Big Brother is watching us!

We have been working on argumentative writing and some of us have written about how governments implement different methods to control citizens. Any similarities with George Orwell's 1984, maybe?


Here are some of the argumentative pieces we have written.

Electric Spy[1] by Maximo Rivi

For those of us who have read George Orwell’s masterpiece 1984, we know what seeing a new world unfold before our very own eyes is like. I think I speak on behalf of every single one of us when I say that never a book has left us as readers so- distressed. A visionary, George Orwell explored and took the bedrock of communism to its furthest extent. Having published the book in 1949 coincidentially at Communism’s apogee, Geroge Orwell crafted a futuristic dystopia where camaras controlled the masses, who worshipped a man created by the efficiency of propaganda and the ignorance of the people. Maybe the first time our grandparents or parents read this novel, the only relief they found to soothe their anxiety and fear of the unbeknownst future was the fact that technology was not yet mass produced to an extent of having one camera every fouteen people. Having read 1984 recently, disquietude overpowered me and left me defenseless, unarmed against the time we are living in.

How many times have we wished after having watched movies like James Bond that the gadgets he used were not a product of the producer’s imagination but real, purchaseable devices? How many hours have you sat before the television and marvelled over Sci-Fi movies and wished for the time when you simply just said a passcode to enter your bedroom to be now? As crazy as it seems, England is only one step away from fulfilling every kid’s dream… but the question is, should we cherish this, or fear it?

On one hand, the insertion of CCTVs (Closed-Circuit Television) into the streets of London has a positive aspect we can esteem if we think of the utility the latter could provide our culture. CCTVs are direct synonyms for surveillance, and surveillance every moment of the day, every day of the week can be a serious blow to the terrorist and delinquent network. The impact upon the general public in terms of security may be one of the reasons they have come to an amount of one camera every fourteen people, and it is needless to say that having a constant eye watching, waiting, analyzing every movement you make is certainly a partypooper for those interested in the robbing business. Thus, we can conclude that CCTVs are excellent weeders if wanting to cripple and eliminate the crime industry that might upset the simple person, just like you or me, from society.   

On the other hand, CCTVs never fail to bring 1984 back to my mind, and when considering that every fourteen people one camera is destined to observe them, I can almost picture Winston Smith walking amongst a crowd of innocent londoners. Security stands before every other concern in the English governemnt, and CCTVs are what they consider as the key to resolving protection issues. It is true that cameras weed out thieves, but to what extent does our private life have to get involved when concerning our safety? Is making our private life public the only way we can battle crime, or is there another purpose the government has for these cameras? When the limit between the public and the personal is tresspassed to such an extent such as the one the Londoners are experiencing, all that seemed good about these cameras has gone with the wind, and at the end of the day, you will always sleep with one eye open, but not necessarily yours…

George Orwell never lived to see his 1984 alive, and what he and many of the people back then feared about the future never materialized before them in their times… They knew that someday, governements would take control over the people and with just a few numbers and cameras and see everything. They died afraid, though safe in the knowledge that it was not them who would live to see this.

For them, the future was something distant, as distant as the year 1984 from 1949; a hazy horizon that projected a terrifying fate for the human race…

For us… The future is now.

[1] Reference to the song electric eye by Judas Priest






 

Government’s puppets. by Teo Speier

Few would deny that the government wants to have much control over what people do. There is government regulation for many things we do every day, such as what we drink and eat, our cars and homes, or more important issues such as health and education.

To begin with, in the last five years the number of cameras has increased dramatically. People all over the country wonder: Is this really safe? Frankly we don’t really know although the government insists that it is “for our own good”. The police insist that cameras are very good for crime prevention, but it is not nice to know that we are being watched all the time, even if the cameras make the streets safer because they discourage thieves. But is this really true?

Even if CCTV were useful to stop crime, it is annoying and uncomfortable to know that the camera can talk to you through a speaker if you are discovered doing something not allowed, such as throwing garbage on the road. Most people would like to live their own lives without knowing that the government knows everything about you and tells you what to do, what to eat, or what risks you can run or not. Especially young people want to be left alone to leave their way they want to, if they do not harm other people. It is terrible to think that “Big Brother is watching you” all the time.

Apart from personal liberty, the government should not spend so much money on CCTV cameras which are really expensive. For example in London there are over 10.000 crime fighting CC cameras which cost £200 million, yet 80% of crime remains unsolved. That money could be spent on making hospitals better places for those who don’t have a private medical plan or building schools where underprivileged children could have a better education. It would also be profitable to use part of that money for community projects to integrate adolescents who may become juvenile delinquents or drug addicts.

On the other hand, CCTV cameras are useful on busy roads where lots of people drive too fast or dangerously. In this way, when there are accidents the police can investigate who has been responsible or who deserves to get a traffic ticket. This system of cameras, also widely used at airports and government buildings, especially after the World Trade Centre disaster on 11 September, 2001; can also be used to prevent future terrorist attacks.

To conclude, there are many people who feel that the government is spying on them and they fear that one day they will wake up in George Orwell’s 1984, where the government has total control over the people and Telescreens shows propaganda such as: “War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength”, and much worse they can record sounds and pictures from inside the homes. Fortunately, that kind of technology is not available yet, but it should not surprise us that it might appear soon and we  all become “government’s puppets”.

Where’s the government eye focused on?

 By Joaquín Gutiérrez Galván

We live in a paranoid world. Everyone, and I include myself, is scared of the outside world. When we enter home, we check no one is following us or trying to break into our homes. In the streets, we cannot help checking that we still have our cell phones and wallets, in case someone took them.  What is the answer to this problem? Is it trapping ourselves home, closing every door and window, and making sure we never see a human being again? Or is it to accept it and just believe someone will do something about it?

  None of this should be a problem with surveillance cameras al around the city. We should walk our streets safe, knowing we are not going  not be mugged or attacked in some way or other.  We should be able to wait for someone coming home, without being constantly worried.  But should we give the government full time access to our lives as easily as that? Could we be so blind as not to realize there is someone on the other side of the cameras, watching, listening, and talking with other people. And who is that someone? The answer is: Our own government.

  Now more than ever, I feel like being watched all the time. I don’t feel safer at all. I am still careful not to walk through the same streets than before, although I know there are cameras all around. You ARE watched all the time indeed, but with what purpose? There is no way of hiding from an invisible opponent. All these cameras and ID cards, all of them keep a record of all your movements and actions and know whatever you do. Insecurity is just an excuse for being able to follow us all day-long easily. The truth is that the government may not be focused in answering all our problems, but on US.

  But yet, it may work. We may be safer from burglars or from being robbed. They may be caught after all and this system may work.  We do need more security in our lives. We need to be able to live our lives, not being scared of what other people do.

  We need to accept the world in which we live in, and adapt to it. We know we are being watched, and not just watched by anyone, but by the government. The answer to our problem of insecurity and control over us is to be ourselves and not let anybody else make us live in a way we don’t want to.

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Reality, a new unit begins!

Enough with war! This time our journey takes us on to explore the world of the media and how reality is portrayed.
After studying how reality shows work, we decided to invent our own.
Here is a sample of what we have been doing. This is a video by Teo Speier, Tomás Shaw, Jerónimo Alvarez Triaca and Joaquín Gutiérrez.

Check it out!

Comparing two war poems.

This time we have analysed two poems which deal with the subject of war from two different perspectives, "Children in wartime" by Isobel Thrilling and "The end of summer" by Roger McGough. Some of our writers have given their opinion on which of these two war poems describes the horrors of war in a more powerful way.

Here you can read the poems:                                    

The End of Summer

It is the end of summer

The end of day and cool,

As children, holiday-sated,

Idle happily from school.

Dusk is slow to gather

The pavements are still bright,

It is the end of summer

And a bag of dynamite

Is pushed behind the counter

Of a department store, and soon

A trembling hand will put an end

To an English afternoon.

The sun on rooftops gleaming

Underlines the need to kill,

It is the en of summer

And all is cool, all is still.

Roger McGough

Children in wartime

Sirens ripped open

the warm silk of sleep;

we ricocheted to the shelter

moated by streets

that ran with darkness.

People said it was a storm,

but flak

had not the right sound

for rain;

thunder left such huge craters

of silence,

we knew this was no giant

playing bowls.

And later,

when I saw the jaw of glass,

where once had hung

my window spun with stars;

it seemed the sky

lay broken on the floor.

Isobel Thrilling

Máximo Rivi

After having read “Children in Wartime” and “The End of Summer” and having analyzed the poems thoroughly, I have reached the conclusion that when being asked which poem expresses the horrors of war better, I consider “Children in Wartime” a superior example of the dreadfulness of warfare and what people, particularly children, have had to suffer in consequence of man’s ambitions.

In both poems, the use of imagery is recurrent. In “Children in Wartime”, we can see the use of imagery right in the first lines, where the author writes “Sirens ripped open the warm silk of sleep”. After reading this, the image of “warm silk” comes to mind as something pleasant or soothing; however, the previous words, “sirens ripped open”, give a whole new perspective on the poem and changes everything inside of the reader’s mind, giving him a bittersweet taste right from the start. Later in the poem, we find some very powerful imagery used again when the author writes “thunder left such huge craters of silence”. Since thunder cannot leave “craters of silence”, we understand the author is using imagery again. These words convey a powerful feeling of loneliness, of silenced desperation, where the victims of “thunder”, the victims of flak and bombardment, are either dead or praying to survive the attack, which has taken the words out of their mouths and has created these “craters of silence” among the sufferers.

 In “the End of Summer”, imagery is not as plentiful as in “Children in Wartime”, but we can still appreciate some by the end of the poem such as in line 13, where the author writes “The sun on rooftops gleaming underlines the need to kill”. “The End of Summer” starts in a comfortable, if not happy, scenario; Children are returning from their first days of school after satiating holidays, the days are cool but it is still summertime, and the atmosphere created by the author is that of true ease and warmth. Unbeknownst to the children, in a department store there is a terrorist about to detonate a bomb, thus the lines “the sun on rooftops gleaming underlines the need to kill”. Since it was dusk, the sun was in that position where it adopts a deep reddish tone and it becomes larger and somewhat more intense. When the author talks about the sun “underlining the need to kill”, it is refering to the sun’s intensity and its red concentrated color which was simultaneously gleaming on the Department Store’s roof where the bomb was bieng planted.  

To conclude, I chose “Children in Wartime” as a better example of the losses and the consequences war brings to those affected by it. Although both poems achieve the goal of transmitting a sour feeling of death, “Children in Wartime”, through metaphors and similies, strikes the reader (or at least it stroke me) with a more profound effect.

Francisco Martinez

Both ‘Children in wartime’ and ‘The end of summer’ refer to war, and in my opinion the latter, by Roger McGough, is more powerful in its descriptions. This is because it shows how a normal afternoon can be ruined, and how innocent lives can be ruined in seconds. This poem shows a more “poetic” version of war; it shows how in an indirect way, war takes the lives of many people. The poem is devided in two parts chronologically, the first part describes a normal summer afternoon in London, and the second shows how the people’s lives are ruined by terrorists. The title of the poem is also significant, “The end of summer” shows that the summer is finishing, but not only is the summer over; many people’s lives are over that same day, the day when the summer comes to an end.

Juan Diego Serrano

Definitely “Children in Wartime” expresses better the horrors of war. The author uses very powerful words and phrases like “Sirens ripped open”. It also uses powerful metaphors such as “When I saw the jaw of glass” which presents a broken window as a mouth wanting to eat you. It also explains the horror of bombs with an excellent metaphor: “thunder left such huge craters of silence”.

Sybrand Veeger

 Both poems, "Children in Wartime" and "The End of Summer" express horror in excellent ways; but "Children in Wartime" expresses it in a context that is related to war, so it is obviously better. However, this does not mean that "The End of Summer" is a great poem, it is just that it is not meant to be interpreted as a war poem. In fact, it aims at the horrors of Terrorism; an episode that took place in London.

  In one case we can see full descriptions of a bomb attack in WWI and how people dealt with these horrific, but true occurrences, and on the other hand we have a beautiful summer day, which is completely shattered by a "trembling hand". However, when it comes to wartime-horror descriptions "Children in Wartime" is the winner.