Has anyone read the following books?

Question

Brave New World by Huxley and 1984 by Orwell. And if so which do you think is more likely to happen in the future.

Answer 1

no i havent but i should eh

Answer 2

Although he got the date wrong 1984 by Orwell is almost a prediction now. Big Brother everywhere in the form of cameras and records kept (even this reply will be kept for 7 years).The Thought Police are alive and well in the guise of the Politically Correct Brigade. Problem is IT AIN'T OVER YET!

Answer 3

1984 is here. Spin CCTV Cameras Restritions on what wecan and cannot do, being told by the Government what to think . Brave New World has some basid of truthand is the better read but Orwell saw it all coming

Answer 4

I've read both, but 1984 definitely made the bigger impression on me. Whenever I hear anything about the Patriot Act, I can't help but think of the Ministry of Truth (which was anything but) from Orwell's book.

I think it's unwise to think that something equally fearful can't happen here. If you could go back in time and talk to a German in,say, 1900 and told them about Hitler, they would probably say the same thing. But the sad thing is, it did happen.

And if it does, it will happen slowly over a long period of time. When people finally wake up and realize what's going on, it will be too late. I don't mean that there there won't be some people who will fight back, but it will wind up being too little too late. And no doubt the government will call them traitors who must be stopped for reasons of national security.

Some of the things going on right now, with political correctness, cameras everywhere, and the possibility of even worse developments, like warrant-less searches, are downright scary.
And similar to what happened in Germany in the 1930s, the government seems to be using the very real threat of terrorism to expand its power and its control of people.

Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who will trade a little bit of essential freedom for a little bit of security deserve neither freedom or security." I think that we ignore his warning to our peril.

Answer 5

1984 is closest to the world we are living in at the moment. The anti terrorism act give the police the power to phone tap, email tap and incarcerate without charge for a lot longer than it used to be in the past. The shooting of Jean C Menendez on the tube shows that the police state is already in force but very subtle. The USA is a far better match for 1984 at the moment with the patriot act in force, the government pretty much has free reign to lock up who ever they want and keep the people living in constant fear of attack. Much like the Reichstag Fire Decree which gave the Nazi party all the rope they needed.

Answer 6

1984 is the better book in my opinion. I would venture to say currently the plot is not so far from our own circumstances. Oceania, the country of Winston and Julia finds itself perpetually at war; the opponents have been switched and only Winston can remember this. Eurasia or Eastasia is always at war with Oceania. Big Brother is watching there as he watches here. With the Patriot Act, your house can be searched, your choice of library books scrutinized, and your civil liberties trampled in general. With warrantless surveillance, the Bush Administration has pushed the envelope further. These things are all done for the good of the country, just as the erosion of personal liberties in 1984 is done for the survival of Oceania as a society. Now I am going to see if the GOP will legislate torture; oh wait, they did.

Answer 7

orwell's and by the way it's not mere immagination and a predictiopn of the future, it's based on events that took place in 1948 after world war 2, the allegory was in versing the date-title into 1984

Answer 8

Read 1984

Answer 9

Well, scarily enough, Orwell's vision is pretty close to home already. After all, we can already be monitored everywhere we go...though thankfully we do still have some measure of freedom. But if the world continues to spiral out of control as it does, we'll all probably be gagging for a bit of Huxley's Soma - "A gram is better than a damn" - to escape from it.

Answer 10

Both are great. To an extent, they already have. Read and realize. 1984 especially has come true. It may consume America right now, but look into other countries and the past. Its everywhere. Almost everything within its pages has occured to some degree. Big Brother does watch.

Answer 11

I've read both, and while I think neither will come to pass, for me, out of the two I see Brave New World as being more likely.

Of course the true answer depends on what happens to societies beforehand to get to each point, I think both authors were showing similar scenarios, different roads to the same destination if you like.