1984? More like 2014
I like to think that in, say, fifty years from now, we’ll all float about in hover-cars and live in chrome-plated dome homes with robots for pets. Obviously, I’m probably overshooting it, like a lot of futuristic pop culture classics (*cough*backtothefuture*cough*) do with their perceptions of the future. But then I think about George Orwell’s 1984, which in its short length managed to pretty accurately portray (or at least provide satisfying analogies for) the times in which we live today thirty years after his projected time. Written in the post WWII era, Nineteen-Eighty-Four was Orwell expressing his discontent and maybe even fear at the beginning of the Cold War. If you’ve heard the term Iron Curtain, that pretty much sums up the policy of Soviet Russia from government to citizen- and Soviet Russia to the rest of the world. And every feature of that secretive regime was sculpted into the grotesque and desolate society of 1984. What’s really weird, and really unsettling, is the odd hints of contingency between some of the structures of the novel’s political system and our lives today. The Big Brother telescreens in Orwell’s book, for example, represented the all-seeing aspect of totalitarian society ; they were programmed into the houses of all the inhabitants of the superstate in which protagonist Winston Smith lived. When I revisited the book recently, which was just 177 pages for my version, I couldn’t help but think about Edward Snowden, the former NSA agent who spilled the beans on a number of US top-secret programs INCLUDING the fact that every time I pick up my phone or send an email, there’s a government official watching me. Even if we can’t see their eyes on telescreens programmed in our walls, they’re still there watching us from somewhere. But of course, it’s definitely necessary to our well-being and really shouldn’t have been shared in the first place (ignorance is bliss). Nevertheless, you have to admit that it’s odd and hints at our government’s own curtain (maybe more like aluminum than iron, though). I also found it ironic that Snowden, who left the country to avoid prosecution, currently resides in an undisclosed part of Russia. In the interest of PoliSci month, it is important to note that “society” can’t be defined by a country or a state; mini microcosms, or any organized social group, are as much society as our government. And even today, we can find hints of Orwell’s dystopia in even the loosest-defined societies. Winston Smith, our protagonist, was a member of the “Ministry of Truth”, the part of the Big Brother party in charge of news and propaganda. But while we may think he was creating news under a pronounced set of guidelines, the poor guy was really just recopying older works. Recopying them to fit the changing guidelines that society placed on all possible available materials for reading and knowledge. To me, it sounds just a little bit like Facebook. Think about it- what can’t we do to augment our profiles? We decide what goes on it (which, for most of us, is either filled with philosophical quotes placed under selfies or pictures of our shining accomplishments), how it looks, who can see it, and most importantly- we get to press delete. And interestingly enough, come time for college or consideration for a scholarship, a LOT of kids end up doing just that. Let’s say I wanted to change my image to impress possible admission officers’ visits to my Facebook. First, I would check out the page and see what’s on my feed. Then I’d systematically go through, deleting embarrassing picture after embarrassing picture until I’m left with pictures of me wearing medals, holding up plaques, or quoting Gandhi. And the admissions officers, of course, would be none the wiser by the time they get to the page. You’d know no more about me than I want you to know, which makes me, in a way, just like the Big Brother party that Winston worked for. While Winston Smith quit his job and ran off to revive the old works, reeducate himself and hide away from the intrusive government of the Oceania superstate, we’re still in our rooms surfing the web and becoming educated citizens. And we’re right, to an extent. But keep in mind that there’s still so much that we don’t know, even if we read every document on the web. And does that make us really educated? Perhaps, but like Orwell guessed, we’re still at the mercy of society; and to some people, that’s a good thing. What do you think about what we don’t know? Anything to add about the book? IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT, GOOD NEWS. IT’S SHORT AND EASY TO READ, BUT STILL HAS THE SATISFYING COMPLEXITY OF A THOUSAND-PAGE SAGA. Pick up a copy at your local library for some weekend reading!
