Orwell's "1984" turns 70 this month

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Nineteen Eighty-Four Turns 70 Years Old In A World That Looks A Lot Like The Book

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By John Vibes


This month, George Orwell’s legendary novel Nineteen Eighty-Four turns 70 years old, and the warnings contained within the story are now more relevant than ever. Orwell’s predictions were so spot on that it almost seems like it was used as some type of accidental instruction manual for would-be tyrants.

In the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four, there is an all-encompassing surveillance state that keeps a watchful eye on everyone, in search of possible rebels and points of resistance. Censorship is the norm in this world, and is so extreme that individuals can become “unpersons” who are essentially deleted from society because their ideas were considered dangerous by the establishment. This is an idea that is very familiar to activists and independent journalists who are being removed from the public conversation for speaking out about government and corporate corruption on social media.

Orwell is famous for coining the term “double-speak,” which is a way to describe the euphemistic language that government uses to whitewash their most dirty deeds. For example, in Orwell’s story, the ministry of propaganda was called the Ministry of Truth, just as today the government agency that was once known as “The Department of War,” is now called the “Department of Defense.”


There was also never-ending war in Orwell’s story, the conditions of which would change on a regular basis, keeping the general population confused about conflicts so they give up on trying to understand what is actually going on. Some of these predictions were merely recognitions of patterns in human history, since the idea of “unpersons” and war propaganda is nothing new. However, Orwell had an incredible understanding of how technology was going to progress over the 20th century, and he was able to envision how technology would be used by those in power to control the masses.

The technological predictions made in the book were truly uncanny, as they give a fairly accurate description of our modern world. Orwell described “telescreens,” which acted as both an entertainment device and a two-way communication device. This type of technology was predicted by many futurists at the time, but Orwell’s prediction was unique because he suggested that these devices would be used by the government to spy on people, through microphones and cameras built into the devices.


Unfortunately, just like in Orwell’s book, people in the modern world are so distracted by entertainment and the divided by politics that they have no idea they are living in a tyrannical police state. This police state was also a strong deterrent in the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four, because although many of the citizens in the book had a positive opinion of “big brother,” it was still something that they feared, and it was a force that kept them in control. Of course, this is not much different from the attitude that the average American or European has when confronted with police brutality and government corruption.

Many of the ideas about power and authority that were expressed in Orwell’s classic are timeless and as old as recorded history but his analysis of how technology would amplify the destructive nature of power was incredibly unique, especially for his time.
 

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We are "there": Big Brother watching us, word police (PC), overseas conflicts draining our economy...
 

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We read this book senior year of high school.

We were told that the book was written in 1948 and Orwell reversed the last 2 numbers to call the book "1984".

Curious to know why it was released in May of 1949 instead of 1948? If Orwell knew that it would be released in 1949, i wonder if we would have called the book "1994"?
 

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Is this cognitive dissonance or what?

You're talking about 1984 and yet you deny ((Protocols)) and ((Henry Ford's Foremost)) ...


Utterly amazing. I guarantee you once you read those books you'll thank me and agree that I was right.
 

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We read this book senior year of high school.

We were told that the book was written in 1948 and Orwell reversed the last 2 numbers to call the book "1984".

Curious to know why it was released in May of 1949 instead of 1948? If Orwell knew that it would be released in 1949, i wonder if we would have called the book "1994"?
the manuscript had it set in 1980 but was then erased to 1982 and finally 1984. He started writing it spring 1947 and used the year 1980 at that point so not sure if it was as simple as reversing 1948/1984 since it was never set in 1974. The working title was Last Man in Europe which is what they tell the main character when he's in Room 101...that he was the last man in Europe.

here is what was said about the title:
Why '1984'?

Orwell's title remains a mystery. Some say he was alluding to the centenary of the Fabian Society, founded in 1884. Others suggest a nod to Jack London's novel The Iron Heel (in which a political movement comes to power in 1984), or perhaps to one of his favourite writer GK Chesterton's story, "The Napoleon of Notting Hill", which is set in 1984.
In his edition of the Collected Works (20 volumes), Peter Davison notes that Orwell's American publisher claimed that the title derived from reversing the date, 1948, though there's no documentary evidence for this. Davison also argues that the date 1984 is linked to the year of Richard Blair's birth, 1944, and notes that in the manuscript of the novel, the narrative occurs, successively, in 1980, 1982 and finally, 1984. There's no mystery about the decision to abandon "The Last Man in Europe". Orwell himself was always unsure of it. It was his publisher, Fred Warburg who suggested that Nineteen Eighty-Four was a more commercial title.
 
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the manuscript had it set in 1980 but was then erased to 1982 and finally 1984. He started writing it spring 1947 and used the year 1980 at that point so not sure if it was as simple as reversing 1948/1984 since it was never set in 1974. The working title was Last Man in Europe which is what they tell the main character when he's in Room 101...that he was the last man in Europe.

here is what was said about the title:
Why '1984'?

Orwell's title remains a mystery. Some say he was alluding to the centenary of the Fabian Society, founded in 1884. Others suggest a nod to Jack London's novel The Iron Heel (in which a political movement comes to power in 1984), or perhaps to one of his favourite writer GK Chesterton's story, "The Napoleon of Notting Hill", which is set in 1984.
In his edition of the Collected Works (20 volumes), Peter Davison notes that Orwell's American publisher claimed that the title derived from reversing the date, 1948, though there's no documentary evidence for this. Davison also argues that the date 1984 is linked to the year of Richard Blair's birth, 1944, and notes that in the manuscript of the novel, the narrative occurs, successively, in 1980, 1982 and finally, 1984. There's no mystery about the decision to abandon "The Last Man in Europe". Orwell himself was always unsure of it. It was his publisher, Fred Warburg who suggested that Nineteen Eighty-Four was a more commercial title.

So you're telling me that my bitchy 12th grade english teacher was wrong? haha
 

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Is this cognitive dissonance or what?

You're talking about 1984 and yet you deny ((Protocols)) and ((Henry Ford's Foremost)) ...


Utterly amazing. I guarantee you once you read those books you'll thank me and agree that I was right.
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]Wow! That's preppy.[/FONT]
 

I'm from the government and I'm here to help
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Wow! That's preppy.
he must have heard the term on a youtube vid about chemtrails

also love how he uses the word "amazing" like the 84-IQ dimwit he is. only complete fn retards and 14YO girls use that word for emphasis
 

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