I’m finally reading 1984

[Mirage]

I had never read 1984, so 2020 seemed like the right year to do it with everything we have going on.

I’m happy to report that we’re still not quite there yet in our world. George Orwell was about 100 years early with a lot of this stuff. I think 2084 would have been a better title.

So far, I like the book and see a lot of parallels to our day and age. Things like thought police, rewriting history, pushing a narrative for the good of “the party.”

He was also way off on a few things. Thankfully, we don’t just execute people and wipe the public memory of them because they went and met a new person and had a conversation with them.

He was definitely a little off of you take into account smart phones, but then again even our reality didn’t have smart phones in 1984. The idea of the cameras everywhere was ahead of its time considering the book was written in 1949.

Who else has read this? What conclusions did you draw from it about the direction society is or isn’t going?

 

[dDave]

I always understood that he took absurd and radical ideas to paint a picture of more or less worst cases to help people understand where a lot of current day events will ultimately end up.

A lot of the stuff he has to say in 1984 has actually happened in America. That's alarming because you have to realize that radical ideas are never one idea, they're a set of ideas, influencing various parts of the culture, various parts of the government, and ultimately various parts of everyday life for normal people. It always gets me thinking, what will they think of next? What will the "progressives" decide to move forward next?

 

[CaptainObvious]

It’s one of my favorite books of all time. I don’t think he was really predicting those things would happen or be in existence in 1984, it seemed like a random year picked in the future, and about how society will devolve, and I think he was pretty spot on. I always say, the book was a warning, and it seems so many think it’s a guide. It’s sad.

 

[MainerMikeBrown]

I've never read the book 1984 before. However, I've heard about it some over the years.

Is this the book where aliens called Tripods take over humanity?

 

[Mirage]

@MainerMikeBrown, you are thinking of War of the Worlds.

1984 is set in a dystopian future country of Oceana where a dictatorship uses media and wartime propaganda to control the people’s every move (and thought) under an iron thumb.

 

[asp3]

I always understood that he took absurd and radical ideas to paint a picture of more or less worst cases to help people understand where a lot of current day events will ultimately end up.

A lot of the stuff he has to say in 1984 has actually happened in America. That's alarming because you have to realize that radical ideas are never one idea, they're a set of ideas, influencing various parts of the culture, various parts of the government, and ultimately various parts of everyday life for normal people. It always gets me thinking, what will they think of next? What will the "progressives" decide to move forward next?

Strangely enough the parallels I see from 1984 and today is doublespeak I see from the non-progressive side of the government. I see it as a tale of authoritarian society as opposed to progressive society.