Orwell's Oceania and the U.S.A. after September 11: Will Fiction Become Fact?

Tesis , 2004 , 148 Páginas , Calificación: 1 (A)

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INSPIRATION

What does it mean when the name “Orwell” is mentioned in the news? Does it mean that fiction has become fact? Is America heading towards a totalitarian society?

These are the questions I asked myself when I began to carve out the framework for the topic of my thesis.

It was in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 that I developed a genuine interest about America and its domestic and political agendas. When the planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, I was on my way to go to a class at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. What I remember about my state of mind on that day is that I was rather confused and unexplainably unmoved by what had happened. As it turned out later, my emotional passiveness was a shock reaction. It took me a few weeks to realize the disastrous events of that day.

At the beginning of October 2001 Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, came to speak at the University of Eau Claire. At that time I was a camera man for the campus TV station and I thought it would be a good idea to record Rothschild´s speech and make a little report for our weekly news show.

Rothschild talked very convincingly about the necessity to increase the American people´s awareness of how America´s foreign policy depends on a domestic policy which the Bush government would be aggressively imposing on the U.S.A. His speech had a crucial effect on me. I began to study the American mainstream media culture and was particularly interested in their presentation of America´s role in the world. Simultaneously I observed how almost all the government´s responses were declared to be in the name of patriotism and national security. Whether it was the war in Afghanistan or tighter domestic laws, the government demanded the unequivocal and unquestioning approval of the American people.

I began to realize that the government´s one-sidedness would not conform with the democratic value of free speech. I would begin to learn about totalitarian aspects in society that were indoctrinated by the government. [...]

Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)

• INSPIRATION...
• INTRODUCTION..
• 1 WHY ORWELL?
• PRELIMINARY PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS
• 2.1 Dispelling the Myth
• 3 RISE OF SURVEILLANCE
• 3.1 McCarthyism
• 3.2 COINTELPRO
• 3.2.1 The "Church Report"
• 3.3 FBI Targets Civil Rights Movements
• 3.4 New McCarthyism
• 3.5 Why does New McCarthyism exist?
• 4 THE RAMIFICATION OF TOTALITARIAN ASPECTS GRANTED BY THE GOVERNMENT
• 4.1 The USA PATRIOT Act
• 4.1.1 My Personal Concerns about the USA PATRIOT Act.
• 4.1.2 Attorney General John Ashcroft..
• 4.2 The USA PATRIOT Act in more Detail
• 4.2.1 Diminished Constitutional Control.
• 4.2.2 Guantanamo Bay
• 4.3 My Work with the ACLU at Columbia University
• 4.3.1 Campus Rally against the Patriot Act.
• 4.3.2 New York City's "Defend the Bill of Rights Campaign"
• 4.3.3 A Questionnaire...
• 4.4 People´s Resistance against Totalitarianism in Fiction and Fact
• 5 EXAMPLES OF ORWELLIAN SURVEILLANCE
• 5.1 The TIPS Program
• 5.2 How Omni-Present Telescreens Almost Became Fact
• 5.3 MATRIX: Attempts for a Centrally Organized Surveillance System
• 5.4 Surveillance of Airline Passengers
• 5.4.1 CAPPS II..
• 5.4.2 US-VISIT: The International Counterpart to CAPPS II
• 5.5 Military Spying on Civilians
• 5.5.1 Echelon
• 5.6 Surveillance Infers Security: A Fallacy
• 5.7 Truly Orwellian
• 6 THOUGHT CONTROL AND SUPPRESSION OF FREE SPEECH
• 6.1 The Government´s Aggressive Suppression of Individual Thought
• 6.1.1 Americans for Victory over Terrorism (AVOT) and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA)
• 6.2 Patriotism: A Matter of Interpretation
• 6.2.1 Columbia: A(n) (Un) Patriotic University?
• 6.3 Project for a New American Century
• 6.4 Doublespeak: Free Speech Zones
• 7 THE SECRECY OF THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CONTROL OF THE NEWS
• 7.1 Freedom of information: The People´s Right to Know
• 7.2 Office of Strategic Influence
• 7.3 All the News that Fit in the Memory Hole
• 7.4 The Total Information Awareness Program
• 7.4.1 TIA´s Afterlife.
• 7.5 Ministries of Truth

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

This thesis aims to explore the potential for George Orwell's fictional dystopia in "Nineteen Eighty-Four" to become reality in the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks. It examines the increasing surveillance, control of information, and suppression of free speech in the U.S. government's response to the events of 9/11. The author aims to highlight the problematic implications of the "war on terror" and analyze how much of Orwell's vision has been adopted by the U.S. since the attacks.

• Orwellian surveillance in the U.S. after 9/11
• The impact of the USA PATRIOT Act on civil liberties
• The control of information and suppression of free speech in the post-9/11 era
• The government's use of patriotism and national security to justify its actions
• The rise of new McCarthyism and its implications for American society

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

The introduction details the author's personal experiences and motivations for exploring this topic. It highlights the author's observations of the American mainstream media culture and the government's response to 9/11, leading to the thesis's central question: has America become more like Orwell's Oceania?

Chapter 1, "Why Orwell?", delves into the author's initial observations about America's domestic and political agendas post-9/11, emphasizing the growing concerns about the potential for a totalitarian state. Chapter 2, "Dispelling the Myth", briefly addresses the importance of understanding Orwell's work in the context of contemporary America.

Chapter 3, "Rise of Surveillance", examines the historical development of surveillance practices in the U.S., from McCarthyism and COINTELPRO to the rise of New McCarthyism. It highlights the government's use of these tactics to control dissent and suppress civil liberties.

Chapter 4, "The Ramification of Totalitarian Aspects Granted by the Government," focuses on the USA PATRIOT Act and its impact on constitutional rights. The chapter explores the author's personal concerns about the act, the role of Attorney General John Ashcroft, and the implications for individual freedoms.

Chapter 5, "Examples of Orwellian Surveillance", provides specific examples of how the government's surveillance practices have become increasingly pervasive in the U.S. This includes programs like TIPS, CAPPS II, US-VISIT, and Echelon, demonstrating the omnipresence of surveillance in various aspects of American life.

Chapter 6, "Thought Control and Suppression of Free Speech", analyzes how the government has sought to control information and silence dissenting voices. This chapter examines the government's use of patriotism, the suppression of free speech, and the manipulation of the media to shape public opinion.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

This thesis explores the intersection of surveillance, freedom of information, and free speech in the context of the "war on terror." It examines the USA PATRIOT Act, New McCarthyism, government control of information, and the role of media in shaping public opinion. Key themes include the erosion of civil liberties, the suppression of dissent, and the potential for a totalitarian state in America.

• Universidad: University of Graz (American Studies)
• Calificación: 1 (A)
• Autor: Magister Oliver Trenk (Autor)
• Año de publicación: 2004
• Páginas: 148
• No. de catálogo: V29040
• ISBN (Ebook): 9783638306676
• ISBN (Libro): 9783638723817
• Idioma: Inglés
• Etiqueta: Orwell, Oceania, September, Will, Fiction, Become, Fact