George Orwell’s dystopian novel, “Nineteen eighty-four” is one of the most popular literature novels of the twentieth century. The novel concentrates on a government led by a repressive, totalitarian regime party. One of The party’s tools of propaganda used against its people was the telescreen, which was placed in every party member’s homes in the city of Oceania. The telescreen served as the party’s surveillance and mind control. It was used as a device to constantly observe the party members’ actions by an integrated camera and microphone, which continuously broadcasted pro-Party propaganda media events. A law professor and founder of the Stanford Law School’s “center for internet and society”, Lawrence Lessig critically compares Orwell’s telescreen with today’s Internet in his response “On the Internet and the Benign Invasions”. Although throughout the novel 1984, it is evident that Winston hardly ever escape the control of the telescreen, in Lessig’s review, he argues that the telescreen was not a useful tool for propaganda and instead, the internet is more privacy invading than the telescreen.
Throughout the entire novel, the reader gets a very strong feeling of hatred towards technology since it expresses the party’s different techniques to control every facet of life of its citizens. The citizens of Oceania are living under constant fear, as the eye of the party is watching every action they take. Lessig’s main argument is that the telescreen is a useless tool for totalitarianism because it’s transparent and imperfect. He argues that it was ineffective since any person could see where the telescreen was situated, and when it was being monitored. He believes that anyone could have easily escaped from it. An example from nineteen eighty-four is when Winston writes in his journal. He knew the telescreen was on and was still able to escape from its watchful eye. In addition, Lessig sees the telescreen as imperfect. He says that the telescreen purely...