George Orwell's 1984?

Question

Has anyone noticed that george orwell's perception of 1984 is slowly becoming a reality . with new slang reflecting "newspeak" and the new facial recognition CCTV and records the government are planning reflect the telescreens and the Ministries.He may have been a little of date but who isn't nowadays.

Answer 1

At the time, people said it could never come true - the surveillance technology in "1984" could not be maintained.

Now, it can - and worse. Cameras on main roads and in the high street; automated listening devices that can tap into phones and recognise key words and phrases; robot drone aircraft in the sky (already operational in Liverpool, coming soon to all of us); DNA technology that can detect which seat you sat on, which room you slept in - you name it. Plus Brownie-baby (the Ingsoc leader) wants the right to bang us up for a couple of months without telling us why.

The BBC is already the Ministry of Truth (i.e. lies). Indeed it was already a propaganda machine when Orwell wrote, though outsiders didn't realise this. The fraudulent image of a benign organisation devoted to telling the truth fooled most of us for a long time. Orwell worked in the BBC and closely modelled the Ministry on his experience at the BBC.

We only need the torture chambers, and they're being piloted in Iraq.

Answer 2

So let me get this straight. They have given you this homework on a book that you are not due to read until after you have handed in the homework? Tell me this isn't another fine example of state education. OK Orwell in 30 seconds. Orwell was born in a time when you have bad guys like Hitler and Stalin running amock. The BB charactor is sort of a mish mash of the 2. In 84 the idea was that a chap named Smith lived in a totalitarian state. TV could watch and be watched. So if you were not doing your morning workout, and they turned onto you when you wern't they would punish you. You have total surveylance. Secret police etc. Smith tries to rebel. He starts up an afair with a woman (Really fround upon by the state, since these relationships are deamed dangerous by the state.) . Britain in 84 is at war. It has been at war for some time. No actual war exists, but the state pretends that they are at war in order to control the populous and to increase production. Smith rents an apartment without a tv so that he can continue his affair. The end result is that the state knows everything that he is doing and, at the appropriate moment, arests him and his lover. He is interigated and eventually ends up in room 101 (The place where all of your nightmares come true). They break him and he ends up betraying his lover. She does the same for him. After re-programming him he is sent, a broken, but party toeing man, back into the populous to work in a dull factory job. Much of the symbolism used in the book and the film would be familiar to anybody who has seen a fascist news real. Now, rather than reading the book soon, go out and read the Video. This does not have as much detail as the book, but will give you a good general idea to help you answer this question. Luck

Answer 3

Big Brother is Watching You!

There are already people being detained for "Thought Crime".

Of course, when you take it into perspective, his "1984" was 1948, a time when thousands of people were being imprisoned for being Japaneese, and everyone was looking over their shoulder because their neighbor might be a Nazi spy. Paranoia on a national scale is nothing new, and just as wrong as it was sixty years ago.

Answer 4

i read it again recently, winston's torturer,o'brien, told him "if you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever." orwell imagined a world state founded on fear, hatred and cruelty, with absolutely no respite. the world will become a machine dedicated to total war. yikes!!

Answer 5

Yes, the patriot act reminds me of 1984. It is all very scary.

Answer 6

Many people have noticed it. Sadly it turns out that art does not make a difference in politics.

Answer 7

Very true. We are being watched all the time with the excuse that it is for our own security from some eternal enemy who can never be beaten.

Answer 8

I disagree. I forced myself to read three-quarters of the book over 4 months and found it completely regurgitative of past events in other places and times, and even now, I remain politically benign. I am thankful it isn't "totalitarian" Orwellian pessamism that dominates the greater pool of thought - we become what we think - manifest destiny all the way here.