javasaurus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
javasaurus) wrote2005-09-21 11:47 am
javasaurus) wrote2005-09-21 11:47 am
Orwell's 1984
Currently reading Orwell's 1984. I haven't read it since I was in high school, and it's not really what I remember. Oddly enough, it's really hitting some strange chords with me:
In it is the idea that the purpose of war is to use up excess supplies (food, medicine, machinery, etc.) at a sufficiently high rate to keep the masses impoverished. Healthy, well educated masses have the ability to say no to the government, which cannot be allowed. Reduce education, specifically get rid of science. Make the political leader a quasi-religious figurehead, and the "enemy" is villified to a point of extreme hatred. Furthermore, make these changes in such a way that people think you are improving their lives, or at least tell them repeatedly that they are living better now than ever, and they will believe you, especially if you denounce and/or remove anybody who speaks otherwise.
In it is the idea that the purpose of war is to use up excess supplies (food, medicine, machinery, etc.) at a sufficiently high rate to keep the masses impoverished. Healthy, well educated masses have the ability to say no to the government, which cannot be allowed. Reduce education, specifically get rid of science. Make the political leader a quasi-religious figurehead, and the "enemy" is villified to a point of extreme hatred. Furthermore, make these changes in such a way that people think you are improving their lives, or at least tell them repeatedly that they are living better now than ever, and they will believe you, especially if you denounce and/or remove anybody who speaks otherwise.