Extended Essay

International Baccalauratte Diploma Programme

School: Druga Gimnazija Sarajevo

English B HL

Word count: 3,374

Extended Essay

Topic: George Orwell’s 1984 and today’s world

Research question: To what extent has George Orwell's 1984 become a reality in the modern world today?

Session May 2012

Candidate name: Ferid Brkovic

Candidate number: 001258 032

Candidate name: Ferid Brkovic Druga gimnazija, SarajevoCandidate number: 001258 032 Sutjeska 1, Sarajevo

Table of Contents

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Mind control…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6

The ‘Telescreen impact’……………………………………………………………………………………. 8

Information and history control……………………………………………………………………….. 10

The ‘Big Brother’ society………………………………………………………………………………….. 12

The Party Slogans…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 14

“War is peace”………………………………………………………………………………………….. 14

“Freedom is Slavery”…………………………………………………………………………………. 14

“Ignorance is Strength”……………………………………………………………………………… 14

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 16

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17

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Abstract

This essay provides an investigation that seeks to examine the comparison of George

Orwell’s 1984 to the modern world today and how the world has become as it was predicted

by George Orwell in ‘1984’ . In this investigation George Orwell’s book 1984 has been used

as well as a number of internet researches on world’s political situation in the modern days.

The similarities of today’s world society with George Orwell’s 1984 will also be examined.

The research question of this extended essay is: “To what extent has George Orwell’s 1984

become a reality in the modern world today” ? I found George Orwell’s 1984 and today’s

world a very interesting topic to investigate because the predictions that were made by

George Orwell in his 1984 compared to the political situation in today’s modern world ,

prove that George Orwell was right.

In his book ‘1984’ George Orwell had predicted that the governments would use war,

surveillance and other methods such as the ‘Newspeak’ language and cheap entertainment

to control their people. George Orwell had in fact, warned us on where our society was

going and the fact that the government would use methods to control and brainwash their

people. Writing this book he managed to keep his readers aware of the political and social

situations that were already upcoming in most countries worldwide.

However, by assuming the comparisons of George Orwell’s 1984 to the modern world today

it can be said that George Orwell’s ‘1984’ became a reality in the modern world today. There

are secret police everywhere, the government controls with surveillance and they also track

phone lines, the government controls the media, war is viewed as the only way to freedom.

Word Count: 283

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Introduction

Novels written by George Orwell have been among my favorite books. As I was growing up,

his dystopian novel “1984” has became the book I often re-read.

George Orwell was born in India in 1903 and then moved back to England with his family.

George Orwell published his popular book ‘1984’ in 1949 and then six months later Orwell

dies. After years that passed his novel ‘1984’ became very popular in the modern world

because of its predictions some say. A person that writes a book in 1949 that was able to

predict how some of the ‘owners’ of our countries will control and manipulate the people in

1984 and the modern world today is considered to be a genius that would certainly be

remembered and written in world history and literature. People often say that the novel

‘1984’was:”the masterpiece that ‘killed’ George Orwell”. 1

‘1984’ is a political novel written in 1949 about how the life will be in the modern world

today. The novel views the life of an individual that doesn’t have any rights, privacy and

cannot have his own thoughts about anything. If he doesn’t agree with the Party, or/and

thinks the Party is not doing the right thing, the individual has committed a crime called in

Newspeak ‘thoughtcrime’ and becomes a threat to the Party and country, who the Secret

police will eventually find and send him to prison to be ‘re-educated’.

‘1984’ is a famous book that is about the ’owners’ of our countries that try to use every

method to manipulate and control us in various ways. In this extended essay I will explain

the psychological manipulation in Orwell’s book and today, and also other control methods

such as history and information control and what effect does the television have on today’s

population. This extended essay also includes how the society in the world today is

becoming a ‘Big Brother’ society.

However, George Orwell’s predictions in ‘1984’ have become a reality that we even hardly

notice them. The topic of this extended essay is George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and today’s world

and the research question is; “To what extent has George Orwell’s ‘1984’ become a reality

in the modern world today?” I have divided my extended essay into 5 subtopics that was 1 McCrum, Robert . “The masterpiece that killed George Orwell.” The Guardian. 10 May 2009. Web. 16 August 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/10/1984-george-orwell> .

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necessary for answering my research question. These subtopics will include the manipulative

tools and control that Big Brother would use in the modern world today.

Not everything Orwell predicted was to happen in 1984 or in the world today. He mentioned

that ‘Newspeak’ would out run Standard English in 2050, but signs of ‘Newspeak’ are

available today. George Orwell’s ‘1984’ includes even an appendix about ‘Newspeak’.

For the investigation in this extended essay I was using George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and a very

deep research on the internet that helped me answer my research question. I have found

some very interesting and useful information that have been focused during the research

and will be used in the extended essay.

Mind Control

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As we all know, mind control plays a very important role in the governments control of

people’s thoughts. Mind control, also referred to as thought control or brainwashing, is a

controlling method used by, in this case, the government to make the people think, act and

behave the way they want them to. In George Orwell’s ‘1984’, mind control of the ‘Big

Brother’ or the government seeks to be the most important method of abusing and

controlling the people. “We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the

skull. You will learn by degrees, Winston. There is nothing that we cannot do. Invisibility,

levitation- anything. I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wanted to. I do not wish

to, because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of these Nineteenth-century ideas

about the laws of Nature. We make the laws of Nature.” 2 The same kind of mind controlling

is seen in today’s modern world. The government in nowadays tries to brainwash people in

every possible way in order to persuade them to believe, think, know and act in the ways

they want them to. “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and

you would have to believe it.”3. As George Orwell had predicted in his book that the

government would brainwash people with telescreens or television, cheap entertainment

and other activities in order to keep the people away from critical thinking and just roll on

with what they are told. Many researchers, sociologists, philosophers, psychologists and

scientists confirm this system of brainwashing people and declare it in public. Even some

popular comedians do this to. As a popular American comedian George Carlin once said

about the politicians: “they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking.

They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not

interested in that . . . that doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests.”(George Carlin,

2005)

In ‘1984’ another method by which the Party would ‘mind control’ the population is

‘Newspeak’. “Newspeak was the official language of Oceania, and had been devised to meet

the ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism. In the year 1984 there was not as yet

anyone who used Newspeak as his sole means of communication, either in speech or writing” 4. Words such as ‘Newspeak’ ‘Insoc’, ‘Thoughtcrime’, ‘Crimestop’, ‘Oldspeak’, ‘Goodthink’,

2 Orwell, George. 1984. (London: Penguin, 2004.) 303-304.

3 Ibid., pg. 92.

4 Orwell, George. 1984. (London: Penguin, 2004.) 343.

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and ‘Facecrime’ are Newspeak words that are used in the novel. Orwell predicted that by

2050 Newspeak would out run Oldspeak(standard English) and Oldspeak will not be used

anymore. “The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the

world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes

of thought impossible.” 5

Although Newspeak was ought to run out standard English in the 2050s. Today we can see

how ‘Newspeak’ is spreading and expanding, the use of acronyms and abbreviations, for

example, are a sign of Newspeak. When people are in a hurry and/or when they need to

write an SMS or e-mail they usually end up with writing something similar to this ‘u ar gonna

wait 4 me?’(in most cases) which can be considered as an example of Newspeak.

The Telescreen impact

5 Ibid., pg. 343.

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“The instrument (the telescreen it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of

shutting it off completely.” 6

Some of the governments these days use their main weapon of mind controlling – the

television. In ‘1984’, George Orwell predicted that the television would have a great impact

on people’s everyday life, beliefs, attitudes and thoughts. The television has changed the life

of people. Most of the worlds population (especially America’s) believe every single thing

that comes out of the television even without doing any further research, thinking or

investigation. A person who does not have a television in his home is not considered to be

normal; he would be seen as a freak or idiot by the majority of people.

“While the American Psychiatric Association measured the increase in psychotropic drug use

after September 11, 2001. ‘The attacks were unprecedented in scope, and Americans viewed

them over and over again on television.’ There was a significant rise in new prescriptions for

antidepressants, antipsychotics and benzodiazepine tranquillisers. ‘Thus it appears that even

the indirect experience of a stressful event — on television and in other media — can produce

significant symptoms of stress.’ ” 7. Understanding this we can call these people as the

‘remotely controlled’, they believe everything the government tells them, wants them to

believe and frightens them that usually comes out from a small box instrument that’s called

‘The Television’. One more thing about TV’s is that people find there idols or heroes in these

‘instruments’ and they shape their life so they could be like the people on the TV. And the

news have the greatest impact. Firstly, they have a negative impact, they fill people with so

much negative energy, hatred and making them scared of every single thing. Making them

worry about terrorism, global warming, murders, robberies, crimes, overpopulation, wars,

diseases, illnesses, losing their jobs and so on. What these people actually need to be scared

of is being ‘another brick in the wall’.

George Orwell in his book calls the television ‘the telescreen’ and describes it as one of the

tools that ‘Big Brother’ uses to manipulate people. He also mentions how the telescreen is

monitoring every move they make and how Winston and Julia hardly find a place where

there are no telescreens. Well, today, nearly every home on the planet has at least one

6 Orwell, George. 1984. (London: Penguin, 2004). 4.

7 Sigman, Aric . “Weapons of mass destruction.” Kindred. 20 September 2007. Web. 19 August 2011. <http://www.kindredcommunity.com/articles/weapons-of-mass-induction/p/1177> .

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television. The average home in America has more TV’s than the people living in the home.8

However, the average American watches television approximately 28 hours weekly.9 There

was an experiment which included that an average child today that is getting raised by

watching television, however, when this child becomes a teenager it’s intelligence would be

at a very low level.

Some politicians now have introduced the television to the prison, the prisoners now even

have TV’s in their cells. This program now became very normal and popular. The reason they

have ran this is to (as above mentioned) monitor and keep them under the’ mind controlling’

program.

“Are you aware that the UK prison service has been involved in a secret ‘in-cell television

project’? As budgets and staff are cut and overcrowding rises, television’s tranquillising

effects have been discussed at the highest levels of the prison service as the cheapest and

most effective way to subdue the prison population. The General Secretary of the Prison

Governors’ Association has been revealed as saying, ‘It’s the best control mechanism you can

think of. You know what the British are like; shove them in front of the television and you

won’t hear a peep out of them.’ ” 10

Information and history control

Governments, politicians and organizations control every source of information and history

today. Information and history control play a key role in the achievement of many political

goals. Most of the time they change the information and history in order to manipulate their

8 The Associated Press . “Average home has more TVs than people.” USA Today. 21 September 2006. Web. 21 August 2011. <http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-09-21-homes-tv_x.htm >.

9 American Psychological Association, “Violence in the Media - Psychologists Help Protect Children from Harmful Effects”. American Psychological Association. 19 February 2004. Web. 21 August 2011. <http://www.apa.org/research/action/protect.aspx>.

10 Sigman, Aric . “Weapons of mass destruction.” Kindred. 20 September 2007. Web. 19 August 2011. <http://www.kindredcommunity.com/articles/weapons-of-mass-induction/p/1177>.

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people and achieve their goals. This type of control is widespread and used by every

government.

In George Orwell’s 1984, the Party used a technique called doublethink “Doublethink means

the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting

both of them" 11on their population to be able to achieve their political goals. One example

of doublethink in ‘1984’, is the continuous changing of the war status in Oceania. Whenever

the Party declared that: “Oceania is at war with Eurasia, Oceania has always been at war

with Eurasia” 12, the people would believe that ‘they have always been at war with Eurasia’,

while actually yesterday the Party declared that: “Oceania is at war with Eastasia, Oceania

has always been at war with Eastasia” 13and the people, of course, believed the Party.

This type of control and manipulation has become a reality that is very successful in the

modern world today:

“In Alex Jones' documentary 'Terrorstorm: A History of Government Sponsored Terrorism' the

film-makers interview random people on the streets of London about their views on recent

terror attacks and the war on terror in general. The amount of people that respond

instinctively with classic doublethink-style logic is positively alarming. The most extreme

example was a woman who believed "we should give up our liberty for freedom", seemingly

unaware that they are both the same thing!” 14

George Orwell predicts the control of history. In ‘1984’ George Orwell mentions that the

Party controls history by manipulating it. The Party then continuously manipulates history in

order to keep the population away from their true memories. “Who controls the past

controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” 15

The genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, Serbia’s aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina that

occurred during the last war. Well, the politicians and the government of Serbia reject that 11 Orwell, George. 1984. (London: Penguin, 2004.) 244.

12 Ibid., pg.211.

13 Ibid., pg. 211.

14 Gareth . “Doublethink - 1984 Today.” The Fool’s Philosophy. 29 September 2006. Web. 21 August 2011. <http://www.foolsphilosophy.com/doublethink-1984-today/> .


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statement and manipulate their people by convincing them that Serbia was not guilty for the

genocide. They do not talk about it and even barely mention the genocide. However, there is

clear evidence – on tape. This is a good example of how they control the history that George

Orwell has predicted in his novel.

The ‘Big Brother’ Society

In ‘1984’ George Orwell introduces us to the Big Brother society in the beginning of the

novel. Big Brother is declared as the leader of the Party. Everywhere in the city there were

pictures of Big Brother with the words under the pictures “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

YOU”. “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” were the three

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slogans of the Party that were ruling London and the country. George Orwell’s prediction of

the surveillance system that is described in the novel is quite the same as it is these days.

And I quote: “There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at

any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any

individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the

time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live --

did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was

overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinised.“ 16

In the modern world today, the United Kingdom has an enormous surveillance society or the

‘Big Brother’ society, with more than 4,2 million closed-circuit television cameras controlling

the nation.17 However, the politicians and government say that the reason that stays behind

this surveillance system is to solve and reduce the rate of crimes that occur. Although, they

have a good reason, in London there are still approximately 80% of crimes that are unsolved,

the cameras do help fighting crime but it’s just not enough.18” Britain has sleepwalked into

becoming a surveillance society that increasingly intrudes into our private lives and impacts

on everyday activities, the head of the information watchdog warns.” 19

One more example of forming a Big Brother society in the modern world is the implant of

chips into humans upper right arm which would contain the persons ID, medical history and

other information. The Obama Care in the United States of America introduced a microchip

that is the size of a rice to be planted in most of the people of the population that had

decided to be covered by health insurance.20 This program isn’t yet active, but most people

expect it to be in the near future. There are a number of conspiracy theories that claim that

the government would use the microchips to record and track the movements that people


17 Bennetto, Jason. “Big Brother Britain 2006: 'We are waking up to a surveillance society all around us'.” The Independent. 02 November 2006. Web. 25 August 2011. <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/big-brother-britain-2006-we-are-waking-up-to-a-surveillance-society-all-around-us-422561.html> .

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

20 Unruh, Bob. “Microchips in Obamacare? Not yet”. WorldNetDaily. 13 April 2010. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=140545>.

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make and actually control their lives. People won’t have their own privacy, everything they

do, say and think will be recorded and tracked by the government. Today even some clubs,

organizations and agencies have access to these kinds of microchips and use it. In 2004, in

Barcelona there was a Nightclub which required people to get chipped in order to become a

VIP member.21 This was a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) type of chip by which the VIP

members of the nightclub could even pay for the drinks they had by just scanning their arm

where the chip was located.22

George Orwell’s ‘1984’ influence was huge, that not only did it have influence as a weapon

of politics, control on society, and authority over people. Today, the novel had even

influenced the entertainment industry. In 1984 they have actually made a movie that is

called ‘1984’ and is based on George Orwell’s ‘1984’. One of the most popular TV shows in

the world, ‘Big Brother’(that got the idea out of Orwell’s novel), has spread to more than 80

countries worldwide.23 The first show was emitted in 1999 in the Netherlands.24 This show

got its name from George Orwell’s famous novel ‘1984’ in which Big Brother represents the

leader of the Party and the man who could see everything, everyone and track their

movements by using a powerful surveillance system. In the show, a group of approximately

15 people gather in a big house that is under surveillance. In the house there is the ‘Big

Brother’ that watches and listens to them all the time and doesn’t give them any privacy,

they cannot hide or escape nor make contact with the outer world. The winner is the last

person that stays in the house and gets the cash prize.

The Party Slogans

The Party slogans in the novel were: ”War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is

Strength”. In the modern world today there are many examples that prove that the Party’s

slogan have become a reality.

“War is Peace”21 Morton, Simon. “Barcelona clubbers get chipped”. BBC News. 29 September 2004. Web. 27 August 2011. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3697940.stm>.

22 Ibid.

23 Wikipedia. “Big Brother (TV series)”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 27 August 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(TV_series)>.

24 Ibid.

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George W. Bush supports this Party slogan by giving a shocking statement “I just want you to

know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.”( George W. Bush,

2002)

Another example, the Guantanamo detention camp is considered to be today’s ‘1984’ 101

room where they torture the prisoners and make them fear their worst nightmares and

phobias. “You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer

already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.”25

“Freedom is Slavery”

“Similarly, carrying a note stating that you do not have a bomb in your bag is equivalent to

saying that you do have a bomb.” 26

Imagine that an Orwellian goes on a holiday in Barcelona and chooses to stay in the George

Orwell Plaza, but he doesn’t know that the Plaza has a very strong surveillance system.

“George Orwell Plaza, in Barcelona, has continuous closed-circuit television recording.” 27

“Ignorance is Strength”

In the world today, when you read something that is against the government, politicians or

the president, the police become very serious and angry because you have committed a very

serious crime – ‘thoughtcrime’.

“Reading an article critical of the government is a serious form of thoughtcrime—and,

fortunately, the FBI takes such things seriously!” 28

A young man that works in a shop gets visited by two Special FBI agents. They tell him that

he is not in trouble, but somebody saw him read an article that criticizes the acts of the


26 Students for an Orwellian Society. “Students for Orwell”. 2 May 2011. Web. 30 August 2011. <http://studentsfororwell.org/>.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

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government and has informed the FBI agents who are now looking for the author by asking

the young man a few questions. 29

Conclusion

George Orwell’s ‘1984’ is a masterpiece that predicted in what direction would our society

go to, and the methods the ‘owners’ of the country, some governments, politicians, the

entertainment industry and agencies would use to brainwash, control, and manipulate

people in order to gain their own goals. In ‘1984’ George Orwell actually informs us of the

dangerous position our society will reach and thanks to his novel today we have Orwellians

that support Orwell and his ideas, especially the novel ‘1984’. There are many groups and

organizations like the SOS (Students Orwellian Society) that want to keep at least a small

29 Ibid.

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society that won’t be under the control of Big Brother. George Orwell’s ‘1984’ helps our

society today.

There are many people that support George Orwell’s ideas and predictions not just only

ordinary people, but also writers, scientists and intellectuals. The writer of “The Brave New

World” Aldous Huxley wrote in his book about the States ‘mind control’ on people: "Till at

last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind.

And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too-all his life long. The mind that judges and

desire and decides-made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our

suggestions... Suggestions from the State." 30

‘1984’ is considered to be the best dystopian novel after ‘Brave New World’ and ‘Fahrenheit

451’ and George Orwell’s best novel. A psychologist professor Jerome Singer criticizes the TV

as the strange man which teaches the kids with the things you would never want them to be

learnt: “If you came and you found a strange man... teaching your kids to punch each other,

or trying to sell them all kinds of products, you'd kick him right out of the house, but here you

are; you come in and the TV is on, and you don't think twice about it.”(Jerome Singer). All

these quotations prove George Orwell’s ‘1984’ perfection and precise predictions.

In ‘1984’ George Orwell predicted some things metaphorically like most writers do. George

Orwell will always be remembered as a great writer. His dystopian novel ‘1984’ and ‘Animal

farm’ will keep him remembered for a long time. “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”.31

Bibliography

Books

- Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Collins, 2006. Print.

- Orwell, George. 1984. London: Penguin, 2004. Print.

Websites (articles, posts, encyclopedia, news)

30 Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. (New York: Harper Collins, 2006). 28-29.


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- American Psychological Association, “Violence in the Media - Psychologists Help Protect Children from Harmful Effects”. American Psychological Association. 19 February 2004. Web. 21 August 2011. <http://www.apa.org/research/action/protect.aspx>.

- Bennetto, Jason. “Big Brother Britain 2006: 'We are waking up to a surveillance society all around us'.” The Independent. 02 November 2006. Web. 25 August 2011. <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/big-brother-britain-2006-we-are-waking-up-to-a-surveillance-society-all-around-us-422561.html>.

- Gareth . “Doublethink - 1984 Today.” The Fool’s Philosophy. 29 September 2006. Web. 21 August 2011. <http://www.foolsphilosophy.com/doublethink-1984-today/>.

- McCrum, Robert . “The masterpiece that killed George Orwell.” The Guardian. 10 May 2009. Web. 16 August 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/10/1984-george-orwell> .

- Morton, Simon. “Barcelona clubbers get chipped”. BBC News. 29 September 2004. Web. 27 August 2011. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3697940.stm>.

- Sigman, Aric . “Weapons of mass destruction.” Kindred. 20 September 2007. Web. 19 August 2011. <http://www.kindredcommunity.com/articles/weapons-of-mass-induction/p/1177>.

- Students for an Orwellian Society. “Students for Orwell”. 2 May 2011. Web. 30 August 2011. <http://studentsfororwell.org/>.

- The Associated Press . “Average home has more TVs than people.” USA Today. 21 September 2006. Web. 21 August 2011. <http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-09-21-homes-tv_x.htm >.

- Unruh, Bob. “Microchips in Obamacare? Not yet”. WorldNetDaily. 13 April 2010. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=140545>.

- Wikipedia. “Big Brother (TV series)”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 27 August 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(TV_series)>.

Other Sources

- George Carlin, 2005 (Stand-up comedy show)

- George W. Bush, 2002 (Speech)

- Jerome Singer

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Documents

Extended Essay