Orwell's 1984

[javasaurus]

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.

Comments

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Renée was recently reading that too. Talking to her about it, and then reading your comments here, I think that's one of those rare books that gets harder to read the older you are, not because you've grown past them, but you can see more in them. And they hurt.

the majesty of that book

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

is that it doesn't matter what the political climate of the day is -- you can "see it happening before you".

if you specifically looked at it in the 90s, when we all saw the great media conglomeration and consolidation especially in news and in "Clear Channel"'s takeover of broadcast radio, the pettyness of the clinton-lewinski affair, the passage of the DMCA, the continual extension of copyrights and the abuse of patents, and the growing over-reliance on AP and Reuters over home-grown investigative journalism (supposedly for financial reasons), and you'd see it all in there in some parallel as well...

...and completely overlook the "quasi-religious figurehead" and "get rid of science" portions of that world.

the world in that book is the ultimate in worst-case scenerios. as such, its unlikely to impossible that it all will happen, but at any point in time you can see *some* of it happening in the news of the day.

its impossible to read that book without the bias of current events. those who read it in the 60's missed most of what we've described but instead specifically noticed the examples of forced labor (in their eyes, the Draft), the repression of sex to reproduction only, the abuse of investigative powers over our privacy (remnants of the original McCarthyism) and the concept of a "conspiracy" where the powers in the public eye (Kennedy, Johnson, and congress) aren't the real power in the government.

Re: the majesty of that book

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

It's kind of scary that the book can be so universal, and seem so specific at the same time.

[rionnkelly.livejournal.com]

Just remember what uncle Charleton warned us about...


SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

And tasty, too!

(hmmm...maybe soylent green on a stick?)

[rionnkelly.livejournal.com]

Where do y'think they get the "macaroni on a stick"....?