Just read 1984... and I have a question to my fellow escapists...

[gary the red shirt]

actually it's already happening, the patriot act allows illegal phone taps, survalience cameras up the arse, and full body x-ray scanners are coming to airports and malls near you. wake up people the new world order is real, they are destroying economies, and staging terror attacks left and right. Viva La Revolution!

 

[Ekonk]

Well, it certainly won't happen LITERALLY as it is described in 1984.

If you mean severe government infringes on privacy and manipulation of mass media, then it's going on on a large scale and has been going on for a few decades already.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

There will always be a desire by the government no matter the political side to know and control the masses. The guy who wrote 1984 was just 25-30 years off. Then again, people thought robots would do our cleaning for us in the "world of tomorrow!"

Honestly, I'm of the mind the only reason the timeframe was off was because Orwell wrote 1984. It gave people a very clear definition of the direction society was heading and warning signs of progress towards that point.

If that book didn't exist, it likely would've become a reality by the late 60s.

 

[humor_involuntario]

It's possible to do things similar to 1984 but a lot of things are impossible.

1 Speaking as a linguist, Newspeak is bullshit. It's human nature to crate new words for individual experiences. For instance the word "tubular" describes and ideal wave which is why surfers use the word to mean "very good" or "plusgood." Reducing and unifying human expression is antithetical to human nature.

2 It relies on shifting sexual energy to the state. Freud thought this is possible. He was wrong. Humans will always be horny and choosing between the state or getting laid ends in a predictable result.

3 Eventually they're going to run out resources or just have enough incompetent inner party members. Look at what happened to the kings before the French revolution.

4 A bunch of malicious power hungry people cannot share power for long. Look at every super villain team up or at Soviet Russia.

5 The inner party will too good at Double think. As one neoconservative philosopher worded it "There is one truth for the rulers, one for the governors, and one for the public." (I can't remember the exact name or quote.) The problem is that when the leaders start believing the public truth, like this we get Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell, ect.

Obviously many of tricks in the book work. Just ask Karl Rove.

Mmm...
see your point here, overall at 1 and 2, but I think that he states that there is an exam at the age of 16 (think so) that all must pass.
in that exam you get your point in power, so I think that the Inner Party is desinged to not have flaws, and you can be sure that they Know that the public story is truth. they transform they just make all other news truth, in their point of view. Oh, and btw, they could start recicling or something, resource can be reused.
but you make different point's there, as I see

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Could 1984 become reality?
Could it?

Read any paper.
Note the words "performed a sex act" on any of the people accused of indecency. How far is that away from "sexcrime"?

 

[R Man]

I originally liked 1984. Now, because of threads like this I have come to hate it.

George Orwell wasn't making any predictions, he wrote 1984 as a criticism of the Soviet Union. So any talk about it 'could happen' as though Orwell was a prophet is stupid, because that was not his intention.

The book was never meant to portray a reality, but to demonstrate a principle, a thought experiment into Totalitarianism.

As for this sort of thing actually happening? Bollocks. Why? Because some elements are present in all societies, and always have been! Its not new, and sometimes its more extreme at some times than at others. But it doesn't mean western society is suddenly going to turn into a quasi-commie-fascio-spy dystopia.

Hell, it used to be illegal to show Elvis from the waist down.

 

[humor_involuntario]

I originally liked 1984. Now, because of threads like this I have come to hate it.

George Orwell wasn't making any predictions, he wrote 1984 as a criticism of the Soviet Union. So any talk about it 'could happen' as though Orwell was a prophet is stupid, because that was not his intention.

The book was never meant to portray a reality, but to demonstrate a principle, a thought experiment into Totalitarianism.

As for this sort of thing actually happening? Bollocks. Why? Because some elements are present in all societies, and always have been! Its not new, and sometimes its more extreme at some times than at others. But it doesn't mean western society is suddenly going to turn into a quasi-commie-fascio-spy dystopia.

Hell, it used to be illegal to show Elvis from the waist down.

yes he did wrote it as an exagerated version (and perfect, in a sick sort of way) of the Soviet Union, but hell! just because Orwells made it like that dosn't means it is not open to interpretation! I think that this things are growing in certain places, as these certain places are falling into decadency.

 

[the Dept of Science]

I don't think any one sci-fi writer will predict the future, but in most of the great works there are small kernels of prophecy. My knowledge of this sortof literature isn't too great, but I can think of a couple of examples, but I'm sure others could add their own.

1984 predicts the increasing surveillance and decreasing privacy. On the other hand, just walking around town, it is clear that the world is nowhere near the police state that it envisions, for two primary reasons. Firstly, there are the ones listed earlier by Pseudonym2, that 1984 pushes humans into a mould into which they do not fit. The human libido is stronger than any law (think of the number of people convicted for sex crimes, people will have sex if and how they want to, no matter what the government says). Secondly, it would require a competency of government that has never been demonstrated in all history.

Personally however, I think Brave New World was a lot closer to the mark (sorry if I get any of these facts wrong but I haven't read BNW in ages). It's far more consistent with human nature than 1984. It postulates a world where oppresion is unnecessary, as people living a life of constant pleasure will see no need for rebellion. Technology over time has tended towards the increase of pleasure at the cost of hardship. Some things that BNW predicted: Increase in casual sex and drug use, designer babies, favouring of unintellectualism.

 

[Pills_Here]

1984 was written as fantastical realization of the absolute extent of the worst aspects of socialism and facism, which were the big things on the rise during the time it was written.

I would consider North Korea to be the country closest to that state right now- all it's info is highly regulated so as to portray the outside world (everyone except them) as one far worse than the one they live in and keep the current dictator in power no matter the cost. In fact 1984 isn't too much different from how they portray the U.S. It could happen, but I guarantee it won't be happening in any major countries for many centuries, barring some act of God that requires draconian measures of resource conservation.

North Korea is quite far from an Orwellian dystopia. Despite their problems with food distribution in the past they are striding ever forward under the victorious banner of Songun and Juche politics, forging a world where the popular masses are the masters of their own destiny. Earlier this September, Kim Jong Il was once again reelected as General Secretary of the Workers Party of Korea to carry out the vision of the Kim Il Sung, the Eternal President.
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

 

[humor_involuntario]

1984 was written as fantastical realization of the absolute extent of the worst aspects of socialism and facism, which were the big things on the rise during the time it was written.

I would consider North Korea to be the country closest to that state right now- all it's info is highly regulated so as to portray the outside world (everyone except them) as one far worse than the one they live in and keep the current dictator in power no matter the cost. In fact 1984 isn't too much different from how they portray the U.S. It could happen, but I guarantee it won't be happening in any major countries for many centuries, barring some act of God that requires draconian measures of resource conservation.

North Korea is quite far from an Orwellian dystopia. Despite their problems with food distribution in the past they are striding ever forward under the victorious banner of Songun and Juche politics, forging a world where the popular masses are the masters of their own destiny. Earlier this September, Kim Jong Il was once again reelected as General Secretary of the Workers Party of Korea to carry out the vision of the Kim Il Sung, the Eternal President.
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

the same idea of an eternal president as a god is very Orwellian ahm...

 

[The 5th Hour]

The world of the book 1984 does seem to point out the amusing paradox of the freedoms we are willing to give up in order to stay free - and it's true that is the very essence of law in contemporary society.

But this is a perfectly safe and normal way of society dealing with issues - the problem only arises when there is pressure to take away more freedom than is normal. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction; society is in a state of equilibrium and moves to minimise change. A bomb going off is a change, increased surveillance is the reaction that seeks to minimise that change.

Push society to its limits and yes it will adopt an Orwellian structure in order to preserve itself. Can it happen? I doubt it would happen in Australia any time soon, but I can't say for other countries.

 

[Aiden_the-Joker1]

Really George Orwell wrote the book because he thought that that was what the world would eventually become. He made it take place in 1984 because it is a reversal of the date in which he wrote it, 1984. Really a lot of things which didn't exist or are brand new are commonplace in the book, altering your face, attack helicopters. One thing made me think though. In the story there are "two minute hates" and today annually there are two minute silences. He noticed some of the things that were occurring around him and and wrote what would happen if this continued. Children in the Hitler youth giving up their parents, the socialism of Russia, Dehumanisation in brainwashing. When you think about how streets, buildings, schools all have security cameras you wonder whether he might be right. Sure they are there to catch criminals but so are the cameras in 1984.

 

[Cheery Lunatic]

1984 = North Korea.

I shit you not. They even have a radio in their kitchen in which constantly plays propaganda. You can't turn it off, only lower the volume.

 

[steampunk42]

despite how clueless the people of the world appear to be i dont believe any country would ever sit back and allow this to happen.

 

[Jfswift]

There are parallels with that book and this world but I just can't ever see it getting that bad. Human nature, being what is, prevents this. Someone will always disagree and oppose a system they dislike.

 

[SixWingedAsura]

I can see it happening. It's happening so slowly that no one notices, but it's happening.

 

[Yagharek]

Orwells paranoia undermines the point of the book for me. He is too caught up in making his point repeatedly that he sacrifices the actual plot of the book.

"Brave New World" is, in many ways, scarier.

There may be no need for such measures as are shown in 1984, because it is uneccessary. We become de-sensitised, as a result of media saturation. Not only that, but as a society, we are very trusting. We think that some parties are better than others, but trust the system as a whole. We are convinced that our democracy is a fantastic system, with a occaisional flaws, but nothing major.

I find it more likely that such control could come into place simply by people not caring. As long as the standard of living is OK, and we are convinced that we have a good system, we are happy to be distracted, and leave things to other people. Take ACTA for example. Every time there is a thread on it, people just say "It'll never pass, nothing to worry about" etc. A valid viewpoint, but one that, if everyone shared, would lead to nothing being done.

 

[Hyper-space]

Well, after I finished reading that book (1984) I am asking myself, Why is the world growing more and more like 1984?.
I admit, 1984 is an exageration of all the current social problems, but yet, an exageration is just the problem made more notable.
I now find along with my group of friends, and I see things that look as a parts of 1984, over all the 2+2=5 parts.
and with the goverment, well, survailance and attempts to control our mind are the most similar parts with 1984 (in NY I have seen 10 cameras i a single block, no joke)
So I would like to develop another question:
Could 1984 become reality?
Could it?

This comic sums up real-world parallels pretty well.

Spoiler: 1984 and Brave New World

[img="http://tripontheinter.net/wp-content/uploads/teacher_student.png"]