Has Orwell’s ‘1984’ arrived 36 years later?

By Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel

CHULA VISTA, California — It is hard to believe 71 years have passed since the publication of George Orwell’s seminal book on the unbridled power of the modern totalitarian state—1984. Orwell possessed a prescience seldom seen in modern political writers.

The story is about a man named Winston Smith, who lives in the nation of Oceania, where is governed by constant surveillance; Winston is a low-ranking member and bureaucrat. Although there is no police force or laws, the “Thought Police” is always present. Everywhere one goes, the signs read, “Big Brother is Watching You.” The pervasive power of the government is so ubiquitous, rebellious crimes are considered the worst kind of political offense. In Orwell’s novel, the “telescreen” is a piece of technology that resembles today’s television. It is constantly streaming a single channel of news, reflecting the view of Big Brother. But unlike the television, the telescreen can never be turned off. In addition, the telescreen has a built-in surveillance camera. This kind of power makes the State for all practical purposes like God in the lives of the people.

As a child of the sixties, most of my generation can recall a show called Candid Camera. The show played practical jokes on people or caught them behaving in funny ways. The show was not mean-spirited; it characterized a happier time in our country’s history.  Nobody was ever recorded without the consent of the individual taped.

Candid Camera was harmless fun.

Fast-forward to 2020; wherever you go, whether to the local corner market or to the mall, the all-seeing eye of surveillance monitors virtually every segment of modern life—whether you go to the hospital, or to a school—even the sidewalks. Nobody ever thinks to question its legitimacy; it is a fact of today’s modern technological age.

But today’s world, video-taping individuals is something that has taken on a new significance. Aside from Big Brother observing us, Little Brother—the ordinary citizen—has been deputized by New York’s Mayor to spy and snitch on one’s neighbor if there is any violation of the social-distancing rules. The government is threatening to arrest Americans who wish to reopen their businesses, or arrest people walking on the beach and fine them. This is the kind of behavior one would expect from North Korea, but not the United States.

Will life return to normal once the pandemic is over?

Hopefully. But for authoritarians who have tasted the nectar of power, the temptation to keep that power might prove too seductive.  Orwell’s society existed in a perpetual state of crisis. Some politicians and health experts would like to see the country remain shut down for another couple of months.  Contrary to what certain politicians would like to see, already the public is demanding to return back to work. Restaurant owners want to keep their businesses open, as do hairstylists and bars. Sweden provides a fine example for how to make a transition to normalcy.

In Mayor de Blasio’s dystopian vision of New York City, seasoned felons and other criminals roam the streets, lest they be infected by the coronavirus in prison. Yet, if someone is attending a Jewish funeral for a revered rabbi, that person risks getting arrested.

He announced after he dispersed the mourners:

If your congregation continues to meet, you could be done for good. If you go to your synagogue, if you go to your church and attempt to hold services, after having been told so often not to, our enforcement agents will have no choice, but to shut down those services,” “I don’t say that with any joy. It’s the last thing I would like to do, because I understand how important people’s faiths are to them, and we need our faith in this time of crisis. But we do not need gatherings that will endanger people.[i]

One would have gotten the distinct impression that churches and synagogues did not abide by the need for social-distancing. Yet, this has not been the case. Pictures of the Hassidic Jews at the Williamsburg funeral show that the majority of them wore face masks. Across the religious divide, synagogues and churches both committed to closing their services in the interest of halting the pandemic. De Blasio’s use of threats has made everyone more nervous than before—and in do so has exacerbated tensions in an anxious community. In addition, the Mayor could have acknowledged how 3,000 Orthodox Jews in New York who donated blood plasma in the last week, helping victims of this pandemic who are desperately in need. He could have spoken about the 45,000 members of the Jewish community who are expected to follow suit and give aid.

But he didn’t.

It seems strange, but the Mayor had no problem about Muslims gathering for a Ramadan break-fast meal, meals provided by the State.  No mention of social-distancing. Beyond that, the Mayor wants people to snitch on their neighbors.

I am astounded the A.C.L.U. acts as though everything is normal—when our most fundamental rights are being trampled. Instead of the State being accountable to the people, now the people are always accountable to the State. Since when did sitting on a park bench become a seditious act? What Orwell conceived as fiction is threatening to become a reality—not just in Europe, but also in the United States—especially in New York. It is disturbing to see American politicians praise China’s handling of the coronavirus—especially since it was through their neglect, the virus spread throughout the world.

Parenthetically I would add that IBM, Google, and other major American computer companies enabled China’s authoritarian government to conduct mass surveillance against its people. China has produced tracking devices, facial recognition cameras, online data gathering technologies—all of which serve at the pleasure of the Chinese totalitarian state. Even more disturbing is China’s vision of a “social credit system,” not only based on the individual’s ability to pay bills in a timely fashion, but also on estimates of the citizen’s “social trustworthiness.”  China is no role-model in how they handled COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than salivating at the technologies China uses to monitor the threat of a pandemic, Americans ought to be very concerned that no measures be enacted that compromise the citizens; rights to privacy.

Jewish Tradition on Privacy

Rabbi Norman Lamm, the Dean of Yeshiva University, once offered a priceless interpretation on the importance of privacy in Jewish tradition. Commenting upon the Mishnah’s teaching, “Know what is above you—a seeing eye, a hearing ear, and a book in which all your deeds are recorded,” Lamm explains:

For moderns, who have become easy victims of both sinister designs of professionals of intrusion and the self-indulgence of the amateurs, that sage advice should be paraphrased to counsel us on how to avoid the breakdown of our privacy. “Know what is above you and below you, and in front of you, and in back of you—a seeing eye, a hearing ear—not of God, but of man’s electronic gadgets—and magnetic tape on which all your words are recorded.” That awareness and that sensitivity are the moral and psychological background for successful legislation and for interpretations of the right to privacy by the courts. They will have been largely anticipated by Jewish law. . .[i]

 

Rabbi Lamm’s advice is no less relevant in an age where authoritarian leadership threatens the civil liberties that have defined the United States since 1776.

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Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel is spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista.  He may be contacted via michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com