1984 , George Orwell

I love horror movies, I love Stephen King’s books, I loved Goosebumps when I was a child.

1984 is still the most depressing, horrific book I’ve ever read. It will never be surpassed.

I’d consider Fallout 3 a walk in the park compared to a game set in the world of 1984. Utterly and completely catastrophic for the human spirit and psyche.

1984 is absolutely prophetic as most know. Ironically so many leftist assholes try to refer to it as if it backs up their views of the world. It just shows the absolute power of the state, which is what leftists want. Control over every aspect of our lives is the end game.

I believe we are living in the future George Orwell predicted. The machinations that got use here were born in the 80’s so he was spot on. Video camera’s everywhere. Public access to video feeds from home “smart TV’s” and national movements for camera’s on every corner.

Thought police and re-education programs. The only difference is that after the re-education camps you could be redeemed. Not in our society. Here you are an outcast for life if you cross the thought police.

That and the advent of DNA technology as described in a popular film I cannot recall the name of (maybe someone else remembers) is creating a dystopia never before seen or even imagined in fiction.

I think both sides of the political spectrum are in a race to see which side can get us to the world of 1984 first.

I am kinda old and it has amazed me how fast things are going that direction.

I swear the number laws that exist has doubled in my lifetime.

It amazes me how easy it is to inadvertently violate a law these days.

My avy is Orwellian influenced, and one of my favorite books is 1984. Even the name used for this site is sort of a play on 1984.

Great concepts throughout which ring very true in this day and age.

felix wrote:

It amazes me how easy it is to inadvertently violate a law these days.

I agree.  If you get the chance read the original Judge Dredd comics you would see that the idea of a society that has so many laws, you would violate them without knowing it.

A lot of dystopian literature focuses on the possibility of law regulating the every aspect of our lives.  So much so that we begin to regulate our thoughts to conform to the laws for fear of the consequences.  The only way for this to happen is make the most trivial of actions and words illegal, and to attach an disproportionate penalty.

The spontaneity of the first kiss no longer exists for certain members of our culture.  Yes means Yes.

Sitting comfortably in public spaces is illegal for certain members of our culture.  Manspreading.

Well we certainly are headed towards a world of 1984 and Brave new world, mixed together.

One of my personal favourites films is Gattaca, mostly because of how it shows an attempt to cage a man and his ambitions, as he resists the cards that were played to him, to prove that we didn’t get as far we did, as the human race, just simply through the knowledge of today, but because of taking risks for tomorrow that most would not dare, as a powerful will combined with passion, can often achieve what most average people would consider an impossibility, only because they never took a chance, which would span over years of frustrations, to finally reach your goal. Most people can only think past a few days, not years, this is what separates people from dreamers and achievers.

Equal opportunity, gives everyone a chance to reach the top of a mountain, if they have what it takes in willpower to endure to hardships to the top. It’s what creates truly astonishing results, and the very best humanity has to offer in that field.

Equal outcome, is mediocrity, where it artificially limits participation of set groups, and to only achieve the bare minimum.

The more we look into it, the more scary things are today, as governments truly are close to the nightmares of 1984 and Brave new world.

Orwell’s fear was that the government would eventually control all information.  That lies would become truth, the cult of personality would prevail, and ‘reality’ would be un-discernible.

Huxley’s fear was that there would be too much information, especially of the useless and baseless variety . We would lose the ability to tell the truth from a lie and “reality” would be a function of what our social context believed, or what we read or ate that day,.

Either path results in a loss of meaning that ends in despair.  Due to the rise of modern media/pop culture, narcissistic excess, celebrity worship, and the Internet, it seems Huxley was more correct.

I’m not saying the Internet is the problem, just that the way it is popularly used has led to an overly stimulated and informed culture.