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Los Monchis

Recent events have prompted me to give this classic a re-read, and I must say it was well worth it. Orwell didn't get quite everything right of course, and he was a few years too early in his prediction, but the truly amazing thing is the vast number of things that he did get right.

For instance:

Perpetual war as a tool of control. At this point, the stage seems set for a series of unending and unendable confrontations. (War on Drugs, War on Terra, War on Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, The Philippines, etc.) In the book, it didn't matter who the enemy was, only that there WAS an enemy.

Psychological domination and fear-mongering. This is really beginning to pick up steam in the US. Witness the endless and undefined alerts, Code yellow, orange, chartreuse, go get duct tape, plastic and what have you. Even when they admit the basis for the recent alert was based on a lie, it's still days before the threat level is reduced. Is this all to keep us afraid and ready for war? You tell me.

Constant surveilance. Another item that's only getting up to speed now. The very fact that John Poindexter is in charge of anything, let alone something so, well, Orwellian-sounding as 'Total Information Awareness' is evidence of the disdain in which this government holds its subjects.

Newspeak. Again, just coming to fruition. I remember a shrub quote from a speech not long ago: "If Saddam Hussein does not disam, then the United States will lead a coalition of nations to disarm him in the name of peace. In other words, we'll have a war in the name of peace. War is peace. How much plainer do you want it?

The control of/demonizing of sex. I know a lot of people think Ann Coulter is hot and all, but today's GOP seems positvely anti-sex, or at least anti-pleasure-from-sex. And don't forget the entire anti-Clinton industry (including hating Hillary for a supposed affair with Vince Foster or supposed lesbianism. Why can't they make up their minds?) was based SOLELY and ENTIRELY on sex.

Um... ok.. this is getting out of hand and long. Suffice it to say that Orwell's 1984 is as relevant today as the day it was written (in 1948), in fact probably much, much more so. Every speaker of the English language should read it at least once.

After all, Cheney, Perle, Wolfowitz, Rove and Rummy all read it. Orwell wrote it as a cautionary tale about a potential distopia, but our leaders are using it as a blueprint for the future.

-LM

 

Stewpad

Great points mentioned in the reply above mine. I was watching that propogandized peice of shit station CNN today and caught a blurb about how America bombed some radar stations and other targets in Iraq today "in preperation for a 'possible' war". A possible war?! What do you call what we just did?! We just dropped major explosives from the sky on another country's soil, and it's still a 'possible' war.

And that's just one instance in a sea of politically correct phrases and terminology that Ashcroft and others use to keep Americans dumb, uninformed, and easily persuaded. What's even more amazing is that America chooses to accept and believe the shroud our government is throwing over our eyes.

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"The best way to control people is not to want to control them in the first place."

Larmer

Possibly one of the best books ever written...

Anyone who liked it might also like Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Similar to 1984, examines indivuality and drug use, to a certain extent at least. Interesting read.

opteek

For those who mentioned not having a copy of this book, it is not copyrighted anymore and, as such, is available online via Project Gutenburg right here.

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I will eventually place something insightfull and eloquently profound here... I mean it.

Dirk

I just read this book for school. It opened up my eyes to everything that Los Monchis said and more. I can see this happening in the future, maybe not to the degree in the book, but it can totally happen.

Americans have to open thier eyes to what is "really" happening in the world, not just what the media tells them and wants them to believe.

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"An eye for and eye makes the whole world blind" - Mahatma Gandhi

 

HappyMan

You talk about 1984 as comentary about U.S. goverment. However waht seems to be ignored is that those systems already do exist and have for some years. It's called stalinism and it the the preemint form of social control in the former Soviet union and still exists in many countries. Iraq and North Korea about too of the more relevent for current discussion.


Did you know that in North Korea every home as a radio receiver that broadcasts proppaganda without the consent of the inhabitant? This receiver is controled by the goverment and turns on and off at it's whim?

You talk about Owrell is a hypothetical context of what might happen to the western world. Well it's not hypothetical, it exists and it should be seen as a guide as to what may happen if the U.S. looses and the totalitarians gain an upperhand.

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mas1888

i read all of 1984 stoned, and to this day it is one of the best books i have ever read. I don't know if it was the marijuana that made the book better, but i apperciated the book so much

deadman420

Indeed. The US, even with the TIA and Patriot acts is nowhere near the best example of "Orwellianism" in the world today, or in the past.

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No matter your position on the tenets of National Socialism, you have to admit that the Nazis were snappy dressers.

Herb Ninja

*creepy chills run down my spine*

"Records told the same tale, then the lie passed into history and became truth. - George Orwell, 1984"

*chills become deeper... longer.... colder.....*

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SmokyThePenguin

can't forget Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, another great book that i'm finishing for the second time. it has a more focused theme (censorship) but you could even relate it to the drug war. the government harped on people's fears and turned it into an all out brawl. the people that want what used to be okay are discredited and shamed.

anyways, it's also a good read. 1984 is next on my list

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