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Will we be living in a world like Oceania soon?

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Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart" (Naked Eye View). When investigating the integrity of the overly patriotic country of Oceania in George Orwell's 1984, one discovers that there is an extreme lack of regard for the values which modern day citizens typically cherish. In Oceania, rudimentary concepts such as independent thought, the right to privacy and free speech are nonexistent. Is there anything to be learned from such an undesirable form of society? Alarming connections can be made to real-world government activities inside the United States when you take a close look at the cruel and unusual world …show more content…

Some contend that this specific case isn't noteworthy because the shopping mall is a private institution. The police asking him to leave the shopping mall, according to some, are like a private residence asking somebody to leave their home. A weak argument is what this is, but even if it is legitimate, then how would somebody support the activities of Bellbrook High School, when a student got sent home for wearing a t-shirt with contradictory remarks about President Bush on it? Even the method of doublethink isn't too far from the reality at times. How many young children are educated that Christopher Columbus was a hero? That Abraham Lincoln battled the South in order to free the slaves? Concepts such as these are put in our minds as young children and teach us to have a certain pride in our homeland, but later on we learn, there is more to the reality than what we were being told. Clearly, disturbing similarities can be seen in the actions of our modern day government and the world of 1984. America's likenesses to the totalitarian regime of 1984 shouldn't be considered as a new problem by any means. Such violations of individual liberties have performed a prominent role in America's past as well as in its present. During the summer of 1798, the Alien and Sedition Acts passed by congress brought the United States nearer to a "Big Brother" organization than ever before. The Alien Act "authorized the president

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