any lethal weapons, or perhaps a bottle of water or gel. Even the Internet is watching. Websites such as “ Google ” and “ Facebook ” can watch where a person goes on the Internet even after they have logged off or gone away from that website. Facebook watches were someone goes on the Internet for almost 90 hours after logging in just once, so that the ads can be personalized to that person based on where they have gone on the Internet. What happened to privacy? “...but there was always the danger of concealed microphones by which your voice might be picked up and recognized... (Orwell 117)," continued with the idea that, “...’I don’t suppose there is, but there could be. There’s always a chance of one of those swine recognizing your voice’ (Orwell 119)." This is not security at its best, instead it is reaching into a person’s personal life and taking it away single handed. It is much like what is happening in today’s society, there can be microphones everywhere just because of the smallest suspicion or just the want to put them there to listen in to conversations. Phones can be tapped into without a second thought. It is just like in “//Little Brother//” when Marcus’ computer has been tapped by the Department of Homeland Security. “There were eyes out there, eyes and ears, and they were watching me. Surveilling me. The surveillance I faced at school had followed me home, but this time, it wasn’t just the Board of Education looking over my shoulder: the Department of Homeland Security had joined them (Doctorow 81)." The Department of Homeland Security had argued that they were doing all of the things that they were doing in this town for the security of the whole city, but instead it had taken away the rights of Marcus and many other people while actually taking away a personal security that everyone has the right to own for themselves. Much like a recent story that has been brought to several people’s attention, a school was spying on its students by using the computers that they had issued, “...the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families.“ (Doctorow) They argued that the web cams being constantly turned on without the knowing of the students was a safety precaution if the laptop was ever stolen, but in reality, many of the students had been spied on by administrators. One young boy had been disliked and while in his room, he had been spied on day and night, sleep and awake, naked, doing homework, eating, and several other things. At one point while eating __Mike and Ikes__, the administrator watching him had accused him of taking drugs and he was called into the office. Is all of this “security” actually offering security? Or is it just another way to spy on the human race? The extra security programs and processes has actually made everything less secure for everyone because they are being watched, spied on, and yet no one seems to even notice how easily and closely a person can be watched with a few typed keys and a click of a mouse.

Many people have no idea what all is going on in society and how technology is truly taking away from a persons individual security. Throughout Cory Doctorow’s speech and much with what has been talked about in class, I learned about RFIDs and how they are in things such as clothes, books, and in some places even foods and other items available for purchase at even just a local store. “Some of the world's largest product manufacturers have been plotting behind closed doors since 1999 to develop and commercialize this technology. If they are not opposed, their plan is to use these remote-readable spy chips to replace the bar code ( Spychips )." This meaning that many manufacturers are adding RFIDS into their products in order to track just the simple everyday person anywhere that the object is brought with them. Few people know that they are being watched and tracked through a shirt that they bought at "Wal-Mart" or some other manufacturer. Several non-tech savvy adults kids and teens are also unaware of all of the possibilities that technology offers that can be used for spying in everyday life. “‘You’re going to have to learn to live with the fact that we live in a different world today. You have every right to speak your mind of course, but you have to be prepared for the consequences of doing so. You have to face the fact that there are people who are hurting, who aren’t going to want to argue the finer points of Constitutional law when their lives are at stake’ (Doctorow 217)," The world that we live in is also quite different. There is a DHS in the United States as well, and they too have taken in prisoners. Our world is different than how it was even just 10 years ago. If an email is sent out, or a “Facebook” status is posted and it has the worlds such as “kill” or “bomb” the people or technology surfing the Internet can pick up on it and even go so far as to track down the person who had written it. The consequences for our freedom of speech makes speech not so free any more and technology and the way that it has been used to spy is causing this. After 9-11 had occurred in the United States, new groups were formed, new tactics were being used to spy on people when they were said to be offering more security, and security was put on highest priority. But when you really look at everything that the government had done to give the so called security, was it all really worth it? What do you really know? That is what is relied on. “‘He was a fattish but active man of paralyzing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms- one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even that on the Thought Police, the stability of the Party depended’ (Orwell 22)." A person who will not look into things is unknowing, they have no idea what is going on truly in society. It is impossible to know how many people are like this, and how many bugs there are, and where they are. No one knows at all times when they are being watched by a machine or another person. We don’t know how this security that is supposed to be protecting us is actually hurting us instead. “‘These guys may be fools, but they’re methodical fools. They’ll just keep throwing resources at this problem until they solve it. It’s tractable, you know. Mining all the data in the city, following up on every lead. They’ll catch the terrorists.’ ‘...They’re talking about investigating practically every person in the city of San Francisco!’ (Doctorow 137)." This is much like what had happened after 9-11. The government completely infiltrated the United States and just kept going until there was nothing left to even go after. What would happen if this security was to be torn apart again? What would this to do society? There is so much about our own world that we have no idea that it is going on. What is this all going to lead to and what are we going to do about it now?

So what will happen now? What are people going to do about it? With the impact of how security is really being used to spy on a counties own citizens, the whole world can turn into one that is much like the society in “//1984//” or in “//Little Brother//” after the bomb is dropped. “To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone-to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink-greetings! (Orwell 28)" This is showing how in the future, with the security of each person being taken away so easily, that there will be no room to even talk freely anymore. Every single conversation can be tapped and taped, and easily accessible to be used either for or against people. Someone will always be watching and know exactly what you are doing all the time at any given point in the day. “I’ve walked to school a thousand times, but today it was different, I went up and over the hills to get down into the Mission, and everywhere there were trucks. I saw new sensors and traffic cameras installed at many stop signs. Someone had a lot of surveillance gear lying around, waiting to be installed at the first opportunity. The attack on the Bay Bridge had been just what they needed (Doctorow 89)," Simply walking down the street can become a threat and even then anyone can still be watched easily, even more so than now. Absolutely no private life will be given to anyone, no one will ever be able to be alone like they are now in the safety of their own home. Police searches could be given out randomly for no reason and even go as far as to taking clothing, an ID, or a credit card away. Nothing will be any body’s anymore but everything will be every ones. “The impact of the emergence of information and communication technologies has been felt in almost every aspect of human life and this almost every area of social science research. Security studies is no exception: the information society has brought with it new security threats arising both from the increasing complexity of social organization in general, and the emerging territory of “cyberspace” in particular and it has modified some of the “old” threats changing the way states threaten each other, the way asymmetric warfare is conducted and expanding both the powers and the opportunities available to internationally operating organized criminal networks (Bright)." All of this basically meaning that as society has advanced so has the technology that has come with it. The old threats to personal and state security have all been thrown out and new threats are being dragged in with the idea of taking a person’s identity in the world and using their credit cards to buy things that they would otherwise not have the money for. Security isn’t the idea of having someone come in and murder another in their sleep anymore; instead it affects the everyday life of everyone by taking away their life while they are still living it. With security the way that it is now, this could become an even more common story for everyone in the world, the whole world stuck in a mass chaos with no one being whom they claim to be. Everyone running around just trying to find another person who hasn’t yet had their identity stolen or has stolen another. Society will be a complete disaster and no one will be safe from anything. The idea of having a whole country being nuked would become even more prominent with the technologies and then the security of the whole world would be down the drain. Is this how the world wants society to be? Well it could certainly be this way if personal security isn't being protected now at this point in history.media type="youtube" key="cTj2FmGoFho" height="206" width="363" (Youtube)

Throughout society the majority of people know that they are being spied on, though they don’t know the extent, and aren’t quite sure where this is going to leave our society because the security of each person is depleting and few are educated enough to know what to do about it. Almost everyone knows that our security is being breached by the government and eve just the simple man around us such as how a person’s picture is taken over a hundred times a day. Though they have close to no idea how extreme this spying has become with the aphids being used and where they really are and how site such as “Facebook” can stalk your Internet activity. If the way society is going now isn’t stopped, it could end in a catastrophe with not being able to have any private life and being at the risk of being thrown in jail for the simplest of reasons such as saying “threatening” words together in a sentence that isn’t even meant to be threatening. So what are we going to do about this? It can start with learning how to encrypt messages and creating keys with people. Taking the time to spread the word of what is happening in the world to everyone around you. Without taking these precautions against our own security being taken away, society could end up being as bad as the societies in “//1984//” and “//Little Brother//”.

Take a look at where our society is heading: media type="youtube" key="6Cf7IL_eZ38" height="315" width="560"(Youtube)

__** Works Cited **__

Bright, Jonathan. "Security, Technology and Control:Respositioning Securitisation Theory for the Infomational Society." 16 July 2010. Web. 13 Feb. 2012. .

Department of Homeland Security. //Department of Homeland Security | Preserving Our Freedoms, Protecting America//. United States Government. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. .

Doctorow, Cory. Little Brother. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2008. Print.

Huxley, Aldous. "TOP 25 TECHNOLOGY QUOTES." //Combobulate//. Drupal. Web. 07 Feb. 2012. .

OIHS Students. "The Xnet." //OIHS Reads//. Web. 20 Feb. 2012. .

Orwell, George. 1984. New York: New American Library, 1961. Print.

Spychips. "What Is RFID? How RFID Will Compromise Privacy, Security, Freedom." //RFID Nineteen Eighty Four//. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. .

Stellin, Susan. "Practical Traveler - Airport X-Ray Scans Stir Controversy - NYTimes.com." //NY Times Advertisement//. 07 Sept. 2010. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. .

The RFID Network. "What Is RFID." //The RFID Network//. 24 Oct. 2011. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. .

Webopedia. "What Is Cyberspace?" //Webopedia: Online Computer Dictionary for Computer and Internet Terms and Definitions//. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. .

//YouTube//. Perf. Optic Niko. //YouTube//. YouTube, 01 June 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2012. .

//YouTube//. //YouTube//. YouTube, 02 July 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2012. .

__** Works Referenced **__

ACT Canada. "Where Do We Go Now?" ACT Canada - the Stakeholder Association. 12 Sept. 2000. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. .

Cole, David. "What We Still Don’t Know." //The New York Review of Books//. Wake Forest University, 29 Sept. 2011. Web. 09 Feb. 2012. .

Doctorow, Cory. "School Used Student Laptop Webcams to Spy on Them at School and Home." Boing Boing. 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. .

Doctorow, Cory. Little Brother. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2008. Print.

Orwell, George. 1984. New York: New American Library, 1961. Print.