Public Video Surveillance In George Orwell's Big Brother

Picture a society ruled by a tyrannical, totalitarian government that surveils and knows every move made by its inhabitants with intentions to brainwash, torture, and eliminate anyone that even questions its jurisdiction. This society has been vividly illustrated in George Orwell’s 1984 and is not too far off from what the United States will potentially become. The United States government is gradually becoming oppressive like George Orwell’s “Big Brother” in 1984; American society will eventually end up as a reflection of the Orwellian dystopia portrayed in 1984 if the U.S. government continues to invade the privacies of its citizens. Some oppressive acts that will be extensively discussed includes suspicionless drug testing, public video
People will act differently when they are aware that they are being observed. However, public video surveillance is a very extreme solution to keeping the governed under control and preventing crime as opposed to committing crimes. Instead of hiding security cameras in public areas, a simple alternative would be to hang up posters of human-like eyes. A group of scientists at Newcastle University, led by Melissa Bateson and Daniel Nettle of the Center for Behavior and Evolution, conducted an experiment confirming that people’s behavior is significantly and positively effected by simply hanging up posters of staring human eyes. Hidden cameras would definitely reduce crime rates but only because the individuals committing the crimes are being put behind bars when the main objective is to prevent crime. In order to prevent crimes then cameras should be publically displayed, a sign should be displayed, or do not use cameras at all and hang posters of people watching, it has the potential to be just as or even more effective than public video surveillance. Even though a study has proven that posters that depict human eyes in some way is effective there is still public video surveillance which suggests that the government is not using these cameras to protect us at all but rather to spy on us, which is not unlikely. A powerful surveillance system will inevitably be abused, says the American Civil Liberties Union. Abuse of the surveillance system consists of criminal abuse, institutional abuse, abuse for personal purposes, discriminatory targeting, and voyeurism. The U.S. government says that they use this public surveillance system in order to protect its governed; this is essentially a cover up story in order to spy on American citizens. If American society continues to spy on its governed then it will result as a society that is in agreement with the dystopia depicted in George Orwell’s