Reflection on Privacy Today and in "1984" by George Orwell

            The book 1984 by George Orwell envisions a dark picture of suppression and despotic control. The oppression in this book is so complete that I practically leapt for joy when I finished reading the section and remembered the real world again. The telescreen is the most evident indicator of the invasion of privacy that exists in this novel. It allows the Thought Police to view and hear almost everything going on everywhere. The only freedom is the few square feet that the telescreen cannot see—if you can call that freedom. Almost as bad, the telescreen plays “radio” in the form of propaganda, news, and music 24/7 without an off button. Until reading this book, I never understood how horrible such a society could be. Not that I was not already adamantly opposed to it, but that I now understand its vile nature more fully. The way in which children are used against their parents by the children’s participation in youth programs for indoctrination is quite horrendous. An important part of personal privacy is the right to parent  your own children, and, although the Big Brother would probably deny it, children in that society are really just spies and robots to be programmed according to the government’s wishes. Although such extreme conditions are nowhere near, privacy is an important issue currently. People are concerned that their computers are watching them, that the government should not tell them what to do with unborn children, or that they may be watched by government agencies. In America, these infringements on privacy are worried about too much. Infringements on privacy have been made primarily for the safety of our country’s citizens. As long as the people who are in control can be voted out of office, despotic government observation can be removed. The way it sits currently, the people who are doing nothing wrong have nothing to fear. People who want to do evil tend to complain the most, but the right to privacy does not give people the permission to do evil when others cannot see it. For instance, even though parents should have the right to teach their own children, that does not give them the right to murder their child in an abortion.