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DYSTOPIAN FILM
When George Orwell published 1984 back in 1949, his novel was lauded as a terrifying portrait of a totalitarian world ruled by a malevolent faceless government, whose citizens lived bleak existences stifled by rules, bureaucracy, paranoia and surveillance.
In the years that have passed since its publication, we’ve come to appreciate the prophetic nature of 1984 and many a dystopian novel and movie have followed in its footsteps, accurately predicting political, cultural or technological changes to the world we live in. So, has the nightmare world that Orwell predicted finally caught up with us? Take a look at some of these and decide for yourself…
CCTV / SURVEILLANCE – 1984 There’s a brilliantly illustrative (but sadly, doctored) photo doing the rounds online at the moment of George Orwell’s former home with its English Heritage blue plaque fixed to the wall, a few inches from which is a camera mounted to a post and a sign reading ’24 Hour CCTV in Operation.’ The photo may be a fake, but the reality isn’t so far detached from that, with a newspaper reporting a few years back that Orwell’s house has 32 CCTV cameras within 200 yards of it. Surveillance and its dehumanising effects were a prominent theme in 1984, with its world’s inhabitants surrounded by hidden microphones and ‘two-way telescreens’
in their homes and places of work. It’s no secret that the modern world is one in which practically our every move is viewed and recorded, with a staggering 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK alone. That’s one for every 14 people. In the US, Homeland Security monitors social media for subversive buzzwords and a British tourist was arrested for Tweeting the words ‘destroy America’ in 2012. The increasing amount of personal information we put online and the huge amounts of time we spend on the Internet means that the chances are you’re sat next to one of Orwell’s two-way telescreens right now.
AUTONOMOUS KILLING MACHINES – THE TERMINATOR On many levels James Cameron’s Terminator films were completely preposterous – as a rule, more so as the series progressed. However, in those flashback/forward scenes of a post-apocalyptic America torn apart by a nuclear winter, we see flying robots called ‘Hunter Killers’ doing just that: hunting, killing, with big old laser cannons its weapon of choice, picking off any humans it can find. We may not be quite there just yet, but with remotelypiloted drones playing a huge role in America’s ‘War on Terror’, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a whole ethical can of worms has been opened; is there any honour in combat for a drone pilot 7,500 miles away from the battlefield? If soldiers are increasingly being taken out of the equation and conflicts are being fought between dots on a screen, is the ‘horror of war’ deterrent redundant? Worryingly, the next logical step in the evolution of drone technology seems to be the implementation of AI technology. The US recently tested the X-47B, an unmanned aircraft which, once operational, will be able to carry out preprogrammed missions at the click of a button. If that’s not a scary development, what is?
GLOBALISATION – 1984 In 1984, the world is divided into three states: Oceania, covering North and South America, Britain and Southern Africa; Eurasia, comprised of continental Europe and Russian; East Asia – Japan, Korea and China; the Disputed Zone, covering North Africa, the Middle East and India. The exact world map that Orwell envisioned might not be 100% accurate, but the fact that the world has become increasingly connected is undisputable. Due to cheap air
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travel, global media and the Internet, the world in 2012 seems a much smaller place than it did back when Orwell was penning 1984. With China emerging as the next dominant superpower, relations between Europe and the US becoming increasingly strained, and the Middle East in as much political turmoil as ever – the title ‘disputed’ is certainly apt – Orwell might just have been on to something.
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