The issue that I am choosing for this assignment is Winston's job of censoring the past. He gets a message that has newspeak on it. The newspeak tells him what to change from the past. Basically it is used to show how pervasive the censoring is in Winston's world. I think that Orwell uses such an extreme example to highlight how bad censorship is and to show what unchecked censorship can lead to.
The article that I chose that relates to this is an article that informs us how
Iran is censoring Google and Gmail and is making the internet private. This comes after Google's Youtube hosted an inflammatory anti-Islam video. I would link to the video but I can't for the life of me find the actual video; I can only find reactions/news clips that concern the video. Iran is a predominantly Muslim state so it makes sense that they would take offense to an anti-Islam video.
However, it is not ok for a government to censor the internet. If something is offensive to you, don't watch it. It seems like it would be pretty easy, no?
Also, there's a lot of hypocrisy from the more radical Muslims. It is expressed to the right. The video said that Islam was violent and hateful. Instead of sitting down and talking about it the Muslims stormed on embassies, killed people, etc. That is
not peaceful.
Here are
some more
examples of Muslim hypocrisy concerning censoring and their actions.
The picture made me laugh, but I also like how you related an issue from the book that is hard for us in America to imagine and connect it to something that is actually happening. Your links made me realize other issues that are occurring.
ReplyDeleteI really like the links!This whole topic is a great way to relate Winston's job to a current event!
ReplyDeleteI like the picture!! I agree, government shouldn't be able to censor the government, people can just avoid what they don't want to see. Nice job!
ReplyDelete