Lest History Repeat itself: George Orwell. “1984”

[KillerFord1977]

The book, 1984, has such pervasive meaning these days. He was ahead of his time and correct on his observations of society and where it will try to go.

—- keep the discussion civil. Let’s not attack, lets discuss society without the name dropping.

notable quotes from the book “1984”:

‘ “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”’​

‘ “Big Brother is Watching You.”’​

‘ “It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”’​

‘ “The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?”’​

“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”’​

‘ “The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.”’​

‘ “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” ’​

 

[Oaktree45]

When George H.W. Bush used the phrase "New World Order" in his speech before a joint session of congress my first thought was the book 1984.

 

[Bassbob]

When George H.W. Bush used the phrase "New World Order" in his speech before a joint session of congress my first thought was the book 1984.

And now you begin to understand why the bad orange man had reps and dems lining up against him before he was even sworn in.

When two men ( Obama and GW Bush) spew vitriol and hate at each other and then once neither are in office they are good friends that ought to tell you something. Same with GW and Slick Willy.

 

[wmg1299]

Animal Farm, 1984, and Brave New World were all required reading when I was growing up (Animal Farm in junior high, the others in high school). I've been thinking a lot about those books recently. I really didn't appreciate them enough as a kid.

I read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 this week to complete the circuit. Fahrenheit wasn't as great as 1984, but the portions where characters state that no one should be allowed to say words or make people think thoughts that make them sad seem eerily correct these days. I plan to re-read 1984 and Brave New World over the next few weeks to see what I missed the first time. It was always hard for me to like any book that I was forced to read, regardless of how great it was.

 

[KillerFord1977]

Ironic that this was todays cartoon on the net....