1984 Essays (1037 words) - Nineteen Eighty-Four, Ingsoc, Newspeak

1984 1. Biography George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, a British writer with political conscience. He was born in India but educated in England at Eton College. He served the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927. In sick health, he returned to Europe to live in poverty as a struggling writer. Orwell joined the Republican forces in the Spanish civil war, and wrote a chilling account of this experience. He went on to write many books, mostly autobiographical, and achieved successes as a brilliant writer. 2. Synopsis The novel takes place in a theoretical and fictional dystopian totalitarian society. The story begins in London on April 4, 1984 after an atomic world war divides the world into three states. London is the capital of Oceania which is run by INGSOC(English Socialism). The controllers are called "The Party." The Party is divided into two sections, The Inner Party, and The Outer Party which are the "Rich" and the "middle-class." There is a third group of people called "The Proles," or "The Proletariat" which are the poor, and considered to be animals by the party. The main leader of this government is Big Brother. The novel is told in third person and partly first person, and is also divided into three parts. In the first part the main character and his conflicts with the world he lives in are revealed. Winston Smith is a bureaucrat who works for the government by altering history at the Ministry of Truth. He begins to ponder the reason things are so bad and commits a terrible crime. In the second part, he falls in love with Julia, and is taken in by a man named O'Brien, a member of the anti-party society called the Brotherhood. O'Brien turns out to be a true member of The Inner Party. Winston and Julia are captured and hauled off to the Ministry of Love (Minilove in Newspeak). Here, during the final part of the story, Winston is incarcerated and rehabilitated by The Party. O'Brien constantly tells Winston that Winston is crazy, and that he is trying to help him. During these sessions he reveals the true purposes of INGSOC. The party's goals can be summed up in their mottoes. "WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH(Orwell, 7)." 3. Theme Under the rule of INGSOC, members of The Party are engrossed in their work. It is essential that the government keeps its people happy in order to avoid rebellions and "thought crimes." Winston's greatest downfall springs from his only pleasure, his work. He found it easy to become lost in the intricacies of his duties guided only by the principles of INGSOC and his best estimate of what the Party wanted him to say. A typical task might include correcting an article in the Times, written entirely in Newspeak. In one instance he reviews an article which read: times 3.12.83 reporting bb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unpersons rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling(Dr. Tom Costa., 1). In Oldspeak (or standard English) this might be rendered: The reporting of Big Brother's Order for the Day in the Times of December 3rd 1983 is extremely unsatisfactory and makes references to nonexistent persons. Rewrite it in full and submit your draft to higher authority before filing(Dr. Tom Costa., 1). The ability of Winston to do this job can be accredited to the control of his government. Through the use of various techniques such as propaganda and the "Thought Police," Big Brother is able to not only brainwash his people, but also to reprogram them to love and serve him. 4. Structural Feature How does Orwell use distortion and irony to reveal the true motive of the IGNSOC government? By distorting the motive of a government into three elusively ironic statements, "WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH(Orwell, 7)." Orwell is able to convey the reality of IGNSOC's goals. "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" is the basic idea that ignorant people are content people. The Outer Party is kept ignorant because the truth is adjustable, and the Proles are kept content with ineffectual liberties such as love, sex, and families. "FREEDOM IS SLAVERY" breathes insecurity into the individualist. It implies that as an individual you will sink, as a

Legal and ethical issues in Siemens Global Case Study

Legal and ethical issues in Siemens Global - Case Study Example The company should have faced stringent operating procedures and forced to pay heavy penalties that would have discouraged prospective perpetrators. A small amount of slightly over $ 2 billion was a slap in the face of economic crime regulators since the company’s annual sale at the time was at a figure of over 70 billion Euros. This only encouraged the company to bribe more parties. Any company that fundamentally violates the acceptable code of business conduct ought to face stiffer penalties than just mere monetary fines that the company could have deemed as ‘budget fines’ (Twomey et al., 2011).   If you were the new Chief Ethics Officer, how would you have handled the situation? Although I would have handled the situation in a more or less similar manner to the then Chief Ethics Officer, I would however, taken a slightly different approach as far as the management of rogue employees is concerned. My first approach would have been to arrange for seminars where different personalities would train and encourage the employees on the benefits of upholding acceptable ethical standards. Instead of just dismissing incompetent employees, I would have engaged them in educational seminars before demoting them to lower positions so that they could rework their way up the corporate ladder through ethical and just means. This approach would have instilled confidence in them and all other employees to work as a team towards the attainment of Siemens short-term and long-term goals (Fernando, 2010). Was the corruption justified since bribery was legal in Germany until 1999? Despite the fact that bribery was legal in Germany, there was no justification for the corruption witnessed in Siemens whatsoever. The fact that Siemens is a German company did not negate the need to operate in accordance to the internationally accepted business ethics since Siemens is an international company with subsidiaries spread across the globe. Although, the senior executives in Siemens’ case tried to justify their acts as a strategy to gain competitive advantage in the market, this still violated the internationally accepted business conducts. This is because most of Siemens’ corrupt deals were international and any company that operates on a global platform ought not to use local policies but internationally recognized ones in business operations. With all these evidences of breach of international law, it is wise to conclude that Siemens was not justified to embrace bribery and corruption as ‘company policy.’ (Twomey et al., 2011).   How does an organization make the shift to refine their ethical practices when there is such a radical change in policy? More often than not, organizations that take the bold step to ethical recovery undergo agonizing experiences though the results obtained are much pleasant. Various ways by which organizations can make the shift to refine their ethical practices exist and there is no single most approach to this course. Some organizations opt for the restructuring of the management system in an attempt to reverse the undesirable trends witnessed over a period. While this can be an appropriate approach for a dynamic and self-motivated team, the organization can seek to transform the culture of employees directly by either imposing new company policies or engaging the employees in dialogue. Ordinarily, most organizations choose the latter as it has the effect of improving employees’ trust and confidence in the company. Overall, whichever approach an organization decides to take should incorporate participation by all stakeholders (Fernando, 2010). By researching online, what have been more recent developments with Siemens Global

Impact of Culture on the performance of the virtual groups Essay

Impact of Culture on the performance of the virtual groups - Essay Example It is implied, that the culture of virtual groups is defined by the level of their education, as the tests will be made among students through the period of two semesters. It is necessary to consider the impact of culture through each of the four decision-outcomes criteria separately, making common conclusion. For the aims of the work it will be necessary to describe the AST in details, making special references to its potential connection with the issue of cultural impact, it will be necessary to define the context in which the notion of culture will be considered as well as distinguish the exact methodology and analysis methods. The work will be useful for the students studying in the sphere of computer sciences. The present research represents high relevance as the issues of culture in various aspects of human life acquire new meaning when applying them to the new technologies.