Government Surveillance In 1984 By George Orwell

In Common Sense, Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet advocating for American independence, “Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.” Government surveillance programs and apparatuses cross the line between protection and oppression when they violate civil liberties and threaten the privacy of everyday Americans. In our society today, with our rapidly expanding surveillance complex, our civil liberties are more at risk than ever before as the country’s surveillance expands in the open-ended war on terrorism.
In George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, the government utilizes surveillance methods to maintain control over the people of Oceania. The telescreen is a tool operated by the Party to continuously monitor the activity of the people to inhibit any degree of public or private disobedience against the Party. Orwell refers to
in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized" (Orwell 3). The people have no privacy even within their own homes; they are regularly wary of their surroundings because they know that the telescreens are observing them. Helicopters are another instrument used by the Party to surveil the people. Orwell comments on a hovering “helicopter skimmed down between the roofs… It was the Police Patrol, snooping into people's windows” (2). The helicopters are used by the Party to watch the activity of the people and to dissuade rebellion through their intimidating presence. The Thought Police were additionally employed by the Party to walk amongst the people in search of radicals. Even in a crowd of Proles, the Thought Police were “always amongst them, spreading false rumors and marking down and eliminating the few individuals who were judged capable of becoming dangerous” (71).