Posted on 06/08/2021 4:04:24 PM PDT by PROCON
George Orwell's novel of a dystopian future, 1984, is published on June 8, 1949. The novel’s all-seeing leader, known as “Big Brother,” becomes a universal symbol for intrusive government and oppressive bureaucracy.
George Orwell was the nom de plume of Eric Blair, who was born in India. The son of a British civil servant, Orwell attended school in London and won a scholarship to the elite prep school Eton, where most students came from wealthy upper-class backgrounds, unlike Orwell. Rather than going to college like most of his classmates, Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police and went to work in Burma in 1922. During his five years there, he developed a severe sense of class guilt; finally in 1927, he chose not to return to Burma while on holiday in England.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
I believe it is one of the most, if not the most seminal political works of the 20th Century.
Especially when one examines where we are now.
With few exceptions the Oceania of Orwell resembles inner cities of today’s US. Instead of a relatively few people in poverty like today, most of the proletariat in 1984 led grim and dirty lives.
Long ago I had to put the book aside for a while after reading the section regarding Winston’s childhood. His father was disappeared by The Party when he was very small. When a little older, Winston, his mother and baby sister were dying from starvation. After he didn’t share a morsel of chocolate with his mother and sister, he ran off. When he returned, they were both gone. He never knew precisely the fate of his family.
In 1984, Winston thinks he is about forty years old, but can’t be sure. There are no records. There is no truth, but he seeks out the truth. It is his demise.
The screws of today’s Thought Police will only tighten.
I have always found him fascinating. He saw modern total tyranny more clearly than nearly anyone else in his work, but was a socialist in his personal life.
I could never understand how he squared that circle.
It is a remarkable, prescient, and truthful book.
I read recently that the 20th Century was the century of Tyranny.
I fear that the 21st Century will be the century with Total Tyranny, with the melding of 20th Century brute physical tyranny of the Nazis and Soviet Union with the technological tyranny which the German Democratic Republic wished for, but did not have the technology to achieve.
One of the most remarkable books I have have read recently was “Stealth War: How China Took Over While America’s Elite Slept” by Gen. Robert Spalding (Ret.)
He was interviewed a year or two ago, and was asked who is the greater threat: Communist China, or Big Tech. He answered both, and when asked why, stated “They both use the same business model.”
It was startling to hear, but he explained that, in Communist China, the Communist Chinese Government owns your personal information. By next year, it will have one surveillance camera for every two citizens, not to mention everything from your bank records, spending habits, social media postings, surfing habits...everything.
And then he asked the rhetorical question: In the United States, who owns your personal information, your bank records, spending habits, social media postings, surfing habits, etc.? It is “Big Tech”.
I swear, I feel like one of those people living in the 1930’s who can see the dark black skies forming on the far off horizon, and am filled with foreboding. I know I am not the only one, but it feels lonely enough seeing that I feel like I am the only one who feels that way.
Doublethink is an essential element of today’s Left, and I believe the psychic damage it has to cause is deadly and acute because we live in an Information Age.
To hold two diametrically opposed things as both equal truths is one thing in 1949, but in this Information Age, the cognitive dissonance and resultant damage has to be so much greater than ever before.
I believe it is driving the Left insane.
Literally.
The biggest interference by ‘Big Brother’ that we all see today is the social media platforms deciding what’s true and what isn’t true and censoring opposing opinion/thought.
Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I remain surprised by the extent of acquiescence to the dictatorial shutdowns thanks to the Chicom flu. I fear they are only the taste of things to come.
I know I am not the only one who felt waves of both fury and fear at the announcement that the administration wants to partner with Big Tech to obtain information on private citizens that they are legally prohibited (for the warm spit those prohibitions have shown to be worth) from obtaining through the organs of government.
They aren’t even hiding their intention to create a fascist surveillance state in the open with the prospective partnership of Big Tech.
The concept of a government pulling the levers of power in a surveillance state (or any other kind of tyrannical government for that matter) is always tempered by the inherent inefficiency of any government, which it attempts to make up for with unlimited funding providing by robbing its own citizens of their wealth.
But the prospect of a government taking that inefficient surveillance, analysis, and dissemination process and putting into the hands of organizations that have been shown to be more efficient due to them harnessing the inherent capitalistic process of operating in a market should make us all sit up and pay attention.
And they will be deciding truth and censoring opposition with both the money and the protection of a government hostile to its own citizenry.
I posted this last year, and was pilloried by some Freepers for melodrama and overreaction:
It’s just a mask.
It’s just six feet.
It’s just two weeks.
It’s just non-essential businesses.
It’s just non-essential workers.
It’s just a bar.
It’s just a restaurant.
It’s just to keep from overwhelming the hospitals.
It’s just until the cases go down.
It’s just to flatten the curve.
It’s just a few inmates.
It’s just to keep others from being scared.
It’s just for a few more weeks.
It’s just church. You could still pray.
It’s just prayer.
It’s just until we get a vaccine.
It’s just a bracelet.
It’s just an app.
It’s just for tracing.
It’s just to let people know you’re safe to be around.
It’s just to let others know who you’ve been in contact with.
It’s just a few more months.
It’s just some more inmates.
It’s just a video.
It’s just a post.
It’s just an email account.
It’s just for protecting other from hate speech.
It’s just for protecting others from hurt feelings.
It’s just a large gathering but for protests.
It’s just a few violent protests.
It’s just a little micro chip.
It’s just a blood test.
It’s just a test.
It’s just a scan.
It’s just for medical information.
It’s just to store a vaccination certificate.
It’s just like a credit card.
It’s just a few places that don’t take cash.
It’s just so you can travel.
It’s just so you can get your driver’s license.
It’s just so you can vote.
It’s just mail-in voting.
It’s just a few more years.
It’s just a statue.
It’s just a monument.
It’s just a building.
It’s just a song.
It’s just a lyric.
It’s just an anthem.
It’s just a few words.
It’s just a piece of paper.
It’s just a book.
It’s just a movie.
It’s just a TV show.
It’s just a cartoon character.
It’s just a piece of cloth.
It’s just a flag.
It’s just a dog.
It’s just a clump of cells.
It’s just a fetus.
It’s just a religion.
It’s just a holiday.
It’s just the people who don’t think like we do.
It’s just a boxcar.
Well..... maybe it’s not just a mask.
It was June 8th 1949 and the clock was striking thirteen...
“In a time of universal deceit, telling me truth becomes a revolutionary act,”-George Orwell
read the book in high school. I might note... the year cameras were introduced into a jail I was involved with was 1984. Coincidence. “Big Brother”.... BUT YOU LEARN! “Big Brother” NEVER shovels the crap! EVER! ALL that big brother does is blame you for his inadequacies. Been there, done that! Lived it! Suffered it and hated it!
Amen to that.
It’s like every SCOTUS decision since WW2, particularly since the 60s.
“They” those who are responsible for the “It is just a....” know exactly what they are doing and what they are doing it for. It is the fools , A/K/A, sheep who not only don’t know, but are not interesting in learning. The Communists Party has did its job well.
To quote Colonel Slade: “You are correct, Sir.”
That is one of the most prescient of all the prescient quotes he originated.
Holy Moses, what a collection of quotes. Unbelievable.
One might think he was someone who engaged in time travel.
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