When 1984 became fact

[billymumphrey]

Reading a few random news stories whilst kept awake... leads to some thoughts...

ever since 1984 came out, people have said that various countries have become Orwellian states - east Germany, with its Stasi informers
Uk, with (at the time) the most CCTVs
And any number if dictatorships , North Korea, enumerable South American, African and Middle East countries.

1984 had 2-way televisions, you could be watched at all times, but you didn’t know if you were, so your behaviour was modelled in the belief that you were. Similar to a panopticon prison. Free thought was effectively restricted by proxy and fear that whatever you did was seen and recorded.

so, Orwell foretold the mass surveillance and censorship.
Everybody is now monitored:

your location:
Mobile phones, you’re placed within a few metres every few seconds (or less).
CCTVs proliferate, whether it be a govt, council, business or personal ones.

Your thoughts:
Internet usage, browsers, apps etc - all recording what you do.
AI assistants (Alexa etc) always listening and recording you.

Your free thoughts and thinking:
A walled garden of selective information (eg the great firewall of China).
A mass of disinformation (eg ‘fake news’, ‘echo chambers’, religion and other mindsets)

Your details:
Anything you put anywhere or anyhow on the internet or send via a device, is obtainable. Once obtainable (by public access or ‘hacking’), it can be collated...

The whole (connected) world, not just a state, is now in 1984.

maybe the quote from ‘the prisoner’ is what I’d like to be true - I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own! - but I know the hypocrisy of that thought , as I type on an Mobile...

or my own hypocrisy of watching films like ‘enemy of the state’ and ‘Snowden’ and inwardly going ‘that’s life now, really bad, how could it come to this’ ... and doing nothing.

/end

If you're in this frame of mind I recommend you should read Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. Written in 1985 it actually argues that far from our society emulating Orwell's 1984, it's actually more akin to Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World. A key facet of that being whereas Orwell has the totalitarian regime imposed against our will, the Huxleyean dystopic future has us willingly inviting the surveillance into our lives ourselves. The Ministry of Truth doesn't need to a have a two way screen in every room when we willingly bring in a mobile phone, or post everything on social media.

It is such a prescient book having predicted the cheapening of journalism and the rise of fake news. Well worth a read

 

[asahartford1]

Wasn't that the year he wrote it?

Yes, it was, and the publishers overruled his wishes to name it 1948. Probably a wise decision.

 

[Elbow beards]

Probably read it 10 times, You should read it. A timeless work. The Film , was it about 2014 was a good effort for those who do not like reading.
Did you know Orwell wanted the title as "1948"

The film was made in 1984, believe it or not.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Orwell was correct about invasive technology coming to define our society, what he didn’t (and couldn’t) predict was that technology, and the information that flows through it, would not be held and utilised solely, or even predominantly, by the state.

Scenarios like the death of Ian Tomlinson, for example, were not envisaged by him. Nor what has happened to Prince Andrew. Anyone who wishes to engage purposefully with modern society is a prisoner of it: inner party, outer party and proletariat. It is certainly not an argument without merit that technology is a curse on humanity, despite all the manifest benefits it provides.

I certainly question whether it is making us any happier.

 

[mexico1970]

Scenarios like the death of Ian Tomlinson, for example

That's the single moment where I thought and still believe that we are policed by an entity that could do anything to us with a certain amount of impunity, it coloured my view of the establishment in a bad way bud.

 

[asahartford1]

The film was made in 1984, believe it or not.

I think, may be wrong that there was a more recent one, I am sure I went to see a few years ago , will check.

 

[jimharri]

I've booked a hotel for the Villa final, and it's showing its location and my dates on Google maps.

 

[LWashington]

I've booked a hotel for the Villa final, and it's showing its location and my dates on Google maps.

We need pics if they are busty blondes.

 

[Bill Walker]

I think, may be wrong that there was a more recent one, I am sure I went to see a few years ago , will check.

There's two films.

 

[The perfect fumble]

The greatest horror in Orwell’s 1984 is the systematic stripping of meaning out of language. The regime aimed to eradicate words and the ideas and feelings they embodied.

Its real enemy was reality.

I have to admit there are posters in here that I've accused of being less than razor sharp, but I've come to the conclusion that their ramblings are not the product of knowing f**k all about anything, but rather their inability to articulate why things are fucked up, which means they are simply unable to conceptualise a better world.