Author's
Note: I composed this piece by starting with a stream of conciseness as I do
for most of my pieces. The introduction talks about a recent experience at The
Museum of Science and Industry. From there I go on to use the books Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and 1984 by George Orwell to convey my
message. I wouldn't call this a compare and contrast, but it is definitely
something I haven’t really done before. I was trying to work on my word choice
in this piece after reviewing some of the words commonly found on the ACT.
Fascinated I was, as
my eye traveled from image to image taking it all. It wasn't the pictures that
amazed me, though; I'd seen plenty of pretty images before. It was the little
purple dot that followed my eyes, showing me exactly what I had been focusing
on. It sensed every move my corneas made and replayed them for me to see.
Nothing that I saw, it didn't see. Everything was visible by the minute purple
speck --so tiny and insignificant, yet terribly horrifying. Only in a museum
would you find this today, but if history is correct, the future holds what we
have only dreamt of being behind glass doors.
So it was, back half
a century ago when discoveries were rapidly being made that some people first
began to see a future so attentively watched by the government, that they
feared what was to come. Both Fahrenheit
451 by Ray Bradbury and 1984
by George Orwell were written in this time period in the 1950's. Vividly both
authors illustrate their distress and fear of technology being used wrongly.
They predict a dystopic world in which the government was in ultimate control,
in which the citizen were closely censored, and in which there was no freedom
from the watchful eyes of the authorities.
As Orwell describes
in his novel, "There was of course no way of knowing whether you where
being watched at any given moment … It was even conceivable that they watched
everybody all the time." (4) Technology was becoming so vast during the
time this was written that people were afraid that it would become more
powerful, smarter, and stronger than humans themselves. To live in a world
where you’re every action was exposed to the authorities and where you had no
freedom of speech, left people with no meaning to their lives. It was as if the
people were just puppets that were being molded and shaped into icons for the
government.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury shows us how
all people cared about in this futuristic world was themselves and keeping
themselves in good terms with the authorities. Neighbors turned on neighbors to
rat each other out if they stumbled and chose to read a book against the regulations
of the government. Because technology was so prevalent, the people isolated
themselves from each other and only listened to what they heard from the walls.
Nobody in the book ever just sat and talked with each other or got together to
hang out; everyone was always busy with themselves and the walls. Living like
this caused the people of the book to be changed in the same way that they were
in 1984.
As we can see today,
the world hasn't quite fallen into the pit that was predicted, the government
doesn't control our every move, and we still have very much freedom. Compared
to centuries ago though, our technology has come very far and if they wanted to,
the government could easily tap into our lives and monitor our actions. Then
why don't they do that, if we possess the technology? There is a simple answer
to this question: it is just not humane. Though we may have a record
of forgetting what is humane in this world by killing and torturing our own
species, we have not forgotten that the human mind is far better than any
technology. Computers and televisions cannot feel emotions as we do, they
cannot love nor can they develop attachments. Technologies are machines that are
made by us, therefore it cannot possibly replace us in this world. We need
other human beings more than we realize.
