Special to the Mirror, submitted by Michael Jordan.
Art imitates life and vice versa. Some of the greatest works in literature turned out to predict major events throughout the history. It is important not to forget that well known authors decide to write their novels after being inspired by the society of some era.
When discussing the relationship between society and art, it is impossible to neglect the connection between George Orwell’s most famous work “1984” and society today. In fact, the book and our environment nowadays can be compared in more ways than one, which is the primary purpose of this essay. George Orwell successfully played the role of Nostradamus and wrote a book that perfectly depicts the world we live in today.
In George Orwell’s famous novel, almost all private and public places feature large TV screens that only broadcast government propaganda, news, and of course, the approved entertainment. At the same time, these large screens are two-way monitors which spy on people’s private lives. Nowadays, we have easy access to media which, also, aims to display government propaganda, news, and entertainment.
Although we try to convince ourselves thinking entertainment today is largely “free”, that is not the case. Social media websites such as Facebook track our likes, dislikes, even messages.
The surveillance spreads to other websites we use daily. We may not have a two-way screen that tracks our every move, but there are multiple ways to get spied on and it is impossible to escape.
The similarities between George Orwell’s book and modern society also stretch to the endless global war. The novel describes a global war that has been going on since forever and shows no signs of slowing down. Moreover, the main hero, Winston Smith, realizes that enemy keeps changing. Things are not much different war-wise.
The United States fight wars for decades, with differing minor nations, along with Russia, Turkey, The United Kingdom, France, and many others. The so-called war on terror has no end in sight and its only “accomplishment” is spreading fear among the American public.
Furthermore, the key way Big Brother gained the tremendous power was through mind manipulation of the people. Big Brother erased history, changed facts, and rewrote past in a bid to favor a communist agenda.
Winston Churchill said: “History is written by the victors.” The quote perfectly describes the past, present, and the future. Those in power, i.e. victors, have the ability to not only rule in present but to “rewrite” what happened before. If we were to ask any historian or even students, whose major is history, they would instantly name all those times certain historical facts were rewritten just to conform someone’s political agenda.
Orwell’s 1984 is more than a brilliant work of art and one of the most important works in the literature. One can easily compare the book with reality, today’s modern society in numerous ways and this essay just outlined some of them. This just goes to show that art and life do go together hand in hand and there is plenty to learn from Mr. Orwell.
The sad and HUGE difference between Orwell’s 1984 when I first read it in school 53 years ago and now ? Well, back then it was so much bizarre but possible theories that one could fear and imagine off in the very distant future. Now it looks like a diary for 21st century American life.
Drown Alexa and completely deactivate any and all your voice remotes. They are never “off”. Turn off locator in your computer. Do not connect any t.v’s to the internet. Or don’t listen to me. I’m just a paranoid old poop looking for privacy ? An impossible goal now ? But Big Brother sees a lot more when he can listen. He will subtly and not so subtly invade your life.
Is there a Lane on The Shore where I can buy a house and NOT be on Google maps ? If I find it I’ll let you know Wayne. Last stand ?
MJM, you’re spot on. Just look at what’s happened since biden’s been in the WH.
Nah, He is a Mental Midget.
In the meantime, the inescapable fact remains that we ourselves are now fully over into the world Orwell depicted in 1984, which is a statement about people in America today who accept that world as their lot in life and make themselves comfortable in it.
Look at Winston Smith himself as a prime example of what I am talking about.
He works as a clerk in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to rewrite historical documents so they match the constantly changing current party line, which work involves revising newspaper articles and doctoring photographs—mostly to remove “unpersons”, people who have fallen afoul of the party.
What kind of person could actually do a job like that, and not question anything about it?
Getting back to the book, because of his proximity to the mechanics of rewriting history, Winston Smith nurses doubts about the Party and its monopoly on truth.
But he is one of the only ones to do so.
Then Winston meets a mysterious woman named Julia, a fellow member of the Outer Party who also bears resentment toward the party’s ways and the two become lovers.
Winston soon gets in touch with O’Brien, a member of the Inner Party whom Winston believes is secretly a member of The Brotherhood, a resistance organisation dedicated to overthrowing the Party’s dictatorship.
So everyone is not a Kool-Aid drinker, anyway.
Believing they have met a kindred spirit, Winston and Julia join the Brotherhood, but O’Brien is really an agent of the Thought Police, which has had Winston under surveillance for seven years.
Winston and Julia are soon captured and Winston remains defiant when he is captured, and endures several months of extreme torture at O’Brien’s hands.
However, his spirit finally breaks when he is taken into Room 101 and confronted by his worst fear: the unspeakable horror of slowly being eaten alive by rats.
Terrified by the realisation that this threat will come true if he continues to resist, he denounces Julia and pledges his loyalty to the Party.
Any possibility of resistance or independent thought is destroyed when Smith is forced to accept the assertion 2 + 2 = 5, a phrase which has entered the lexicon to represent obedience to ideology over rational truth or fact.
There is really where the focus should be – how many people in our times today literally and meekly accept the assertion that 2+2 does in fact equal five, precisely because they are obedient to ideology over rational truth or fact, because obedience to ideology is so easy, while obedience to rational truth or fact is so hard, because it requires independent thought.
Getting back to the book, by the end of the novel, O’Brien’s torture has reverted Winston to an obedient, unquestioning party member who genuinely loves “Big Brother”.
The future is now.
I think the “power” of “1984” was not the story so much as the concepts the story, written by a Brit in England based on his experiences in England, introduced to us in this country to have to ponder and consider, as in, “could these things really exist,” and “could they exist here?”
Would a supposedly “free” people like the people of America are rumored to be submit themselves to such things in their lives, or allow them to enter into this country?
And the answer is of course they would and like Winston Smith, in the end, they too would be in love with BIG BROTHER, because people want to be safe, even if they have to be slaves to be so.
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), known by his pen name George Orwell, an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic whose work is characterised by lucid prose, biting social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism, lived through times most people in this country today cannot even conceive of, WWI, the depression, and then WWII, times when government censorship was rampant.
But getting back to concepts, we have the Ministry of Truth (Newspeak: Minitrue), where Winston Smith works, which is really the ministry of propaganda.
As with the other ministries in the novel, the name Ministry of Truth is a misnomer because in reality it serves the opposite: it is responsible for any necessary falsification of historical events, something which is happening big time in the sorry nation today as our history is edited and re-edited with chunks being discarded while other parts are revised to make villains out of those who were once considered heroes.
However, like the other ministries in “1984,” the name is also apt because it decides what “truth” is in Oceania.
Those of us who lived through the VEET NAM times back in the day and age of Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson know very well that yes, in this country we have a Ministry of Truth, as well, which decides what “truth” is going to be here in the USA, and of course, FACEBOOK is a big part of that ministry now, along with such stalwarts as the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Getting back to the book, in “1984,” as well as administering “truth”, the ministry spreads a new language amongst the populace called Newspeak, in which, for example, “truth” is understood to mean statements like 2 + 2 = 5 when the situation warrants.
In keeping with the concept of doublethink, the ministry is thus aptly named in that it creates/manufactures “truth” in the Newspeak sense of the word.
The book describes the doctoring of historical records to show a government-approved version of events.
Could that happen here?
It already has!
Let’s see ….
SLAVERY is the road to FREEDOM!
No, too long, too hard to remember …
(scratch scratch scratch)
To be FREE be a SLAVE!
Hmmm, no, still too much to think about …
(more scratching out)
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY!
Close, but not quite there yet …
(scratch scratch scratch)
Ah, yes, why didn’t I think of this before …
SLAVERY IS FREEDOM FROM EVERYTHING!
There we have it!
The American people should buy into that readily enough, and if they don’t?
Well, they’ll deserve what will be coming to them when the Thought Police catch up to them and send them to Room 101 for some much needed re-education!
That’ll fix them, alright.
In the story of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Thinkpol (Thought Police) are responsible for the detection and elimination of thoughtcrime, and for the social control of the populations of Oceania, by way of audio-visual surveillance and offender profiling.
Such psychological monitoring allows the Thought Police to detect, arrest, and kill thought criminals, citizens whose independence (intellectual, mental, and moral) challenges the political orthodoxy of Ingsoc (English Socialism) and thus the legitimate government authority of the Party.
Now we have FACEBOOK fulfilling that function of hunting down those whose intellectual, mental, and moral independence challenges the political orthodoxy FACEBOOK is trying to impose on us, and it kills them off by simply denying them a voice.
And we cannot talk about thoughtcrime, something that many who post in here could very well likely be guilty of, without also speaking about crimestop, which word denotes the citizen’s self-awareness to immediately rid themselves of unwanted, incorrect thoughts (personal and political), the discovery of which, by the Thinkpol, would lead to detection and arrest, transport to and interrogation at the Miniluv (Ministry of Love).
By engaging constantly and assiduously practicing crimestop today, not only will you find yourself allowed to post on FACEBOOK, but you will find people like what you are posting, as well in what is in actuality a “thoughtcrime-free zone,” because the THOUGHT POLICE at FACEBOOK won’t allow it to be any other way.
As to crimestop, Winston Smith, describes it as a conscious process of self-imposed cognitive dissonance, which is what we all should be taking notice of in here if we want to be able to post on FACEBOOK and get a lot of likes, to wit:
“The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a dangerous thought presented itself.”
“The process should be automatic, instinctive.”
So he set an example for us to follow by exercising himself in crimestop by presenting himself with propositions — ‘the Party says the Earth is flat’, ‘the Party says that ice is heavier than water’ — and trained himself in not seeing or not understanding the arguments that contradicted them.
That, people, is the iron self-discipline FACEBOOK demands of each and everyone of us, if we too aspire to be able to post on FACEBOOK and be liked for what we say.
From the perspective of Oceania’s principal enemy of the state, in the history book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, however, Emmanuel Goldstein added to that sage advice, as follows:
“Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought.”
“It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction.”
“Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.”
Boy, does it ever, but hey, if you want to be liked on FACEBOOK …..
We should perhaps consider the fact that “Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel” by English novelist George Orwell was published 71 years ago now on 8 June 1949 and it centers on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of persons and behaviors within society.
Orwell, himself a democratic socialist, modelled the authoritarian government in the novel after Stalinist Russia,and more broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated, which is a statement about where we are in this country today, where more and more, we resemble Stalinist Russia.
The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism, and propaganda.
It could well be re-titled “2020.”
Nov. 30th 9:30 —— Dec. 5th 11:58
Paul Plante left six of the seven comments. take.your.meds.paul.and.keep.calm
Paul Plante left six of the seven comments?
Are you sure?
Did you count them twice to confirm what you are saying?
And why did you bother?
Are you obsessed with how many posts Paul Plante makes?
Or are you fascinated?
And outside of you, who cares?
And why would they care?
And did you ever stop to consider that nothing Paul Plante posts could make it here as a post unless it passed muster with the Editor/Publisher?
So could it be that Paul Plante was thought to have something of value to say on the subject, and so did pass muster?
Are you then complaining about the editorial policy that allows Paul Plante to be published seven times in a row in the Cape Charles Mirror?
Should Paul Plante be allowed only one post?
Is that the policy you are pushing here, one of censorship, with you as the censor?
Maybe the site should be renamed the Paul Plante Bully Pulpit. There isn’t a topic that he isn’t an expert on!
Note: Mr. Plante has been contributing to this site from almost its beginnings, going on his 7th year. He got it, way back when.
Maybe when you have your own site you will be able to rename it.
You go, Stuart Bell!
Do you realize how absolutely STOOPID, moronic, ignorant and brain-dead you sound there, J Wheaton, given that the CAPE CHARLES MIRROR allows you to post here?
In our language in this country, a language you apparently never learned given your ridiculous comment above, a BULLY PULPIT is defined thusly (and we’re talking sixth grade level comprehension here, people): a public office or position of authority that provides its occupant with an outstanding opportunity to speak out on any issue.
Given that the CAPE CHARLES MIRROR is not an ORGAN OF STATE PROPAGANDA, and given that I am not holding a public office in here as is say, congresswoman Luria, who does use this as a BULLY PULPIT, and quite well, actually, it is patently STOOPID to call it the “Paul Plante Bully Pulpit.”
And notice, people, just how upset, almost puce with rage, in fact, this J Wheaton got with his or her post above here where he or she said, “There isn’t a topic that he isn’t an expert on!”
How that absolutely frosts he or she!
WHY?
Is it because he or she is a promoter of GROSS IGNORANCE and BENIGHTED STUPIDITY in this nation?
Why does it bother he or she so much that I have applied myself as an AMERICAN CITIZEN to learn something about the world I am a part of, and its history?
Why does that scare he or she?
An existential question for our times along with the other question of is Joe Biden a pathological liar, or not?
Reply
I become more and more convinced by the day that we are all stuck in some kind of absurdist drama version of Orwell’s “1984” meets Camus and Mel Brooks and the Three Stooges, with us all as simply actors on the stage, each writing their own part, something like a corollary of the 500 monkeys in a room with computers who can flawlessly reproduce Shakespeare time after time after time, with Joe Biden’s own Jen Psaki as “BIG BROTHER” while Joe Biden is Mr. Thompson from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” with Nancy Pelosi as “Kip’s Mom” and Charley “Chuck” Schumer as an amalgamation of Balf Eubank. Kip Chalmers, Cuffy Meigs, and Tinky Holloway, which makes for a very surreal combination indeed!
Wake up People!
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”–Patrick Henry
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”–Abraham Lincoln
“THE TRUTH MAY BE STRETCHED THIN, BUT IT NEVER BREAKS, AND IT ALWAYS SURFACES ABOVE LIES, AS OIL FLOATS ON WATER.”
–DON QUIXOTE
You are very important, as are all Americans, to the health and continuation of our form of Representative Government. You are part of “We the People…” who are the last line of defense to assure our American Liberty. In a word, VOTE, and let your “voice” be heard!