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1984 Big Brother Is Watching You Essay

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Someone has always been there to tell you what to do in life. As a young child, you were told to behave properly and not to eat too many sweets. As you grew older and older, it seemed as if the responsibilities became greater and greater in number. Even as an adult, there was always an officious boss telling you what to do. There was always some higher force that bound your actions. Authority was the major theme in the novel 1984, by George Orwell. Authority was also a profound factor in Stanley Milgram’s experiment conducted in 1974. It seems that authority has been around longer than any of us can remember, and it is authority that dictates the way we act.

Authority is based on instinct. When we…show more content…
He expressed total faith in the experimenter and accepted everything that was said. This strong faith stems from the experimenter’s powerful beliefs in the experiment.

To be a strong authority, you have to forcefully believe your own words. In 1984, O’Brien certainly was quite passionate about his beliefs. He gave me the impression that he truly wanted to see Winston changed and reintegrated. I feel that O’Brien did not enjoy shocking Winston at high voltage levels, but did so only because he felt it necessary to the task at hand. He seemed not to be serving a greater authority, but only himself. In the Milgram experiment, belief played an important part as well. It was the experimenter’s adamant retorts that made the difference for a hesitant subject. The experimenters had to have made themselves believe that participation in the experiment was absolutely essential, and that the shocks were not at all dangerous. Because the experimenter sounded genuinely assured in giving his commands, many subjects obeyed. We see a good instance of this with Fred Prozi. Despite his numerous, agitated objections and continuous dissent, Prozi continues to administer the shocks as ordered by the experimenter. After receiving determined answers from the experimenters, the subjects gained faith in the experimenter’s knowledge. If it seemed like the experimenters were lying, I think that many people would not
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