The hobnailed boot is difficult to remove once it has been firmly planted on the neck.
I would add the rise of the surveillance state. Big Brother Is watching.
Facial recognition and surveillance cameras in all public spaces.
What Orwell got wrong, Huxley got right.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
Gee, that sounds a lot like what’s happening in our Republic toay.
“Alexa...”
The “telescreens” of Orwell’s 1984 are today represented by Alexia, Echo and ‘smart’ appliances like TVs, radios, refrigerators, dishwashers, thermostats, light switches, etc.
Would you allow 24/7/365 access to your home by a person unknown to you with a video recorder to tape everything that happens? No? Do you own any of the above mentioned ‘things?’ ‘Nuff said.
The Two Minutes Hate was wrong...it is 24/7 from MSNBC and CNN.
The thing that is truly frightening is that we, who think we are enlightened, can talk about this in a dispassionate way instead of total outrage.
I think the appendix, even more than the novel itself, addresses the left’s obsession with control of language and thought.
Someone pointed out that much of the police state seen in Nineteen Eighty Four already existed in the year 1984; however, the police state didn’t stop there.
Modern police states, which were innovated during the reign of the first emperor of China, have a structured set of similarities that show whether they are new, mature or in decline.
The generally fit the rule of “government efficiency”, a ratio of what a government promises vs. what it delivers, at first, because they promise little, but deliver it.
This makes them acceptable to their people as a government.
However, as they keep promising more and more, and delivering less and less, they are seen by the people to be less and less efficient, and more in need of replacement.
In their final stages of the police state, they attempt to gather a vast amount of trivial information about the people, while ignoring the important things government is supposed to do.
That the United States intelligence and police apparatus seem to be at this point, of collecting mountains of trivial and useless information, does not bode well for them and suggests, unless they can be substantially reformed by the government, they may drag the government, and maybe even the nation, down with them.
They also seem to have lost their purpose and independence from the political process. Paradoxically imagining themselves as a shadow government above the law, with things like the Russia scandal.
In a contest between themselves and the nation, they have reached the point where they will choose themselves. But this in turn will mean their destruction.
This is frighteningly accurate. We need to push back in the other direction.
I am reading it right now for the first time. I am on page 50. It is a difficult read as it is very depressing. The depressed nature of it is both because of the book itself, and more importantly because how much of it we are living and how close we are to allowing what I believe are 45% of the country are not redeemable...to dictate to us...they cannot be brought back to sanity. I will call them “45” for reference. I am convinced 45 would allow us to be killed if they were in power and are brainwashed, miseducated and so filled with hate.
Back to the novel...BTW , after this, I bought Brave New World, also, - we are like so much of 1984 it now, and now view it sort of as normal...meaning can’t stop it.
E.g., Two minutes hate...that is CNNMSNBCCBSABC but it is 24 hrs non-stop. FBGOOGLETWITTERREDDIT are electronic book burners...Wikipedia and Google are history erasers. Millennial jargon is Doublespeak. Schools “teach” that when liberals are in power, their wars are ok (war is peace), believe what they say is true, so ignorance is strength, ...
I believe we are living much of it. If I say what I want to say in public, I would be bankrupted by 45..no freedom of speech.
The author needs to re-read 1984.
There isn’t a line here that liberals can deny parallels the sinister environment they created and proclaim proud. Nor one they would admit to, bred from ignorance or evil, or both.
“1984’’ wasn’t prophecy or science fiction. It was a warning of what unchecked, unrestrained power can do and the pursuit to achieve that power and maintain it. The next Democrat in The White House, and there will be one, will bring that warning to fruition.
Darned near EVEARYTHING!