Golly gee willikers, I wonder why you would bring me into the discussion. :-)
When analyzing the works of Orwell or Huxley's "Brave New World" you have to take into account the period in which they wrote and not just look back on it with the benefit that we have of 20/20 hindsight.
Granted, Orwell was a Socialist. I'm sure he meant well...the idea sounded good in theory...everybody is equal, there is no hunger or poverty or class warfare. But this was in the 1940's, long before the experiment had proven to be a failure in reality as seen in Cuba, USSR, California.
Orwell's vision of a state in which the Gubmint used technology through telescreens which monitored their citizens every move wasn't wrong per se...he just didn't realize 60 years ago that the same technology could be used by the masses through mediums like the internet and sites like FR, or radio hosts like Rush, Hannity or Levin or cable TV with channels like FOX that could break the hold of carefully orchestrated left wing propaganda. (see the Global Warming fraud)
I saw your screenname pop up before, figured you might be interested in this thread! :)
When analyzing the works of Orwell or Huxley's "Brave New World" you have to take into account the period in which they wrote and not just look back on it with the benefit that we have of 20/20 hindsight.
True, Huxley was in many ways Orwell's counterpart - representive of Fascist-leaning ideology, both in the end started to see the fallacies of their respective ideologies.
Granted, Orwell was a Socialist. I'm sure he meant well...the idea sounded good in theory...everybody is equal, there is no hunger or poverty or class warfare. But this was in the 1940's, long before the experiment had proven to be a failure in reality as seen in Cuba, USSR, California.
Yeah, I generally look more favourably on the Old Left than I do with the modern left - they could be given the benifit of the doubt considering, as you have said, that socialism wasn't yet proven to be flawed, plus; there was extreme poverty in the West until the '50s (resolved by the Free Market, of course).
They may have had flawed ideas, but they also had a moral compass - something modern-day liberals wholly lack!
Orwell's vision of a state in which the Gubmint used technology through telescreens which monitored their citizens every move wasn't wrong per se...he just didn't realize 60 years ago...
I would imagine if the technology we had today was controlled centrally, the results would be far different than what we know today!