I recall contrasting and comparing 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, both of which were intended as horrorshow alternate futures, and writing a paper in English Class in which I postulated that the future held in store a hybrid of the two.
I wish I had been wrong.
I have been thinking even more about H.G.Wells' Time Machine, and the Eloi and Morelocks thrive even today...
Beyond 1984 which is scary enough all by itself, here’s my take,
As shown to Daniel, God uses beasts to describe governments (kings/kingdoms) in reference to the succeeding world powers that would come.
“The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand on the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.” (Babylon) Daniel 7:4
We the people, elect and bring into power those we feel are aligned with our own beliefs, a mans heart was given to it = Democracy
“I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” Daniel 7:8
Antichrist is a spirit (and was already at work in St Johns day) and its this spirit which empowers the “little horn” at the time of end where its also given that it can “see” like a man,
Its only within the last two decades, with the dramatic increase and widespread availability of new technologies, communication satellites, cell towers, personal computers and now global (Tower of Babel like) internet connectivity, smart phones, webcams etc., that individual activities of law abiding free citizens everywhere on the Earth are increasingly being watched, we’ve become a surveillance society, where our every move, purchase, credit transaction, web pages visited, blog postings, opinions, habits and political affiliations along with anything else they want to know about us can be monitored, tracked, indexed and stored away until (those in power) need it to “protect” (oppress) us,
Its this information for which they now have the “eyes” to see, that will forever (going forward) empower those in positions of influence and will be used to hinder or give pause to anyone on the outside of this power structure having never broken any law, to ever consider public service or to seek political office or promote any voice that fails to espouse politically acceptable ‘safe’ views, whereby it necessarily follows that freedom dies with it and their advantage is ever increasing,
This is not how its always been, this is not how its been even for that long of a time,
But they want us to assume its ‘normal’ knowing that any society for which its every collective thought is consumed with finding ways to bring themselves more entertainment, joy and self-gratification, they know will eventually shrug and give up their freedom and privacy when their comfortable existence is threatened. They just need appropriate events to be adequately exploited along the way to bring this fear,
Unfortunately for them at present, too many Americans have been used to having the personal freedoms guaranteed in the constitution, so their doing everything in their power to demean it (and them) and find events to exploit, while the world at large without this expectation can more readily become used to this amount of tyranny given enough time,
this is the spirit of antichrist at work,
Its the eyes of a man, imo,
And its this type of spirit that is increasingly rising in power when the end of the age comes and Jesus returns bodily to this Earth,
“I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” Daniel 7:21-22