Ugh!
August 1st, 2007I only checked out George Orwell’s 1984 because of its popularity in literary circles. And I only kept reading it because of its popularity in literary circles.
For those who have not read it, the sentence that sums it up is “Big Brother is watching you!” This sentence is so much a part of American consciousness that I was surprised to see that it actually appeared frequently in this novel. The fears that this book raises are used to manipulate the American masses, probably as a result of some lobbyist with healthy financial backing…but that really is another story.
Of course 1984 is absolutely horrifying. Orwell succeeded perfectly in what he set out to do. In order to make myself feel better, however (i.e. convince myself that such a society could not exist), I pose the following objections:
1) I don’t think the war situation as described is possible: a long-term, stable war situation (for economic purposes) between three equally matched superpowers which cannot be defeated and which regularly change alliances. This state of continuous warfare is absolutely necessary to the Party.
2) Men in reality are more limited than Orwell’s characters. The “Thought Police” were able to read more thoughts than could be technologically possible. “The word you are trying to think of is…”
I will say that the cruelty described was perfectly believable. But individuals want power for themselves. The idea of a group of, say, six million working to keep power for the Party and managing it without serious opposition seems suspect to me. The event of all three superpower governments arriving at the same set of ideas also seems unlikely.
In short, man can be vicious but he cannot maintain much unity of thought for very long.