Comparing "1984" to today (Page 1 of 3)

Hey all,

I'm sure that many here have read the George Orwell (Eric Blair) classic, "1984."  Like Jen mentioned on another thread recently, (paraphrasing)  it's surprising, and lucky in a way, that despite everything that's going on today we still have access to material like this.  I guess TPTB figure that hardly anybody is reading it anymore anyway, and those who do probably believe it's only fiction.

Since this book hasn't made it onto "Oprah's Book Club" list yet, (cough, gag, choke) I thought I'd take a moment to highlight some parts of the book that accurately mirror much of what we see around us today. I just know that I've been finding myself repeatedly mumbling to myself lately that "We are in '1984' !"  So, why not pull it off my shelf, dust it off, and review it again to see.  The following list runs the gambit from the obvious ("Big Brother Is Watching You") to the more subtle material buried throughout the novel.   It isn't all inclusive, but it's the highlights.  Feel free to add on whatever you feel is relevant, or anything I may have missed.  And if you haven't read the book yet and don't own it....well, what are you waiting for??  Go get yourself a copy today! 

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Victory Mansions - Where Winston Smith lives.  I liked how it's this big soaring name full of positive connotations in order to try to mask the truth.   Look around and start noticing the use of misleading positive words and descriptions in our culture to contradict stuff that is ugly and oppressive, (or just to manipulate us in general, usually to stir up patriotism).  There is also "Victory Gin" and "Victory Cigarettes."

Big Brother is Watching You! - In the book, Big Brother is the controlling force behind society, and it is always watching, all the time.   Surveillance is the name of the game in "1984."  Notice this starting to creep up on us now?  Not only in America, but most notably in England, which apparently is now the most-watched nation in the world, with over 300 cameras filming the streets of London alone.

The Party  The government who runs everything on behalf of Big Brother.  They are the "elite", and are given more freedoms and privileges then the general population, known as the Proles. The difference between both groups is like night and day.

The Proles  The general population who do not work for the government / Big Brother.  The party believes that "The proles are not human beings."  "In reality very little was known about the proles.  It was not necessary to know much.   So long as they continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance."  "Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds.  To keep them in control was not difficult...it was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings.   All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working hours or shorter rations."  Winston mistakenly believes at first that "If there is hope, it lies in the proles", because he assumes that they have been subjected to less propaganda brainwashing then the Party members, living apart as they do in their own section of the city, in squalor.  He soon realizes how wrong he is.  The proles can't carry on an intelligent conversation or hold a focused thought to save their life.  Their life has become a sea of drinking, fighting, The Lottery, and meaningless daily minutae.  "They remembered a million useless things, a quarrel with a workmate, a hunt for a lost bicycle pump, the expression on a long-dead sister's face, the swirls of dust on a morning seventy years ago; but all the relevant facts were outside the range of their vision."  This is what the general population has already become.   

Music, books, porn  In the world of "1984", music, books and porn are all computer generated.   "The tune had been haunting London for weeks past.  It was one of the countless similar songs published for the benefit of the proles by a sub-section of the Music Department.  The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator."   Sound familiar?  How many of these songs have we heard, with bland, unoriginal lyrics, the top 40 pop song or love ballad of the moment that may as well have been computer generated for all its supposed originality and uniqueness.   Keep this in mind next time you turn on the radio.  I don't even listen to it anymore.  It went the way of the TV for me.     

The telescreen Part propaganda spouting "television", part monitoring system, which can't ever be shut off, or you'll go to jail.  On a related note, be on the lookout for more and more public places that now have TV's blaring all the time. It's becoming "All Propaganda, All the Time."

War is Peace- Freedom is Slavery -Ignorance is Strength  Also known as "New Speak." What used to be up is now down, what was right is now wrong, and so on.  The not-so-subtle twisting and manipulation of the language to re-program the population.  The War on Terror is necessary for our safety.  The Patriot Act is freedom, not oppression.  Just listen to any politician or government puppet talking on TV.  All the ways in which things are twisted around.  "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thoughts?  In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words which to express it."

Two Minutes Hate / Emmanuel Goldstein  Oh, I loved this one.  In the book, an image of the sworn enemy of the people, Emmanuel Goldstein, is shown on a screen while Party members stop what they're doing and expel rage and hate at the image for two minutes.  "...the sight or even the thought of Goldstein produced fear and anger automatically." The kicker of it all is the fact that nobody has ever actually seen Goldstein.  The people just trust that he exists and exert all their hate towards an image on a screen that they've been told is evil.  For Emmanual Goldstein, substitute Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein.

The Wars with Eurasia and Eastasia  Loved this one too – in the novel, Winston's country Oceania is forever engaged in a never ending war between either Eurasia or Eastasia. And it switches from week to week, depending on what TPTB dictate.  The people switch allegiances at the drop of a hat, based on who they're told is the enemy this week.   For Eastasia and Eurasia, substitute Iraq, Afghanistan, and the upcoming Iran, Syria, North Korea, and who knows who else.  "Once when he happened in some connection to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening.   The rocket bombs which fell on London were probably fired b the Government of Oceania itself, "just to keep people frightened."

Snitching and Turning people in  In the world of "1984", party members are always keeping close tabs on each other (and being monitored by Big Brother) for any signs of a "Thought Crime," ie, a Party member who may begin thinking independently, questioning things, or being insubordinate in any way.  Sadly, things are actually progressing to this in the U.S.   TPTB tried to implement a pathetic program called "TIPS" shortly after 9/11, you probably remember that, whereby postal workers and other delivery employees would monitor – and report – any "suspicious activity" they witnessed in the homes and people they encountered.   Luckily, it was rejected, although expect to see it re-emerge in a more covert format. TPTB will always have their way in the end, no matter what the people say.  In fact, now we also have this:

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/ju … poster.htm 

and:

http://www.rense.com/general28/mcarthy.htm   

Comrade Ogilvy A hero who had died in battle, a "humble, rank-and-file Party member whose life and death be held up as an example worthy to be followed."  And who also never existed.  He's an invented figment of the imagination to manipulate the people.  "It was true that there was no such person as Comrade Ogilvy, but a few lines of print and a couple of faked photographs would soon bring him into existence." "It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones."  Makes you wonder....how many of the characters paraded in front of us on the tellie are really who we're told they are, hmmm?

Quacking Man  "...his spectacles caught the light and presented to Winston two blank discs instead of eyes. What was slightly horrible was that from the stream of sound that poured out of his mouth, it was almost impossible to distinguish a single word.  Just once Winston caught a phrase – 'complete and final elimination of Goldsteinism' – jerked out very rapidly and, as it seemed, all in one piece, like a line of type cast solid.  For the rest it was just a noise, a quack-quack-quack-quacking....As he watched the eyeless face and the jaw moving rapidly up and down, Winston had a curious feeling that this was not a real human being but some kind of a dummy.  It was not the man's brain that was speaking; it was his larynx....it was noise uttered in unconsciousness, like the quacking of a duck."We've all encountered something like this, and we'll have more and more of it as time goes on.

Anyway, those are the highlights, the stuff that I see around me every day which happened to be in the book.  I don't present this in an effort to depress anybody.  Rather, it's to liberate I guess.  For those who have read it but continue to live the illusion because of family members, close friends, and work, making themselves purposely forget....still watching television, still voting, still reading the newspaper on their lunch hours.   And for those who haven't read it yet so will benefit from this being brought to their attention. 

Once you're awakening, it's hard to go about your day to day business without seeing this stuff.  At the bank, at the bookstore, in newspapers lying around on cafe tables, at work with the TV and coworkers glued to the tube in a daze, everywhere I'm reminded of "1984".   

I can only wonder what happens when one finally reaches that point where they truly do not believe anything about what we're being told about this country, government, politics, world, reality.  Truly believing it's all faked, an illusion, a manipulation, a game, not real.  Turning your back on it all and walking off into the sunset, slipping away, through reality's fingers, cracks, holes, whispering "bye..." on the way out.  I imagine that TPTB would label you "mentally ill" and have you committed for losing touch with reality.   Kind of interesting, huh?

Now, the areas where Orwell was a little off, but not that far...

Control marriages / remove pleasure from sex:   "[the Party's] real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act.  Not love so much as eroticism was the enemy, inside marriage as well as outside it.  All marriages between Party members had to be approved by a committee appointed for the purpose, and – though the principle was never clearly stated – permission was always refused if the couple concerned gave the impression of being physically attracted to one another...sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema."    We don't have this going on today, however.........what we DO have is something related to it -  the perversion of the sex act, and the breakdown and destabilization of the family.   Huge divorce rates, kids winding up as dysfunctional and ineffectual members of society, declining birth rates in developed Western nations, notably the States, as kids from dysfunctional families grow up and in turn refrain from reproducing,   It's now the norm to find unmarried, childless 30+ year olds who are in a sense, grown kids themselves.  In the "olden days" people had fears about becoming an "old maid."  It was every parent's nightmare that they wouldn't be able to marry off their daughter(s).  "What are we going to do???  Guenevievre needs a husband!!  Who's available???"   Now their daughters (and sons) are running for the hills from marriage and kids.   "A Brave New World" talks about the Nazi concept of Eugenics, or population control.  TPTB have attained this, albeit in a different manner from what was suggested in either novel.  They've succeeded via feminism, divorce, drugs, and the increasingly demonic nature of the media and images we're inundated with on a daily basis.  Porn has gotten harder and more demonic, its images readily accessible with the ‘net; spam porns run rampant in people's inboxes, with pedophilia and beastiality mentioned nonchalantly in the subject lines.... So, goal accomplished, different road taken from anything that Orwell envisioned. 

For further reading / viewing, I recommend the following:

"A Brave New World" – Aldous Huxley
"Equilibrium" – movie, starring Christian Bale, Taye Diggs, Emily Watson; c. 2003 – A hybrid of both "Brave New World" and "1984."