In George Orwell’s 1984, there is an all-powerful ruling force called Big Brother. The ominous leader has a large following known as The Party. This group “seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power”(Orwell 332). Corruption is one way they achieve power over all of Oceania, the super-continent they reside in. To the corrupted government, physical control is not good enough. The only way to completely eliminate physical opposition is to first eliminate any mental opposition. Something they call the Thought Police, control the thinking of the people. There are 4 ministries, who keep order and thus create an even more corrupt and oppressed environment. It is expected for everyone in Oceania to “...love Big Brother. It is not enough to obey him; you must love him” (Orwell 233). Winston, the main character in the novel, does not love Big Brother as he should per the rest of society. He does many things throughout the novel that are considered illegal. The corruption is not the only issue which Orwell presents, both directly and indirectly. He warns that absolute power in the hands of any government can lead to separation between citizens in different classes of society.
When we think of corruption, for most of us the first thing that comes to mind is politics. In today’s society government holds the biggest blame for corruption and lately a new group has taken the stage, our law enforcement. With the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement taking over the news channels, social media, and political debates, a pressing question is brought to light of who is corrupt in this battle between societal subsections. This movement began almost 2 years ago in response to the Trayvon Martin shooting. It has continued to gain momentum with every new act of “police brutality” against African Americans. According to BLM, Zimmerman's act was but a microcosm of the “virulent anti-Black racism” that “permeates our society” and continues to exacerbate “the deep psychological wounds of slavery, racism and structural oppression.” (Perazzo WWW). The founder of the BLM movement, Alicia Garza, argues that “our nation's “corrupt democracy” was originally “built on Indigenous genocide and chattel slavery” and “continues to thrive on the brutal exploitation of people of color”. The first instinct for most citizens is to point the figure at local authorities and the government for being corrupt and allowing police brutality to continue nationwide. What many forget is the uprise when police began using body cams and dash cams. The nation did not want that so called invasion of privacy. Now with the high rate of police brutality, more times than not the only way to investigate the details of these events is through a camera phone video taken by a bystander and the word of the police officer involved. The nation shied away from the Big Brother approach and now we see that these cameras could unlock the truth about what is really happening during the altercations being called racism, discrimination and brutality. It comes down to the fact that there is corruption on every level of this matter. Corruption begins from the moment a new story breaks through the media until the officer is declared guilty or innocent for his actions. Per Fox news, it is “a combination of the prosecution and media,” that has officers “walking on eggshells,” (Faulker WWW). In 1984, the Party portrayed Big Brother as a leader to love and obey, but was that really the case? The corruption in society through media and government both in the novel and BLM movement act as a catalyst to the growing of the issues present.
When we think of corruption, for most of us the first thing that comes to mind is politics. In today’s society government holds the biggest blame for corruption and lately a new group has taken the stage, our law enforcement. With the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement taking over the news channels, social media, and political debates, a pressing question is brought to light of who is corrupt in this battle between societal subsections. This movement began almost 2 years ago in response to the Trayvon Martin shooting. It has continued to gain momentum with every new act of “police brutality” against African Americans. According to BLM, Zimmerman's act was but a microcosm of the “virulent anti-Black racism” that “permeates our society” and continues to exacerbate “the deep psychological wounds of slavery, racism and structural oppression.” (Perazzo WWW). The founder of the BLM movement, Alicia Garza, argues that “our nation's “corrupt democracy” was originally “built on Indigenous genocide and chattel slavery” and “continues to thrive on the brutal exploitation of people of color”. The first instinct for most citizens is to point the figure at local authorities and the government for being corrupt and allowing police brutality to continue nationwide. What many forget is the uprise when police began using body cams and dash cams. The nation did not want that so called invasion of privacy. Now with the high rate of police brutality, more times than not the only way to investigate the details of these events is through a camera phone video taken by a bystander and the word of the police officer involved. The nation shied away from the Big Brother approach and now we see that these cameras could unlock the truth about what is really happening during the altercations being called racism, discrimination and brutality. It comes down to the fact that there is corruption on every level of this matter. Corruption begins from the moment a new story breaks through the media until the officer is declared guilty or innocent for his actions. Per Fox news, it is “a combination of the prosecution and media,” that has officers “walking on eggshells,” (Faulker WWW). In 1984, the Party portrayed Big Brother as a leader to love and obey, but was that really the case? The corruption in society through media and government both in the novel and BLM movement act as a catalyst to the growing of the issues present.
Fig 2 Fox News correspondents discuss the role of media on the lives
on officers involved in the Black Lives Matter movement.
on officers involved in the Black Lives Matter movement.