News from The Ministry of Truth - 1984

[smccarter]

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

I finally purchased George Orwells 1984. I've been meaning to for several months now, but just haven't gotten around to it. When I read it in school, the parallel leaned toward communism and the Soviet Union. What has brought me to read it again is the current situation in our country. I believe I'll find deeper meaning at 48 than I did at 16.

[oddoneout]

1. it is

a great book, and has many parallels to our current situation...not as extreme of course. Animal farm is also not bad.

[Permanut]

2. Orwell was prophetic..

The Clean Air Act
The Healthy Forests Initiative
Right-to-Work
Pro-Life

[lastlib]

5. "Tax Equity Fiscal Responsibility Act"...."Patriot Act".....

Republicans have certainly mastered the art of Newspeak!!

[Aristus]

7. I think it was called the "Clear Skies Initiative."

The Clean Air Act was passed in 1963, with several subsequent amendments, and contributed significantly to cleaner air, and better respiratory health across the nation. The "Clear Skies Initiative" was basically a repeal of clean air policies in order to boost profits for the corporations that pollute the most. The text of the law was drafted by paid lobbyists of those same companies.

[Permanut]

9. Clear Skies Initiative..

is even more Orwellian. Thanks for the update, I was relying on memory, which is dangerous at my age.

[LiberalEsto]

3. I read it around age 9 and it freaked me out

We were visiting some relatives who had a daughter in high school. I was bored with the adults' conversation, which was mostly in German, and went upstairs to hang out in the daughter's room. Saw the book and started reading. I'm a fast reader and it was a very long visit - late into the night. I think I finished the book. It gave me nightmares.

[leveymg]

4. USA 2012 is a cross of "1984" with "Brave New World", and a lot of "Brazil" weirdness

Last edited Thu Dec 27, 2012, 04:30 PM - Edit history (1)

thrown into the pot.

From the late 1960s - 2001, most of the social control aspects were more of the soft power type that Huxley wrote about (sex & drugs & rock & roll).

After 9/11, things got a lot meaner, and the emphasis shifted to all-seeing surveillance, control over media, torture, and rising state violence that Orwell described so graphically.

Mash them together with hallucinatory absurdity, and you get "Brazil", probably the most accurate and subversive portrayal of post-modern dystopia. Certainly the funniest.

[Resonance_Chamber]

12. More of a cross of 1984, Idiocracy, and Deliverance

[lastlib]

6. It was supposed to be a WARNING, not a MISSION STATEMENT!!

[LeftofObama]

8. A favorite book of mine.

And for posting about it you may increase your chocolate ration to 2 grams per month!

[Permanut]

10. ..

[smccarter]

14. Up from 3 grams yesterday...

Sweet!!!

[bongbong]

11. More similarities

"More Guns Make You Safer From Guns"

[ElboRuum]

15. Yep.

The fact is that 1984 was a cautionary tale. One thing I've always noted about cautionary tales is that there are always those who see it not as a cautionary tale but as a really spiffy idea.