Term Paper on "Turned on the Television Any Time"

Term Paper 11 pages (3301 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

turned on the television any time during the last year or so to watch the news and it is likely -- all too likely -- that you will have seen public displays of people quivering with hate and anger. On the edge between a crowd and a mob, the Tea Party protests have brought a range of strong human emotions to the fore: Anger, hate, fear, righteousness have moved across the faces that have moved across our televisions and computer screens. Even on the floor of Congress emotions that we rarely see expressed so strongly in public life (the ones listed above along with hope and pride and joy and smugness) have time and again been on display. People have clearly been acting as they have pushed by strong emotions.

These emotions stem from all the usual sources -- the sweetness of first love, the grief of losing a parent, the pride in a child, courage in battling in the hospital ward on in the mountains of Afghanistan. But there is in the current moment another element that tends to raise people's emotions: the ongoing specter of financial meltdown on both the personal and the collective level; the changing demographics of changing racial relations that have seen a black family in the White House and the governor of Arizona sign into law a draconian dictum against Latino immigrants; the rise of China as a potential new superpower. Emotions run high and close to the surface.

Sometimes it almost feels that we, as Americans, as a nation, are living in the pages of a novel in which symbols have become increasingly important. Sometimes it feels as if we were living out a story written by a novelist rather than a moment of history unfurling without any authorial predetermination. But while we are living in history rather than in fiction (or even in non-fiction, which is always tidier than reality), it can be helpful to look to what wise writers have written about the same kinds of emotions and human dynamics that we are surrounded by in an attempt to come to greater clarity this moment in history. This paper examines three books -- George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and George Akerlof and Robert Shiller's Animal spirits: How human psychology drives the economy, and why it matters for global capitalism -- and what their authors have to say about the ways in which human emotions can push people to act in ways that can make them appear dangerous to the government, which can at times then move to control its citizens.

Worlds That Have Such People in Them

George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (also written 1984), was published in 1949 in the lingering embers of World War II and the barely suppressed threat of pan-European fascism. The novel can be read in at least some ways as a sort of "what if" novel, a novel that can be read to be a speculative history of what the world would be like if a British Hitler had won. The novel is told in fragments for neither Winston (the protagonist) has only a fragmentary sense of what is going on in his world for in Oceania (one of the remaining three nation-states) the government of Big Brother keeps such a tight control on information, and disseminates so much false information, that there is no consensual truth.

Nothing that the government says can be trusted, and nothing that any individual citizen says to each other can be trusted either. The government has conjured up a world (or at least has woven a sufficiently good story that people think that it might be true) in which there is a constant war going in some far place, a war that demands constant influx of more and more resources and deeper loyalty by a people who in fact have no reason to be loyal to a government that demeans and dehumanizes its people at every turn. The government even tries to deny people any control over their lives. Any joy, or play, of sexuality on the part of the citizens in frightening to the government because citizens who feel such emotions are more likely to demand greater chances to pursue their own form of happiness.

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World shares a number of important similarities with Orwell's world in the way in which the government seeks to control every possible pleasure, as we see in this quote in Chapter Three from the Director: "Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. it's madness." The government ensures that any new game will continue to create profit at the same level because such new games must require "at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games." This is an absurdity to us, for play and games are one of the arenas that we believe should be most free. Play is what we do to get away from the control that is imposed on us in so many areas of our lives.

Huxley wrote this novel in 1931, before the first terrible drummings of World War II could be heard. His world, although uninformed by Hitler and Mussolini, is marked by control over sexuality that are even more extreme than those depicted by Orwell. Both authors take up this theme because it is such a potent symbol: A government that wants to control people by limiting their natural emotions and their ability to connect authentically with other people will always seek to limit people's sexuality. Huxley's world is one in which people are force-fed certain ideas while they sleep: even their unconscious is not their own. Not only are their conscious thoughts liable to be colonized but their unconscious thoughts and even their nightmares can be seized.

Huxley describes the terrible reality of a world in which even sleep cannot provide an escape when he describes a long-ago and far-away England in which Parliament had prohibited "sleep teaching," the form of brainwashing used. Liberalism allowed real freedom in England, he wrote: "The records survive. Speeches about liberty of the subject. Liberty to be inefficient and miserable. Freedom to be a round peg in a square hole." Freedom not to fit in is also freedom to be unhappy. The freedom, in other words, to feel. Once again we hear the same message in Huxley and Orwell: Oppressive governments maintain power by stripping their subjects of the opportunity to feel anything because people who feel strong emotions will seek to empower themselves. And change.

Orwell presents us with a list of all of the things that will not be allowed in his version of a brave new world: There will be no orgasms; no loyalty; no love "except the love of Big Brother"; no laughter "except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy"; no art, no literature, no science; "no distinction between beauty and ugliness"; no curiosity, "no enjoyment of the process of life." There will only be "the intoxication of power" and "a boot stamping on a human face -- forever."

One of the reasons that 1984 is such a great and enduring book is that it makes us step back and question our own society. When Orwell makes us shake our heads in disbelief (and smugness and mockery) over such a limitation, we may also be prompted to think about the ways in which our own pleasurable activities are also limited. For of course, we are limited. There are age limitations on alcohol and tobacco. If we are women, we cannot sunbathe topless, and if we are human we cannot sunbathe without covering genitals. We cannot use cocaine, at least legally, and we certainly cannot sell it to other people. We can only marry certain people. We cannot make wagers in most places on most events. We cannot drive as fast as we want and even when we drive slowly we cannot drive without our seat belts.

But, one might say, these are good laws and regulations. Not like those in Huxley's world. Not those in Oceania. But Orwell's voice niggles at us. Isn't this the way that it starts? he asks us. With these small carvings-away of pleasure and liberties? As the Director says in Chapter One, "the secret of happiness and virtue" is "liking what you've got to do." This is the major business of the government in this book: "All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny." This is an important truth -- although not a universal one. Or at least it is not one that is universally accepted.

Burma Makes Oceania Look Tolerant

Whether or not one believes that the government is attempting to control a person depends primarily on two facts. The first is the government itself: It matters a great deal whether one is a Jewish writer under Stalin or an environmentalist working for Obama -- or Teddy Roosevelt. Some governments are… READ MORE

How to Reference "Turned on the Television Any Time" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

U.S. Television Sitcoms on Emotional Behavior Essay

U.S. Television Sitcoms on Emotional Behavior of Young Viewers

Comedy serials are among the most favorite television programs which are largely viewed by children in the United States. (Bryant, 325)… read more

Essay 6 pages (1659 words) Sources: 6 Topic: Film / Movies / Television

---

Television's Hit Series the Apprentice With Donald Term Paper

Television's Hit Series "The Apprentice" with Donald Trump: The Hegemonic Reinforcement of Corporate Values, Capitalism, and Competition in the Guise of Reality Television Show 'Entertainment'

The popular television program "The… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (1203 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Economics / Finance / Banking

---

Television the Influence Term Paper

Television

The influence of Television

Television's influence on world and national affairs is unquestioned. I reviewed the article "Presidential Elections in the Age of Television" by Jennifer Truran Rothwell, which… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (975 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA Topic: Government / Politics

---

TV's Impact on Jurors Essay

Television's Impact On Jurors

Juror qualifications have long been a topic of discussion for those in the legal field. Jurors that are over-educated may be difficult to lead through evidentiary… read more

Essay 3 pages (1085 words) Sources: 3 Topic: Crime / Police / Criminal Justice

---

Time Normal Capstone Project

PDA SIM Time Normal

Time Warp 3 begins with the four-year plan that was devised during the last cycle. This plan is as follows:

Year by Year Decisions: Pricing &… read more

Capstone Project 4 pages (1173 words) Sources: 5 Topic: Economics / Finance / Banking

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>