Great book but also the most MISUNDERSTOOD book of all time. It is NOT really about television screens invading our privacy, computers, etc. And, in a way, it isn't even a book about the future (although it is set there). It is actually a SATIRE about the PAST, specifically about the Bolshevik revolution and the society that followed it. Read that book carefully and you will see not only that Big Brother was modelled on Stalin but you can even see the characters based on Kamenev and Zinoviev. And, of course, Goldstein was definitely based on Trotsky.
I used to wonder why Orwell's fascination with Newspeak until I realized that when you control the language, you can control how people think.
Oh, and Oceana suddenly switching allies is based on the Nazi-Soviet Pact.