1984 - A terrifying vision for the future? (Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell)

Name: RoryGriffiths

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Product:	Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell
Date:	07/04/08 (422 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A riveting read

Disadvantages: Saddening resemblances to our society

The time when Orwell was writing this book was only a few years after the end of World War Two, in 1949. Around this period there were huge differences in political views around the world. There was the American approach of democracy, where everyone had the right to vote for a leader; and the communist approach of Stalin's Russia where everyone was meant to be equal. However that state was far from what it claimed to be, and was a completely totalitarianism regime in which Stalin and Co. controlled everything that happened in the state, leaving the public with absolutely no say in political affairs. The latter society mentioned is almost exactly like the society depicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

If an average present-day English person was asked what sort of political regime was in place in England at the moment, then ninety-nine times out of a hundred the answer would be that it is a democratic regime, because we have freedom and the right to vote etc. However, when Orwell wrote this book he had visions that the world would completely transform into a totalitarian one, in which you would be stripped of any freedom, liberties, or privacy, a society in which every human being would become one of a vast number of identical cogs in a soulless machine. But is it beyond belief that our society is similar to Orwell's in many ways?

The main driving force behind Orwell's corrupt society is Big Brother, and The Party. They have complete control of Oceania, and can get away with anything they choose. Telescreens are an invention that is way beyond Orwell's time, and in the modern world we can compare them to Close Circuit Television Cameras. Telescreens are designed to keep an eye on the public so that they do not do anything wrong. There are so many of them in Orwell's world that you are almost always being watched, wherever you go. The only way Winston and Julia can avoid the Telescreens is to make secret excursions into the countryside. C.C.T.V is almost exactly the same; there are so many of them springing up around the country that you are, consciously or not, being watched and recorded for a considerable amount of your life. Poignantly, all four of the terrorist bombers in London were caught on C.C.T.V that very morning. If four specific people were seen out of many hundreds of thousands on one day, disturbingly we must be seen an awful lot. The motto from the book "Freedom is Slavery" seems also to apply to our own society, because with no privacy you are virtually prevented from committing the slightest offence without finding yourself into trouble (something which far too many motorists know in light of the numberless speed cameras that catch even the slightest of speed-limit breaches).

The sheer power of Big Brother is also a terrifying omen if this comes true. Winston's job in the Records Department of the Ministry of Plenty involves correcting the false information that the newspapers had told to make them into the truth, so that The Party are seen always to be right. The saying: "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past" really sums up the total charge they hold. The present Government of England is becoming more and more pronounced in their decision making, and it will only take a few corrupt figures entering Parliament to start sending the government into a Big Brother-type one, a process that many people already regularly complain of.

In Orwell's book, war is normality - a part of everyday life. Wars between Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia have been in a constant cycle since anyone could remember. In our own world, war is also a part of everyday life, in places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel and Palestine. Most of these wars could have been avoided, and it seems that another Party motto becomes suited to our time: "War is Peace". By this I mean that world leaders try and use war to create peace, where in actual fact it generally does nothing positive to help, and rather creates more touchy hostility between nations.

Any creativity in Orwell's world is suppressed. A good example of this is Newspeak, an invented language that the experts (philologists) are compressing into as fewer words as they possibly can. Vast numbers of adjectives and nouns have been removed from their vocabulary, thus rendering it far harder for imagination and personal expression. In the future of the book, people will only be able to have thoughts of a few, simple, meaningless words. Fortunately, this is one aspect of our society that has not gone downhill too far yet. In principle, everyone can use their imagination and creativity freely. Recently, however, critics have been asking why BBC can broadcast jokes about Christian Vbut abstain from showing even the slightest references to Muslim Mullahs. Maybe our own personal expression is starting to become suppressed.

Orwell's world is one of total de-humanisation, the transformation of freedom, creativity, and peace into the exact opposites. The people in Orwell's society, without having these qualities present in their lives, have become more slaves to the cruel regime that totalitarianism enforces. Whether we like it or not, our society is bares harrowing similarities to Orwell's; it's just that Orwell's are, for now, slightly more extreme. However, that does not mean we are safe or that things will stay the same. I believe that we are gradually slipping closer and closer towards Orwell's disturbing predictions. Perhaps in the decades to come we may look back on this fantastic novel and agree that Orwell has made one of the greatest prophecies of all time. Let's hope not.

Summary: A poignant reflection of the path our society is heading