1984

Juan Pablo Álvarez Vega

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Throughout George Orwell’s novel “1984” we receive an implied message against governmental control. But ¿Is governmental control something bad? Andif it is, ¿Is there any situation were it is not a bad thing?
¿What do we need a government for? A society needs a certain system to function equally and according to the preferences of thatsociety, this is determined through a certain system such as voting. A government is a group of rulers that sees that the system chosen by the people functions, so that citizens can achieve things in thatsociety. Also a government has certain responsibilities with the people, like providing safety, freedom, justice, etc. To achieve this the government has to exert a certain amount of control over itscitizens, but only a controlled amount.
A government should exert control over his citizens; there is no doubt in that, but the government shouldn’t use that control to benefit it self, but tomake the lives of its citizens better, by making them safer, equal, free, etc. The government should use the power they have, to punish those who fail to obey the basic rules of society, and/or excludethem from society. ¿Is propaganda something acceptable in a government? No, governments shouldn’t use propaganda to make the people believe or accept a certain idea because people are, by natural law,free to choose what they want to do and how they want to do it, the government shouldn’t alter this freedom by changing their way of thinking to a certain idea that is convenient for the government.There are certain cases in which this basic ideals could be broken, an this should only be done in extreme cases and to help the society in a time of great need, or to save the society from an oncomingevent, for example, wars that threaten the citizens of the nation, economic crisis that could end a lot of jobs, etc.
One example of control is the wars on the US were the government deceived the...