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Current time: March 29, 2024, 3:30 am

Poll: Do you find parallels with 1984 and today?
This poll is closed.
Yes
36.36%
4 36.36%
No
36.36%
4 36.36%
Didn't read it
27.27%
3 27.27%
Total 11 vote(s) 100%
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1984
#1
Question 
1984
What do you think about comparisons of the dystopian world of 1984 and our current reality?  Its arguable that much of the conditions of that novel exist in our reality now.  But there are also distinct differences.  Screens abound that constantly feed us dubious information and can (ostensibly?) see and hear us.  We experience conditioning and indoctrination when we are often not even aware its happening.  But it isn't really the government who is the author of these things, it's corporations and media.  You could even argue that newspeak is happening with the movements to expel many words and phrases from our vocabulary, but again, not the government.  Did George Orwell really predict these things?  What other things do you see that seem to parallel the novel?
Why is it so?
~Julius Sumner Miller
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#2
RE: 1984
Where we depart from the movie is that no one is actually in control, not even Big Brother. Instead of being unified by a single Party with pervasive surveillance, we are divided and not only the government but multiple corporations are watching everything we do.
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.
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#3
RE: 1984
OP: I don't see as many victims or find conspiracy at the same rate that others do.
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem.
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#4
RE: 1984
1984 was significantly worse than the current world, I mean, by a huge margin. Not much of a comparison, really.
"Imagination, life is your creation"
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#5
RE: 1984
(January 12, 2022 at 10:53 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: Where we depart from the movie is that no one is actually in control, not even Big Brother. Instead of being unified by a single Party with pervasive surveillance, we are divided and not only the government but multiple corporations are watching everything we do.

Nobody was in control in Oceania either. Everybody went to Room 101 in the end.
Urbs Antiqua Fuit Studiisque Asperrima Belli

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#6
RE: 1984
1984 is probably one of my favourite books. From what I read somewhere I think it was a warning about communism and tight government control.

I think it's pretty easy to draw parallels between the book and any sort of organised power. Whether it's religious, communist, or corporate.

Big brother will probably remind you of any kind of powerful organization you're not keen on at the time.

Probably the countries that resemble 1984 the most are North Korea and China.

There's so many things that bring this book to mind.
Like lots of people have said, corperations spying on people, religious organizations denying evolution and dinosaurs (changing history). Lots of stories from North Korea. Political correctness and the strict control of language. Listening to Edward Snowden talk.


Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.

Impersonation is treason.





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#7
RE: 1984
(January 12, 2022 at 7:30 pm)paulpablo Wrote: 1984 is probably one of my favourite books. From what I read somewhere I think it was a warning about communism and tight government control.

It wasn't a warning against communism, it was a warning against authoritarianism generally. Orwell reasoned at the time of writing that if authoritarian regimes did take over, they most likely would have been Stalinist. It was just after the war after all.
Urbs Antiqua Fuit Studiisque Asperrima Belli

Home
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#8
RE: 1984
Orwell was a supporter of Democratic Socialism, but was concerned about totalitarianism and that came through with this novel and others. I wonder if he would equate corporate surveillance of the population to the governmental surveillance of the book. I find it interesting that both conservatives and liberals find cautionary value in this novel and both appear to feel that the other side is directing us toward that eventual end.
Why is it so?
~Julius Sumner Miller
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#9
RE: 1984
(January 13, 2022 at 3:55 am)Nomad Wrote:
(January 12, 2022 at 7:30 pm)paulpablo Wrote: 1984 is probably one of my favourite books. From what I read somewhere I think it was a warning about communism and tight government control.

It wasn't a warning against communism, it was a warning against authoritarianism generally. Orwell reasoned at the time of writing that if authoritarian regimes did take over, they most likely would have been Stalinist. It was just after the war after all.

I wasn't sure where I'd read the book is about communism, I did an Internet search and in George Orewells own words.

"1984 was based chiefly on communism, because that is the dominant form of totalitarianism. But I was trying to imagine what communism would be like if it were rooted in the English speaking countries."


Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.

Impersonation is treason.





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#10
RE: 1984
The really sad thing is that Orwell did a very good job of showing what totalitarianism can look like and millions of people have read his novel. Yet I had a conversation with someone not long ago about Nazi Germany and that person said they couldn't imagine that ever happening again, meaning someone like Hitler rising to power with the support of people and creating such devastation. I said you should look again, Trump is that person and it is happening right now.
Why is it so?
~Julius Sumner Miller
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