Posted on 12/27/2001 12:16:42 PM PST by Marylander
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... a totalitarian state under a benevolent leader in which citizens are detained and arrested on the merest suspicion of espionage. But the benevolent leader is seen only on television; he never appears in public. Personal surveillance is unceasing and relentless: TV cameras that receive and transmit simultaneously are everywhere. The political-correctness police listen in on every conversation to match speakers to the profile of a potential saboteur. Ordinary citizens live in constant fear of arrest and imprisonment for terrorist activities.
No, this is not the implementation of the antiterrorist USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, which Congress just passed in the throes of the anthrax attacks without even reading it (see "Police State," Dec. 3),
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(big snip)
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All of which suggests that Orwell's 1984 was written as a forecast scenario for the year 2000, but titled 1984 to bring to mind the centenary of the Fabian Society. Orwell's satirical approach assumes that the leaders of future governments would be Fabian successors of Beatrice and Sidney Webb, whom H.G. Wells with arcane foresight referred to as the global "New Machiavellians."
These are a breed of international socialists who might be recognized in 2000 as, say, Hillary and Bill Clinton and British Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.
This is one heck of an article. Longish but scholarly and worth the read. I couldn't find it already posted, so enjoy!
Gotta go get my fix.
Brave New World depicts a society where the culture of death is highly articulated - it's main character is considered a freak and an oddity because he was born naturally instead of being bred from a test tube.
It was published in 1948. The title was obtained by reversing the 4 and the 8, just to pick a date in the future. There was nothing special about the year 1984.
And a political scientist would classify this as a _______________________!
I guess the excerpts don't fully convey that the full article is really interesting.
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