“1984” (1949) by George Orwell is a novel set in 1984, then in the future. The world is divided between three cruel empires which fight each other in endless wars. People live under the evil eye of the state, their every move watched through two-way televisions that can never be turned off: “Big Brother is watching you”, as the saying went.
Meanings of words are turned upside down: the Ministry of Truth tells lies, the Ministry of Peace fights wars and the Ministry of Love breaks down your door in the middle of the night to take you away. Newspapers and books are controlled by the state: “Ignorance is strength.” The state rewrites history and makes the dictionary thinner and thinner to make “thoughtcrime” impossible and “duckspeak” natural. Newspeak replaces English.
Those who speak out against the state are taken away by the Thought Police. Sometimes they are never heard from again and become unpersons: every record of their ever having lived is wiped away and no one ever speaks of them again.
Winston Smith, a 39-year-old Londoner, tries to escape the complete control of his mind and heart by the state. He keeps a secret diary in which he writes down his true thoughts – things he would never say in public out of fear of the Thought Police. He also has a secret love affair with a woman named Julia. The state is also trying to control sex and love – in fact, all human thought and feeling.
Spoiler alert: I am about to give away the ending.
But there are no secrets: the Thought Police knew all along just what he was doing. They take him away. Not to shoot him in the head, as he feared, but something far worse: to brainwash him, to kill him not on the outside but on the inside and then return him to society as a happy citizen.
I was amazed that:
- Winston Smith trusted Julia: she is 13 years younger and, barely knowing him, said she loved him. I thought for sure she was working for the Thought Police. She was.
- Winston Smith could spend his days working at the Ministry of Truth changing back issues of the Times to fit government’s lies and yet still wonder whether the government was telling the truth about the past! And whether lies could become the truth if everyone believed them.
The book is particularly good on the relationship between truth and power:
- He who controls the past controls the future: The powerful tell lies and try to control the facts and the framing of history and the news.
- The powerful try to paint a happy face on the present that does not match one’s own experience. They try to get you to doubt your private judgement and trust their public one.
- Crimestop or protective stupidity: The powerful are capable of subtle reasoning and command of supporting facts and yet at the same time utterly miss the point of the simplest argument if it goes against their interests.
– Abagond, 2011.
See also:
Orwell is one of my favourite authors. But I prefer Animal farm.
What I like about Orwell’s work is that he’s able to describe so many things with so simple words.
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I loved Animal Farm, but 1984 is quite relevant in this day and age. When I look at ‘newscasts’ now, and compare them to the reporting that was done before the 24/7/365 ‘info-tainment’ propaganda machine, I’m definitely proud of the fact that I don’t inundate myself with CNN, FOX, MSNBC, CNBC, HLN….none of that shite.
GIGO, ya know! 😎
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This post deserves more love…
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Brilliant book, like Animal Farm too. Should be compulsory reading in all schools from junior high to universities. Very very relevant today too.
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“Orwell is one of my favourite authors. But I prefer Animal farm.”
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
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He who controls the past controls the future
profound.
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Very relevant indeed.
Here’s another relevant quote (from Theodore Dalrymple):
“Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
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Orwell was obviously a brilliant man and ahead of his time.
One of the interesting ways in which his storylines has come true is “Big Brother”. Although Orwell probably wouldn’t have predicted that rather than Big Brother watching us, we are actually voluntarily exposing every aspect of our lives to Big Brother. It’s called Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Myspace, and so on.
I still haven’t read this actually, cant believe I haven’t gotten round to it.
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I believe that the reason that so few people have commented on Abagond’s reviews of Dante and 1984 is because so few people have actually read those books.
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Has anyone read The Giver?
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Orwell was an excellent storyteller.
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@nonserviam: 😀 Thats one way of lookin at it! Check the Fox News on tv and keep 1984 in mind. Right? 😀
Orwell, from his personal experiences, knew what he was talking about. As a leftist he knew that Big Brother looms around, not only in openly totalitarian societys, but in so-called “free” societys as well. That is why 1984 is so important book.
His critisism of communist system is more on the spot in Animal Farm, where “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. But then again, that sounds awful lot of race realism, doesn’t it? 😀
You do know that he fought in Spanish Civil War along side with the anarchists and communists and socialists, being one of them?? 😀
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No, it doesn’t. What it does sound like is the affirmative action regime.
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@nonserviam
What does this mean? Are you still mad that Obama is your president? You would think that reich-wingers would have figured out what’s really going on…
Abagond,
Have you ever read “Politics and the English Language” and Down and Out in Paris and London? I think those were even better works than 1984 because they showed how Orwell came to his anti-authoritarian beliefs and also demonstrate his views on capitalism. Too often, people assume that because Orwell was opposed to the Soviet Union and other such “worker’s states” that he was also a pro-capitalist.
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You know, I read this novel in the 8th grade. It was required reading then, along with Animal Farm, also by Orwell.
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I had to read this novel in high school. I think it’s scary how it still is very relevant to today’s world.
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I sometimes wonder if (sorry for pulling another stereotype) Americans like Orwell because they think he was against communism, and that it’s what his work is all about.
In reality, Orwell was a socialist himself. What he didn’t like was a special type of it, mainly displayed in stalisnism.
But in no way he was “against commies” in a way of “pro capitalism” as some people seem to think.
PS- There was no such a thing as communism in reality, anywhere in the world.
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Orwell at his finest. It’s a very depressing book but I find myself returning to it every couple of years.
The most fascinating segment of the book is the extract from “Goldstein’s” book. It’s a fictive (but in so many ways very real) essay about the class/power struggle.
In the ‘essay’ he points out that while in revolutions the middle and upper classes at times exchange places, the underclass’s oppression is never-ending. In 1984, the Inner Party has finally distilled the formula for keeping the class structure completely intact.
@ Abagond
What is your favourite work by Orwell? Do you think you might cover ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ at some stage?
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I think 1984 is kind of prophetic especially with news media reporting that the government is looking at what people are looking at on the internet and the government is also listening to telephone conversations. They say this is for checking for terrorist activities, but i am skeptical and i think about Orwell’s 1984. “Big Brother” truly is watching us.
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June 8th 1949 George Orwell 1984 was published.
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